ISS 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



June 15, 1918. 



GLEANINGS. 



According to the London Daily Express, April 30, 19 IS, 

 Jamaica pine-apple.s liad not reached the English market 

 for eighteen months, but a large consignment had just 

 arrived, with a quantity of Canary bananas and grape fruit. 



'\.\xi International Su^:,ar Journal, .April 191S, states 

 \\\\\. accordini; to Facts . tl'oiit Sn};ar, the Santo Domingo 

 sugar crop will be fully up to e.xpectations. 200,000 tons of 

 cane being the estimate. A new central, Li Romana, is 

 being ercc.ed to grhiJ 2,000 tons of cane per twenty four 

 hours, witli provision for e.vpansion to 4.000 tons. 



According to the Louisiana Planter, May 18, 1918, 

 operations with the Luce cane harvester in the fields of Cen- 

 tral Mercedes in Cuba have been very satisfactory. The 

 harvester, operating in slnrt rows of 400 feet, in cane 

 averaging "-.'O tons per acre, harvests a little over I 1 tons an 

 hour. In longer rows it rould do much better than this. On 

 account of the necessity r)f turning the machine round at the 

 end of a inO-foot row, work is necessarily slower than it 

 would be in longer rows. • 



It is stated that molas.ses made from pine stumps, and 

 called 'pintose" has been exhibited in New (Orleans. This 

 pine molasses is described as well adapted for use as a filler 

 in stock feeds. It looks like poor cane blackstrap molasses, 

 but has not the .same feeding value, and, by itself, is indiges- 

 tible. (The Louisiana J'hviter, May 18, 1918.) 



From an experiment conducted in Mysore, it would 

 .seeiii that prickly pear might be profitably used for paper 

 pulp if the spines and massive flesh could be removed by 

 some cheap and easy method. The remaining fibres produced 

 pulp suitable for paper, when mixed with longer-fibred pulp 

 -of some other raw material (The Wealth of /mlic, February 

 1918) 



One of the mo.st notable war developments of Indian 

 •agriculture has been the revival of the natural indigo industry. 

 With the cessation of supplies of .synthetic indigo from Cer- 

 ruany, the area under indigo increased from 148,400 acres in 

 1914- 15 to 75<), 100 acres in 1916 17. Every etiort is being 

 made to give the present revival ol the natural dye a per- 

 manent character. (The /•/</,/, May 4, 1918.) 



A greater production of manioc, yams, sweet potatoes, 

 and other tubers is this year assured in ( eylon. \n effort to 

 encourage the cultivation of these crops in the principal 

 rubber growing areas has been made. In one section an 

 increase of over 100 acres is recorded, and this is mainly 

 under yam crops and vegetablef- (The Trapieal -ii^ri- 

 ailtuiist, March 1918.) 



The advantages of using goats' milk are: (1) that the 

 goat eats about one-sixth of the ijuaiitity of food required by 

 a milch cow; (2) that for nine or ten months it yields .3 to ."j 

 litres of milk which can be safely taken uncooked; becau.se 



(3) ^oat.s are very seldom ati'ected by tuberculosis; and 



(4) that the fat in the milk, being in very fine emulsion, is 

 easily digested. (The Wealth nf ///,tia,Y(i\>Y\i».'[y 191s.) 



Development of the honey industry in the West Indies, 

 in the interests of the l^nglish food supply, is under the 

 con.sideration of the West India Committee. Some of the 

 finest honey in the world comes from .Jamaica, which etports 

 to England some 500 tons a year. Jiut the other British 

 West Indies produce little honey, though well suited 

 for it It is suggested that at least half a m'lliou bee hives 

 might be put down this year between the Bahama.s and 

 Trinidad, and an increase of production by 5,000 to 10,000 

 tons. CJ'he Yorkshire .fost, April 27, 1918.) 



More than one independent line of argument will be 

 found to point Vi the conclusion that in a period of 2,00<i 

 years there has been no appreciable change of climate in 

 the world. Therefore thu balance of the lieat exchanges 

 between the earth's income from the .solar radiation, and its 

 expenditure in terrestrial radiation into space, may be regard- 

 «-il a." only fluctuating between ^narrow limits. (\(itiir,, 

 Way 2, 191 ■•^.) 



The protection and preservation of insect-eating birds 

 is a matter of urgent necessity. Difference of opinion exists 

 as to the economic status of a few species, but all who have 

 studied economic ornithology and entomology are agreed: 

 (l)that the great majority of wild birds are beneficial to 

 man; (2) that insecteating and vermin-eating species in 

 particular are invaluable to him in field and garden; (.'5) that 

 children should not be permitted to take part in tlie destruc- 

 tion of birds and eggs, even of species deemed injurious, 

 since useful ones inevitably suffer also. (The l-ieht, May 4, 

 1918.) 



The Triipieal Ai^rieullunst, .March 1918, refers to 

 experiments made in Ceylon on the preservation of coco nuts 

 by storing them under ditt'erent conditions. These experi- 

 ments showed that nuts in the husk, stored in the open, lost 

 their water in nine months, and all germinated between the 

 seventh and ninth month Nuts, however, stor>^d under 

 shade in a dry place, lost their water in six months, and 

 were all .sound at the end of twelve months. It is pointed 

 out that in storing nuts care must be taken that no heating 

 takes place by over heaping, and that the husks should be 

 perfectly dry before storing. 



Professor William IJateson, in opening the meeting of 

 the Royal Society of Arts, April 10, 1918, .said in the course 

 of his speech that anyone who knew .something of genetic 

 science and its possibilities would feel arna/.ed at the practices 

 which prevailed on rubber plantations in the Malay Penin- 

 sula, lie was i|uite sure that the application of trained 

 intelligence for a lew years would work a revolution, (lood, 

 bad, and indifferent plants were biing cultivated; all .sorts 

 were grown together, occupying opial >pace and attention. 

 In a reasonable time it ought to be ijossible toproiluce a pure 

 strain of the best trees only. The same thing also applied 

 tr) coco-nuts. (The /"///v"i/ "/ tl'' R'>yal S,i,i,ty ,<f Arts, 

 May 3, 1918.) 



