Vol. XVIII. No. 456, 



THE AGKICULTURAL NEW?. 



329 



It is suggested that allottees should pay a ptopor- 

 tiou of the purchase mocey each year I'jr ten years, 

 MO yearly payiiifeni to be less than one-tenth part of 

 the purchase money. No title will be issued even if 

 payment be made in full until ten years have expired. 

 During this time the land must be properly worked, 

 and cannot be alienated, let or encumbered. Install- 

 ments must be paid punctuall}' 



Another suggestion is that common land should 

 be provided for the peasants to keep their cattle on. 

 These are important : (a) as a source of milk (to help 

 reduce infantile mortality : (b) as a source ot manure 

 to maintain the fertility of the allouments. 



The whole scheme appears to be an excellent one. 

 These schemes will tend to cause a contented spirit 

 amongst the peasantry, and help to increase the 

 labour supply and the production of sugar-cane for 

 the factories. 



Fruit Culture in Malaya. 



There has recently been published, under the 

 above title. Bulletin No. :i9 of the Department of 

 Agriculture, Federated Malay States. This bulletin 

 of 101 pages is capitally illustrated with reproductions 

 of photographs. After a short preface by Mr. 

 L Lew ton Brain, the Director of Agriculture, 

 the author, Mr. .J. N. Milsum, Superintendent of 

 Government Plantations, Selangor and Negri Sem- 

 bilan, gives very plain directions in the first part of the 

 publication about the cultivation, propagation and 

 improvement of orchards in Malaya. This part is 

 certainly of value with regard to fruit culture in the 

 tropics generaHy. 



Mr. Milsum notices the work which has been done 

 in the Philippines and in Hawaii in the improvement 

 of tropical, fruit and points out the fact, which is 

 evident to residents in the tropics, that in almost every 

 species there ai'e numerous varieties which differ 

 enormously in their edible values. 



The second part consists of a list with lull des- 

 criptions of the kinds of fruit, either indigenous or 

 introduced, which are at present cultivated in Malaya. 

 IThis forms a very interesting section. Most of the 

 better kinds of fruit are already well known in the 

 West Indies, such as pine-apples and oranges, bananas 

 . and mangoes, etc. Several kinds enumerated, however, 

 are not cultivated at present in these islands, and some 

 of them seem worthy of introducton into local botanic 

 gardens. For instance, Boitea macrophylla, known to 

 the Malays as ' Kundangan,' is described as a tree 

 bearing in profusion yellow fruit, of the size of a hen'a 

 egg: with thin skin, and very juicy, resembling the 

 mango in appe.irance. Another tre>.-, Diso-pyros discolor. 

 Butter fruit', a congener of the American persimmon, 

 is a handsome tree, producing abundantly bright pink 

 fruits ,the size of peaches, containing when ripe a 

 creamy pulp with the flavour of strawberries. 

 Xi'indium domesticum, 'Duku', a medium sized tree, 

 with fruit 1^ to 2 inches m diameter, contains sweet 

 palatable pulp surrounding two or three seeds. Seeing 

 that these are all reproduced by seeds, it would 

 iseem comparatively easy to introduce them experi- 

 mentally. 



Labour and Emigration 



Many Briti.sh West India;! coiunies, p;irtifijlarly 

 the smaller ones, are feeling the effects of emigra- 

 tion of labour to Cuba, San Domingo and elsewhere. 

 Large numbers of men periodically leave Barbados. 

 That Colony, however, can stand an exodus better than 

 niost of the islands, owing to it.> '!ense and prolific 

 population. 



The question of available labour has always been 

 a difficult one in the British Virgin Islands, like 

 Tortola Recently, according to a report by the Acting 

 Superintendent of Agriculture for the Leeward Islands, 

 at least -500 labourers have departed from Tortola alone 

 to San Domingo, while practically the whole of the 

 able-bodied male population leave Anegada for a period 

 of about six months to work on sugar plantations in 

 that country. As well as this, the neighbouring ITnited 

 Slates islands attract the better type of labourer. 

 This will be understood when it is said that in. 

 St. Thomas a good man can- earn .*fO() a day compared 

 with 40 cents a day in Tortola. 



Tbe Great Flagstaff at Kew. 



In a previous issue of the Aijrirnltwral News 

 (Vol. XV, No. 364, p. 124), reference was made to an 

 announcement in Nature for January (i, 191(i, that 

 :he Government of British Columbia had generously 

 presented tu the Puoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a ma,g- 

 uificent spar of Douglas fir, or Oregon pine {Ahien 

 douylasii), to replace the old spar that was broken 

 dosvn in 1913, owing to decay. Some particulars of 

 this flagstaff were also given to the time According 

 to The Field (September 6, 1919).preparations are now 

 being made for the erection in the Ri)yal Gardens, 

 Kew, of this great Magstaff, which arrived in January 

 iyi<), but the erection of which had to be deferred 

 owing to tbe war. 



Further particulars are furnished of this staff", 

 in a brochure published by the Agent General 

 for British Columbia, under the title of 'How the Big 

 Bntish Columbia Tree Became a Flagstaff.' A dozen 

 trees were felled, some 250 feet in length, before one 

 without warp or blemish was secured. This was 220 

 feet high and 6 feet in diameter, and it was shaped 

 into a flagstaff 21-1 feet long; 33 inches in diameter ati 

 the base, and twelve inches at the apex. It is quad- 

 rangular from the base up to 15 feet, octagonal for the 

 nest 140 feet, the remainder being round, ami it is 

 ' perfectly straight and true.' 



The loading of this great spar on to a steamer 

 presented some ditbculty, but it was successfully 

 aoeomplished by means of powerful cranes, and there 

 was no accident of any kind unul it was finally placed 

 in the gardens at Kew, where for neariy three years it 

 has lain by the side of its worn-out, comp;irativnly 

 undersized predecess.T, and at the foot of the mound 

 on which it will shortly be erected. 



