12 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Januaey 12, 1918. 



Exports of coifee from Martinique appear to decline year 

 by year, although in 1916 the decrease wns perhaps due to 

 want of transport facilities. Only 35 quintals of coffee were 

 exported in 1910, as comparfd with 93 quintals exported 

 in 191.5. In the early part of 1917 however, exports of 

 coffee were 30 quintals more than in the correspondinjj 

 period of 1916. (Documentary Leartets of the International 

 Institute of Agriculture, Rome, October 18, 1917.) 



GLEANINGS. 



The Governor of Barbados, by a Proclamation dated 

 December 20, 1917, has ordered that no yams and no eddoes 

 shall be exported from the island. A similar prohibition has 

 been extended to sweet potatoes by a Proclamatirm dated 

 December 27, 1917. 



The Department of Agriculture, Mauritius, is engaged 

 in careful soil surveys of the inland. Copies of these surveys 

 containing the analyses of various soils, have been forwarded 

 to the Imperial Coniiuissioner of .Agriculture for the West 

 Indies. A very useful feature is the statement of the 

 analytical methods pursued both as regards physical and 

 chemical analysis. 



The Board of Trade Journal, November 29, 1917, 

 states that the Ministry of Food has issued an order pro- 

 hibiting the use by brewers of any saccharine substance 

 other than solid glucose, or other produce of low-grade cane 

 sugar polarizing not over 89°, and from which not less than 

 40 per cent, of its weight has already been extracted in the 

 form of sugar or syrup. 



The Louisiana Flantrr, October 20, 1917, praises highly 

 the seedling L. 511, raised at the Audubon Experimental 

 Station. It is stated that in the last crop it has proved 

 its superiority over the two standard varieties Louisiana 

 Purple and I). 74, especially in sucrose content. It is 

 considered that, on an average. 1-5 tons of this cane will make 

 as much sugar as 20 tons of D. 74 



Home attention has been drawn to the possible 

 extension of the cultivation nf the castor oil plant in 

 Trinidad, on account of the demand for the oil chiefly for 

 lubricating purposes. This is shown by a circular published 

 by the Department of Agriculture of that island otlerin)^ to 

 supply seed for sowing at 5c. per lb., and drawing 

 attention to the methods of cultivation and reaping. 



The editorial notes of the Cotonia', Journal, October 

 1917, point out that Gold Coast cacao is of comparatively 

 poor qualiiy, but that the production is enormou.s, and the 

 quantity .seems to lie regarded as a good compensation for 

 quality under the agricultural conditions prr vailing in that 

 colony. The native does not keep his i)lantation in good 

 order, because he can generally get land for a new planta- 

 tion when he wants it. The native farmers periodically 

 abandon pest-ridden cacao orchards. 



The reproach that England is almost the only important 

 country in which there are no ade<iuate regulations with the 

 object ol preventing tl e importation of weed seeds, and of 

 providing puif teeds i or any official seed-tesling station, 

 is aboQl to be removed, »s it is announced that an otlicial 

 8eed-lebtin(( station for England and Wales is being organized 

 at the Eo'kI Produ'tifin Department. (Nature, November ."^, 

 1917.) 



Mr. W. G. Freeman, Acting IDirector of .Agriculture, 

 Trinidad, has notified the Agricultural Society of that colony 

 that the Government has recently opened a depot in Port- 

 of-Spain for the purchase and sale of locally grown foodstuffs. 

 The main object of the depot is to help those who have 

 responded to the call for the increased production of food- 

 stuffs to dispose of their produce, and to obtain good prices 

 for it. (t'roceeding< of t/te Agricultural Society of Trinidad 

 and Toliago, November 1917.) 



The Cook Islands may be called a tropical province of 

 New Zealand, as can be seen from a report of their exports 

 commented on in Tin Boaid nf 7'iade Journal, November 8 

 1917. The export of copra from these islands during 1916 

 was 1,120 tons, valued at £28,000, and it is estimated 

 that the 1917 coco-nut harvest will exceed that of 1916. 

 During 1916, 94,000 cases of oranges, valued at £16 000, 

 43,000 cases of bananas, valued at £12,000, and 36,000 

 cases of tomatoes, valued at £5,000, were shipped to 

 New Zealand. The new season's crop of oranges is estimated 

 at 200,000 cases. 



.■\. considerable amount of attention has been given in 

 recent years to the recovery of wa.v from the waste produced 

 in the extraction of sugar from the sugar-cane, and this 

 industry has now lieen started on a small scale in Natal. 

 Samples of the first consignment of Natal sugarcane wax 

 shipped to this country [England) have been ex i mined at 

 the lMi()erial Institute, and found to be of good ([uality. 

 Sugar cane wax is now becoming better known on the 

 market, and could he n.sed as a substitute for Carnauh.i wax 

 in the manufacture of gramaphone records, polishe-s, etc. 

 ('/'//< liiuird of Tr'idi Journal, November 2, 1917.) 



The part of the inventory of seeds and plants imported 

 by the Oflice of Knreign Seed and Plant Introduction of the 

 I'uittd .States Department of Agriculture, i.ssued October .30, 

 1917, recently received at this Office, has an interesting note 

 on a hybrid cane, the result of a cro.ss between the sugar- 

 cane (Saccharum ojlicinarniii) and a species with little sugar 

 content {Siirclinrnin cilinre). This hydrid was produced by 

 the pollination ot the flower of a .seedling variety of the 

 lullivated sugar-cane with the pollen of the wild specieB. 

 .Although of no commercial value, the hybrid is interesting 

 from a botanical point of view. 



