YoE,. XVIir. No. 449. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



ni 



of the Union to be sold or let to settlers. Of several private 

 schemes to provile land for closer settlement, that of the 

 Sundays River (irrigated) is probably the most important. 

 It is 21 miles from Port Elizabeth. In Swaziland 

 Lord Lovat is arrangini; for th:- settlement of 100 Scottish 

 soldiers on his estates. The terms are more than 

 iiberal. . . 



I woald call particular attention to the fact that the 

 Union Mini.ster of Linds has pjwer to purchase private 

 land on behalf of a settler, who his to provide one-tifth 'f 

 the purchase price. Tuis power has been exercised with 

 encouraging results. The usual limit of advance ia about 

 £1,200. The settler pays his fifth, then nothing for 

 two years, after which he must repay the capital (plus 

 4 percent.) in twenty annual instalments. There is also 

 a Government Land Bank which makes advances to pur- 

 chasers of farms against the value of improvements, and 

 even farm tenants can obtain small advances. Applicants 

 for land must, however, satisfy the authorities that they 

 have sufficient capit-»l, suitable i|Ualifications, and intend to 

 work the land themselves. In the case of leases of Govern- 

 ment land, tlie settler retains an option of purchase, and his 

 rent is based on a valuation of the land. He p>ys '^^ rent 

 the first year, 2 per cent, of the '^aluation the second and 

 third years, and "ih per cent, during the fourth and fifth 

 years. If the option of purchase is ever exercised, the 

 capital payments with 4 per cent, interest are, in the case of 

 Government land, spread over forty years Of course the 

 settler should obtain from the authoriti'S full details of the 

 regulations. Address inquiries to the Department of Lands, 

 Pretoria. 



As to the educational advantages, there are public 

 schools of agriculture at Elseburg ne^r Capetown ; Oedara, 

 Natal ; Grootfontein, Middelburg, Cape Province ; and 

 Potchefstroom, Transvaal. The schoil fees, including board, 

 are only £-50 a year, which is far below the cost involved. 

 For working farmers, including women, there are short 

 cocrses lasting about a month, with a break of a few days in 

 the middle. About £5 to £G civers the student'^ entire 

 expenditure. Mr. Smith, the Secretary for Agriculture, in- 

 forms me that he is strongly of the opinion that men intend- 

 ing to farm in South Africa should, if possible, spend a year 

 or two with a good faruaer, or preferably at one of the 

 Schools of Agriculture. 'One or two years,' writes 

 Mr. Smith, 'may seem a long time to spend for an appren- 

 ticeship, but I am sure in the Ion;; run it will be time and 

 money saved. Of course the more a man knows about 

 farminii in other countries, the better, bat no matter how 

 much he may know, he will have much to learn when he 

 -comes here ' 



Palm Sugar Production in Madras.— The 



number of palm trees which are usually tapped for palm 

 sugar in the Madras Presidency is estimated by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture as 2,. 500, 000, and the yield of jaggery 

 (cru'de sugar) therefrom as 2. T 000 tons (of 2,240 fc). The 

 total palm-sugar production of India, writes the United 

 States Consul at Madras, is stated to be about -300,000 tons, 

 of which Bengal produces about 100,000 tons, valued at 

 £430,000. India's total production of sugar, both from 

 cane and palms, is somewhere aaout 3,000,000 tons per 

 annum. The area under sugar cane in Madras is less than 

 4 per cent, of the total area in Briti-h India, the United 

 'Provinces being the great producing area, (/ourna/ of Me 

 Jioyai^Miety of Arts.) il..,: ;..; 



SUGAR CULTIVATION IN GERMANY. 



Dr. H. C. Prinsen Geerlig-; writes as follows to the- 

 Louiikvt'X Planter with regard to the position of sugar 

 cu'tivation ill Germany — i subject of considerable interest 

 to all sugar-proiiuc.iig communities : — 



'The opinions of the leading sugar men in Germany 

 as to the probable e.\teLisio'i of .jowings for the next sugar 

 crop in that country are most pessimistic. The .Saxonian- 

 Thurineian Branch nf the Association for the German Sugar 

 Industry moved on February 12, that unless with- 

 in a fortnight a decent maximum price for biet roots 

 was fixed, the Grerraau be"t cultivatio.-- for the 1919-20 

 crop would un lergo a considerable reduction. This fort- 

 night has already passed and no price has as yet been. 

 stipulated, either for beets or for sugar, which will 

 certainly lead to a small beet sugar crop in that- formerly 

 large proilucing country. 



'The Association for the Promotion of Sugar Cultiva- 

 tion in Germany adopted the following wishes : — 



' 1. — It is urgently necessary to regulate the labour- 

 conditions in such a way that full attention will be paid to 

 beet cultivation. The high cost support for unemplo)ed 

 workmen should cease, and a compulsion 1 1 work should 

 be established instead. The wages ought, as much as 

 possible, t<) be paid in kind and as shares in the profits. 

 A good supply of skilled, foreign fern tie labour should be 

 established. 



' 2. — The price of beets should be elevated to 40 marks 

 per .50 kilos, and this increase should I e published as 

 soon as feasible in crdir to enable the farmer to plough dei-p 

 in proper time for the beet cultivation, since only a 

 deep-ploughed land will be able to bear a sufficiently high 

 beet crop. 



'3. — The conservation of dung and manure should be 

 conducted on a ration.il basis, and extensive use should be 

 made of the establishments where nitrogen ftnm the atmos- 

 phere is fixed. The lack ng phosphoric acid should be 

 imported from overseas to ensure a full supply of artificial 

 fertilizers 



'4. — ^The farmers are to be allowed to supply beets to 

 their former buyers. 



'•5. — The delivery of sugar to labourers should be 

 increased, especially du ing harvest time. The allowance of 

 600 kilos of .-ugar for every 1,000 tons of beets supplied 

 should be raised to 1 ,000 kilos. 



'6 — The pulp and molasses from the beets are to be 

 sold to the growers. 



"7. — The supply of coal to the factories should be regu- 

 lated in a rational way. 



'These demands are being pablished repeatedly, and if 

 the German Government had acted according to them, a 

 large area of land would have been prepared now for beet 

 cultivation, which in this moment cannot be used for that- 

 crop, and perhaps will not be fit for it this year.' 



In a note on chlorosis of sugar-cane, the Experimernt 

 Station Record for .Tanuary 1919. reports that this trouble 

 can be prevented to some extent by ihe application of 

 stable manure containing ferrous sulphate, and stable manure 

 alone, although large applications did not overcime the- 

 ehlorosis completely. 



