140 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



May 3, 1919. 



GLEANINGS. 



The Board of Agi'iiulturf. Trinidad and Tobago. 

 is offering prizes to the value of $24.5 for the eiicoiirage- 

 nient of good cultivation of cacao and vegetables by 

 the peasant proprietoi's and conti'actors of Tobago. 

 (The Pm-t-of-Spain Gazette. April 19. 1919.) 



According to the Demerara Daily Argosy, April 15, 

 1919. the Board of Agi-icultvire has just made an order 

 proliibiting the importation of .seed.s. plants, earth, etc. 

 from Trinidad, tliis jjroliibition being made on account 

 of the presence of t he froghni)per pest in that ishmd. 



The Pmt-oJ- Spain Gazette. April 18. 1919. says 

 that it may not be generally known that tlie total expen- 

 ditm-e of the Department of Agriculture is about 

 £2().d0(* per amium. the revenue being about ±'12,000, 

 making the total cost to the colony about £8,000 

 a year for gardens, fai-ms, laboratory, exiierimental 

 stations, and the two Gf>vernment cstate.s. 



According to Sugar. April 1919. great interest is 

 being taken in tlie extensinn of sugar-cane cidtivation 

 in ISouth Florida. It is contended that ^vith modei-n 

 methods of culture and pi-odiiction, the South Florida 

 lands would yield as much sugar per acre as those of 

 Cuba, but that large centrals and plantations are the 

 only pos.sible solution of the South Florida sugar 

 problem, as the day of small mills is passed except for 

 the m.-iking of syruj). 



A leaflet dated Febniai-y 4. 1919. i.ssued by the 

 Department of Lanfl Recrirds and Agricidture, Assam, 

 states that, on the average of the five yeare ending 

 191fi-17. the area under cotton ui Assam represents 

 about 0"2 per cent, of tlie total area under cotton in 

 India. The total outturn of the present crop of clean 

 cotton, from an estimated area of 33,000 acre.s, amounts 

 to 12,1)00 bales as against 13.000 bales last year. The 

 decrea.se is due to excessive rain in August and 

 Septembei'. 



At a meeting of tlie Board of Agi'iculture, Trinidad, 

 Jan\iary 16, 1919. Mr. W. G. Freeman, the Acting 

 Directr)r of Agriculture. bri.;fly I'eviewed the work at 

 River estate in replacing poor-bearing cacao trees by 

 budding. He stated that it was very encouraging to 

 find from recent reports that almost identical wr>rk iiad 

 been done on a large scale in California on orange trees, 

 with uniformly sucicessfiil results. As in the ca.se of 

 the River estate expi-riment. the (jalifornian work 

 was based on the records of tlii- crops of individual trees 

 over a number of yeaix 



Reports from Java comiilaiii of piolonged droughty 

 and that at the time when the rainy season is already 

 due. The area planted with cane in that island has 

 decreased by 15 per cent., in fact it came down from 

 399.681 acres to 338,651, as a consequence of the 

 difficulties in the trau.sport of the sugar of the crop of 

 1917. The sugai- crop of that year v\as about 

 1,800.000 ton.s. the biggest ever made in the island. 

 (The Louisiana Planter, March 29, 1919.) 



The Board of Agriculture. Trinidad, at a meeting 

 held on February 7, 1919, decided that the following 

 recommendation of the Sugar Committee of the Board, 

 with reference to the Dutch colour standards for sugar,^ 

 be communicated to the Govei-nnient of Canada: 

 'Owing to the arbitrary character of the Dutch standards 

 which are :in ob.solete survival from the days before the 

 polariscope was available. stc)js should be taken to 

 .secure their abolition, and the substitution for them of 

 a polarization test only." 



In an article on San Domingo sugar-cane, the 

 Louisiana Planter. March 29, 1919, says tliat some day 

 the Republic of San Domingo will be developed, as 

 Porto Rico is Ijeing developed no\\-. and will become an 

 important factor in supplj-ing America with sugar. 

 The San Domingo cane crop has been con.stantly 

 increasing in leceiit years, the estimate for this year 

 reaching 17o.Utl(i long tons of sugar. To this may be 

 added another 18.000 tons from the western Republic 

 of Haiti, making a total of nearly 200,000 tons of 

 sugar from the whole island, whi(!h was originally 

 called Hispaniola, the fir.st .settlement of the Spaniards 

 in the Western Heniisphei'e. 



In the West Indian Notes in The Times Trade 

 Supplement. March 29, 1919. it is stated tliat .Jamaica, 

 rum is to pro\'ide more revenue for the Government of 

 the island. A bill to levj- a surtax of 10 per cent, 

 extra duty on the commodity has just been introduced 

 in the Legislative Council, and rum duty on the 

 higher scale is already being collected. At present 

 Jamaica is sending to the United Kingdom a record 

 cargo of rum. It was purchased by parties in Great 

 Britain, and has been stored for the past four years 

 in the bonding warhouses of the island. A steamer in 

 Kingston hai'bour has loaded 8.000 |)uncheons, the 

 largest cargo of rum ever sent from .I.nn.-iica in one 

 vessel. 



The Board of Trade Journal, March 20, 1919, 

 states that according to tlie Annual Report on the 

 Administration of Hydei-abad for 1916-17. the Agri- 

 cultral D(>partinent in that State was chiefly occupied 

 with the improvement of cotton, and the i-estorution of 

 the indigenous long staple cotton wliicli was being dis- 

 placi'd by llu' short staple variety imported from the 

 British Provinces. Arrangements were made with the 

 Bombay mill owners to purchase unginned cotton of 

 this type at a higher price than that ruling for mixed. 

 The arrangement was not however an entii-e fiuccess,a8 

 the long staple cotton dirl not fetch the premium over 

 short staple anticipated by the Depiirt.ment. The 

 Government, however, are determined to continue the 

 experiment for n further period, the Hyderabad long 

 staple being now classed under a dwtinct head amongst 

 Indian cottons. 



