Vol. XVIII. No. 450. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



247 



IN PRAISE OP THE LEGUME. 



Although the reason why lei;uiniaous plants enrich the 

 soil was not understood until the |)ublication of Hellriegel 

 and Wilfarths' famous paper in 1SS8, the practice of using 

 these plants for soil improvement dates a long way back — 

 as far as the earliest days of agriculture. In a paper on 

 Soil Making , read before the lloyal Horticultural Society of 

 England last year, Dr. E. J. Russell, F.R.S., gave some 

 interesting quotations from the Ancient and Middle Age 

 literature, which show be)oi<:l question that clover and other 

 temperate leguminous crops were highly appreciated, and 

 cultivated with tlie direct object of enriching the soil. 

 Thus Theophrastus, writing 300 years before Christ, says 

 that in Macedonia and Thessalv beans were grown to be 

 ploughed in at ttowering time. Varro, about .50 B.C., says, 

 'Some things should be sown «ith a view not so much to 

 present profit as to next year's crop, because when cut down 

 and left they improve the soil. Thus, lupins before they 

 produce many pod.s, and sometimes beanstalks, if the pod- 

 ding stage be not so far advanced that it is profitable to 

 pull the beans, are usually ploughed into poor land for 

 manure'. 



The benefi'ial effect of the above crop has been known 

 from early times, and was a great feature in the husbandry 

 of Fianders, which has always been a model for the rest of 

 Europe to follow. Some of the English older writers on 

 the value of clover were very enthusiastic and quaint. Thus 

 Yaranton who, in 1663, declared that being ploughed it 

 will yield three or four years together a crop of wheat, and 

 after ihat a crop of oats, becomes so enthusiastic that he 

 bursts into song : — 



' Wlien poets call for aid do they invoke 



The oyl nf \)ai'ley, hops or Indian smoked * 



Must Bacchus till their veins' tliese drown and smother 



.A nd dull their wits ; give me t lie oyl of clover, 



' )ne drop of which contains su./h vu'tue in it 



It makes a perfect poet in a minute 



I crave no aid ; give me the L;oiise'.s quill. 



That's fed with clover, and I'll try my skill. 



But three-leaved gras.s soon yield a three-fold profit; 



Three volumes may ho writ in praises of it'. 



I'erhaps fortunately, adds Dr. Russell, the poet never car- 

 ried out his intention. The fact remains, however, that 

 in spite of its poetic exaggt ration, 'Three leaved grass soon 

 yield a three fold profit' embodies a great truth, and might be 

 taken as a motto by the good planter. 



* This line, of course, refers to whisky, beer and tobacco: 

 Bacchus, in the next line, is the god of wine. 



THE EMPLOYMENT OF TRACTORS. 



There are indications ihit tractors will be increasingly 

 employed in the 'A'est Indies for cultivation work on estates. 

 The successful employment of a I'ordson Tractor at Four- 

 square estate in Barbados is reported, and information is at 

 hand of a more detailed character concerning the work of the 

 Titan tractor in Antigua manufactured by the International 

 Harvester Company, United States of America. Figures are 



not yet available regarding the amount and cost of the work 

 done in Barbados, but in Antigua on average land the tractor 

 ploughs 3 acres per day. The cost of ploughin? 1 acre by 

 the Titan tractor in Antigua works out at I3s id. while the 

 cost for cattle ploughing per acre is about 1 4s. 8c?. In 

 addition, it .should be added that the tractor can pull 8 tons 

 of canes uphill of normal gradient at a speed of ih miles per 

 hour. As well as the machine referred to there was 

 imported into Antigua dur'ng 1918 an Avery tractor Are- 

 port on the work of this tractor has not yet been received. 



In connexion with tractors an instructive Farmers 

 Balletin (No 103.5) Uuited States Department of Agriculture 

 deals with the work of farm tractors in the Dakotas. Several 

 ge"eralizations are put forward in this Bulletin. One is that 

 the influence of the tractor in causing an increase in the size of 

 farms is much more marked than that of any machine since 

 the introduction of thf grain binder. It it fairly obvious that 

 a small estate is no place for a tractor costing perhaps £400 

 or £.500. 



It might be noted however by the owners of small estates 

 and holdings in the West Indies t'lat an implement like the 

 Beeman Garden Tractor might answer their purpose. We 

 are in receipt of pamphlets illustrating this small tractor and 

 it appears as far as one cm judge. from advertisements to be 

 very well adapted for cotton and corn cultivation in the 

 West Indies. Its cost is about .$300. Further information 

 can bi: obtained from Mr. P. R. Gransaull, Sole Agent, 

 Trinidad. 



To continue the account of the statements made in the 

 Bulletin referred to above, it should be remembered that one 

 of the largest items whicii go to make up the total cost of 

 performing work with the tractor is depreciition, yet this, is 

 one of the items which many people ignore entirely when 

 figuring tractor cost The advantages of a tractor, like 

 that of most other improved farm machines, lies not so 

 much in the reduction of the cost; of performing a unit of 

 work as in the fact that it permits one man to do considera- 

 bly more work within a given period of time. Lastly before 

 putting anyone in charge of a tractor he should be given 

 experience under a competent instructor. The mistake 

 should not be made of assuming th it any boy can operate 

 a trictor in an efficient manner ; only a proficient operator 

 can handle a tractor properly. This has been discovered in 

 Antigua. At present the lack of even one trained operator 

 has been fe't in .\nligua and this trouble will be more pro- 

 nounced as the numbers of tractors imported increase It is 

 a difficulty howeser that should not be hard to get over. 



Map of the World's Sugar Pr ductio i.— We 



have received from W. .J. Way to. Incorporated, Engineers, 1 

 Liberty Street, New York, an instructive map of the two 

 hemispheres printed in colours showing th> dis ribution of 

 sugar production throughout the world. The map also con- 

 t.uns a coloured diagram showing the production in different 

 countries in 1914 and I'M 8. This interesting diagram shows 

 the great increase of sugar during the war in tropical countries 

 and tlie great reduction of beet sugar production in European 

 countries like France, Germany, Austria and i'ussia. The 

 most phe'^.omenal increase has taken place in Cubi. In 

 1914 about '2\ million tons of cane sugar were produced 

 wliile in 1918 nearly ■'!.'. million tons were produced. There 

 has also been a big increase in India and .J^va but in the 

 former country, of course, nearly all the sugar is consumed 

 locally It might be added in connexion with this map that 

 recent advices indicate that the price of sugar will remain at 

 a high level for some considerable time in the future. 



