Vol. XVIIl. No 452. 



THE AGRICULTmiAL NEWS. 



271 



varieties of sugar-cme were carried out on estates. 

 Cotton seed experiments were continued and also manurial 

 experiments with cottoa. Cotton selection e.xperiments 

 were continued and also manurial experiments with cotton. 

 Nitrogenous manuring gave substantial increases in yield. 

 It is reported that the quality of cotton grown in the 

 island during the year under review was very much im- 

 proved in quality and that there is a demand for only 

 the very best seed for planting purposes. 



AGRICULTURAL COSTING. 



An important conference has just been held by the 

 British Agricultural Costings Committee, which was recently 

 set up by tlie Department of Agriculture and the Min- 

 istry of Food to obtain pernnnent information as to the 

 costs and results of farming. 



This Costings Commiitee has already been referred to 

 in the Agricultural 2^^e7i'S, and editorially we have explained 

 costing, and have urged that some attention should be given 

 to costing on estates in the tropics. 



Representatives of the chief Associations connected 

 with the Agricultural Industry attended the conference, to 

 discuss with the Costings Committee the most suitable 

 methods of oo-operation. Societies repre.senting tenant 

 farmpfs, small holders, labourers, landowners, land agents, 

 and others sent delegates who expressed the point of view 

 of all the diffeient agricultural interest. It was explained 

 that the Costings Committee was set up as an independent 

 and impartial body, to compile data which could be 

 accepted by the consuming public, and by all the interests 

 concerned in the industry. 



After hearing the aims of the Committee outlined to 

 tbem, the representatives present welcomed the scheme as 

 one which would serve the national interests in a way that 

 has long been needed, as well as being a benefit to the 

 industry generally, and to the individual farmer. In the 

 past few years, especially, the need for an impartial body 

 which could obtain cost records of the various operations on 

 a farm has been increasingly felt, not only from the point 

 of view of those connectpd with agricultural production, but 

 also by consumers. 



It was explained that although the organization to be set 

 up liad not yet been decided upon in detail, among other 

 means it was proposed to select groups of typical farms in 

 different districts, and to provide assistance in compiling the 

 records of cost which would be required by the Committee, 

 which also intended to develop the keeping of proper finan- 

 cial accounts by farmers themselves. 



The information which it is hoped to collect and ana- 

 lyse .should be of practical value to the individual farmer. 

 He will no longer be in ignorance of the actual results of 

 the various departments of his farm ; he will be able to see 

 whicl) of his operations are remunerative, and to concentrate 

 on those department.^ which pay him best; his farming methods 

 and system can be varied, as far as it is practicable and 

 consistent with good husbandry ; he can compare his own 

 costs of a particular crop or product with the average cost 

 in the district, and investigate the reason for any abnormal 

 charges in his own case. 



In these and other w.^ys the information should pro- 

 mote efficiency and economy, and augment the profit-earning 

 capacity of the farm. 



Data will be available which will facilitate the consi- 

 deration of questions affecting wagec. Further, should any 

 question arise affecting the control of prices, etc., proper 



records of ascertained facts will be in existence. The farmer 

 will Lave information which will facilitate the adjustment 

 of Income Tax Pr.iblems, and the production of propeir 

 accounts would in many cases improve credit where financial 

 assistance is sought. There appears to be no question 

 therefore that the industry will be in a stronger po-siiioa 

 with proper and proved statistics than without those, aa 

 hitherto. 



Generous offers of assistance from the representatives 

 of the various societies present were made, and the follow- 

 ing resolution was passed unanimously : — 



' That the member.s of the Conference present 

 fully endorse the value of the work of the Agricul- 

 tural Costings Committee, and are anxious to 

 render all possible assistance on the lines of the 

 agenda put before them.' 

 The agenda included suggestions for co-operation ia 

 various ways, such as assistance in propaganda work, bjp 

 circulating notices and memoranda to the members of the 

 various Societies, and by organizing meetings at which 

 addresses on the Committee's work could be given, the 

 provision of information as to farmers who would be willing 

 to place their existing accounts at the disposal of the 

 Committee, or to assist it by keeping accounts in the future, 

 and assistance in classification of farms and collection of 

 data , 



A Freak Papaw.— Mr. C. Drieberg, of Ceylon, 

 writes as follows to 'Cda Journal of Heredity :— 'As generally 

 found, the papaw fruit is green in colour when immature, 

 and, though in some cases it continues so, even when tit fo^ 

 eating, it, often shows an orange colouration, running dowij" 

 the fruit in bands. Occasionally the entire fruit turn.? 

 orange yellow generally when left to ripen on the tree. 



'In the village of Dippittigala, about (5 miles from the 

 provincial town of Ftatnapura, in Ceylon, the writer observed 

 a clump of papaw trees of a strange appearance. All 

 the fruits, from the smallest to the largest, were of a sulphtuf 

 yellow colour, and the leaves wore a marble appearance in 

 which the same colour predominated. The smaller fruits 

 were so light in eolcur that they were almost white. Oa 

 enquiry, the fact was elicited from one of the prominent 

 residents in the neighbourhood that the seed from ripe fruits 

 of this strange variety gave rise to progeny true to type. 

 Specimens were secured and brought to Peradeniya, where 

 plants raised from seed were found to produce the ordinary 

 green variety. 



'Recently the writer visited the same village, and mada 

 further enquiries, aud was able to verify the fact that whil* 

 some of the seed from the trees in question br^d true, othera 

 did not. The appearance of the trees at Dippittigala suggested 

 the name of 'Albino Papaw'. The que-ition arises — is this & 

 case of Albinism f 



The determination of farming costs ia noted in tha 

 Experiment Station Record, Vol. 40, No. 2. An exact 

 knowledge of cost of production normal and actual, m*y 

 prevent farmers from being exploited, either consciously or 

 unconsciously. The knowledge will show whether it is more 

 advisable to c".mbine large holdings, or to split up large 

 farms into small holdings. Knowledge of cost of distribution, 

 as well as the cost of pro luction, mi) help to solve tha 

 problems regarding the elimination of the middleman and 

 the distribution of the divisible surplus of farming betweea 

 the land owner, the planter, and the 'abourer, 



