Vol. XVII. No. 41.5. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



89 



lead-lined kettle, with puritiers and rectifiers, capable 

 i)f producing 3,000 gallons of pure ether in twenty-four 

 hours. 



Another product of the company's factory is cane 

 wax. The plant for the manufacture of this is working 

 most satisfactorily, and several hundred tons of the wax 

 have been placed on the London market. The refined 

 product is equal in quality to the best Carnauba wax. 

 and fetches a renmnerative price. 



Basic Slas as Affecting Agricultural Develop- 

 ments. 



A review of experience in Europe and the United 

 States on the use of basic slag and rock phosphate for 

 fertilizer, published in the Journal of the Society of 

 Chemical Industries, 3(i (1917), is briefly referred to 

 in the Experiment Station Record for December 1017. 

 In the investigations special attention was given to 

 the difference between the citrate solubilities of the 

 ba-sie slag derived from the Bessemer steel process, and 

 of that derived from the l^iglish basic open hearth 

 process. 



The conclusion is drawn that 'citric solubility is 

 certainly not the only criterion, and is apparently not 

 even a reliable criterion, of the value of phosphatic 

 material as a manurial agent. It is therefore sub- 

 mitted that total phosphoric acid content is a far more 

 reliable test of manurial value, and possesses the 

 further advantage that it depends on the definite 

 acalytical determination of a substance, instead of 

 bein'f an empirical test liable to be affected by the 

 conditions and methods of its application, and that it 

 should therefore be authoritatively substituted for the 

 citric solubility test throughout the country. This 

 change would not only render available for the use of 

 British agriculturists nn annual amount which may 

 reach up to 100,000 tons t«f phosphoric acid, but 

 would at the same time render valuable assistance t" 

 tri«' steel trade of the coujitry.' 



A Huge Central Factory in Cuba. 



The gigantic sugar factory of Central Cuba, known 

 as the Central Stewart, was built in 1907 by Mes,--rs. 

 Duncan Stewart & Co., Ltd.. of Cdasgow, from whom 

 it takes its name. an<l was originally designed to 

 deal with 2,;W0 tons of cane fier day. Extensions 

 were made year by year, until it now has a capacity of 

 dealing with over (i,d00 tons of cane per day. Accord- 

 ing to an article in the South African Sugar 

 Jovrnal, November 1.5, 1917, the estate covers an area 

 of over 43,000 acres, and is intersected by more than 

 60 miles of standard-gauge railroad with a full 

 ooioplement of heavy locomotives and cane and sugar 



3ar«. 



The milling plantconsistsof three trains of 86-inch 

 mills, two trains being 6 feet wide, and the third 

 7 feet wide, each with a Krajewski crusher. The stcani 

 generating plant consists of twenty-four multitubular 

 steam boilers, each 8 feet in diameter by ■22 feet in 

 length.' 



A Breadfruit with Developed Seed. 



The breadti'uit tree {Artocarpus incisa) is, as 'all 

 West Indians know, reproduced from root-suckers, 

 because the fruit is seedless. It is perhaps not so 

 genet ally recognized that the bread-nut tree, which 

 is not uncommon in these islands, is only a seeding 

 I ace of the same species. This also is almost always 

 reproduced by root-suckers, and the two races have 

 been kept distinct, and have remained true to type 

 since the introduction of the tree into the West Indies 

 from the Pacific Islands at the end of the eighteenth 

 century. 



Occasionally, however, a seed has been found in 

 a breadfruit. Recently ]\tr. .J. C. Moore, Superintendent 

 of Agriculture, Grenada, sent to the Imperial Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture a photograph of a section of 

 a breadfruit in which a seed was developed, which was 

 similar to the seed of the bread-nut, but somewhat 

 rounder. Ttie photograph was forwarded to Sir David 

 Prain, Director of the Royal P>otanic ( !ardens, Kew, 

 as of interest. 



There has been some question as to whether the 

 breadfruit, at least the seedless variety, was cultivated 

 in Cuba. The botanist of the Experimental Station 

 at Santiago de las \'egas has however written in reply 

 to an enquiry made on the f)oint b}' the Imperial 

 Commissioner of Agriculture, tha*^ both forms of the 

 fruitj seeding and seedless, occur under cultivation in 

 Cuba, having been introduced there from Jamaica very 

 nianv vears ago. 



The Cultivation of Celery 



Instructions for the cultivation of celery are given 

 in the Bulletin des Chatubres d' Agriculture df la 

 Guadeloupe et Dependances for October 1917, which 

 may also be of use in other. West Indian islands. 



Celery seeds should be sown in a box at any time 

 from Septetuber to December. The seedlings should be 

 picked out when quite small, and transplanted several 

 times until they are strong. When they are to be 

 permanwitly planted the roots and leaves ought to 

 be trimmed. Trenches from 1 to lA feet deep should 

 be dug in a well prepared bed, and the plants set out 

 at a distance of about 1 foot apart at the bottom of 

 the trenches. As the plants grow the trenches are to 

 be filled in by the soil which had been removed. When 

 the bed has thus become level, the plants should 

 be moulded up every week. Celery needs frequent 

 watering, the quicker it grows the more tender are the 

 stalks It can be blanched by tying the stalks of the 

 leaves together in a bunch oi- by lifting the plants with 

 a ball of earth round the roots, placing them side by 

 side in a trench, and filling it with mould. The latter 

 would seem perhaps to be the niore practicable method 

 under West Indian conditions. 



