THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Jlly 13, 1918. 



It is stated in Hawaii, that ibo Olaa IMantaiion's pro- 

 poseil bagasse paper plant will be superior to what was 

 e.xpected. The manager of the company shfiws more than 

 a dozen diti'erent grades of paper maDufacuned from bagasse, 

 which lends itself, in reality, belter to the production of 

 the high and finer grades of paper thin it does to the coarse 

 product for mulching purposes, for the production of which 

 it is ebielly intended. (The Louhinii<i l'!,iiitci\ .June 1, 1918.) 



GLEANINGS. 



The estimated output of date palm sugar in Bengal in 

 1917-16 is calculated as 101,000 tons, as compared with 

 ■99,700 tons in 191 iM 7. {The Board nf Trade /oiirual. 

 May 16, 1918.) 



An embargo has been declared against the shipment of 

 grape fruit from Cuba in order to conserve space for war 

 essentials on ships leaving there. Pine-apples and bananas 

 are the only fruit which do not come under the embargo. 

 (The Culm Revicv, May 1918.) 



The cultivation of the castor oil plant in Santo Domingo 

 has become very profitable, and a contract for 500,000 

 bushels of castor beans has been recently placed by the 

 United States Government with a local firm. ( The Board 

 of Trade Journal, May 23, 1918.) 



A note in the Chamber of Comim eee Journal, May 

 1918, .states that experimental work in coco-nut planting is 

 being carried out by the Federated Malay States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and from measurements of the rates 

 of growth of young palms it would appear that Malaya can 

 produce these of hO per cent, better growth than that 

 Tecorded from other countries. 



A note on the production of sugar beets in Canada, 

 which appears in the Cuba Re'riew, .May i8, 1918, states 

 that the total of 117,600 tons from M 000 acres was pro- 

 duced a- the crop of the season of 1917. All this production 

 was from the Province of Ontario. A large number of 

 Belgian sugar beet workers are now residing in Canada, and 

 beet production is increasing. In the past season the 

 refineries paid ■■$873 per ton for beets, an increase over 

 the previous year of •■?2'73 per ton- 



From the Daily .Ari;o.<:yoi Demerara for June 22, 191s, 

 we learn that the food problem in Surinam was getting more 

 serious each day. Id fact there is real danger of famine. 

 The Dutch Guiana newspaper, Suriiiaiiie, expected, however, 

 that the food .situation would be relieved by the end of the 

 imonth by supplies of flour from the Argentine, and food- 

 ."jtutf's from Venezuela, which are said to be on the way. 



In the course of a lecture on Cotton (jrowing in 

 St. Vincent, reported in the Se/tlrv, June 21, 1918, .Mr. W. N. 

 Sands remarked that what the control of cotion stainers 

 meant was shown by the fact that from July 1,19. (),to .lanuary 

 -31, 1917, the operators caught 204,660 stainers in the cotton 

 plots, whereas for the same months of 1917 IS they caught 

 but twenty five, andthe.se at the close of the cotton-picking 

 season. 



Ill Canada the shipping of day-old chickens, in prefer 

 -ence to eggs, is becfining very general. The method of 

 packing is r|uite sim])le, strong cardboard boxes being ii.scd 

 in sizes to h.ild a dozen, twenty-five, fifty or 10(1 chicks, res- 

 pectively. "XVk Airiiullural Gazelle of 'duada, May 1918, 

 gives reports on this method from several agricultural ollicers. 

 It is stated that even when the chickens are forty-eight hours 

 on the road verv few lo-.5eH occur. 



At a meeting of the Antigui Agricultural and Com- 

 mercial Society held on June >', 1918, the Chairman, 

 Mr. A P. Cowley, stated that the Secretary, Mr. T. Jackson, 

 as Curator of the Agricultural I )epartment, had ordered for 

 planting purposes several thousand pounds of black eye peas, 

 sufficient to plant appro.xiniately -100 acres of land. It seems 

 as though these peas might ha^e a considerable effect in a 

 few months time in supplying the poo))le with a very nutri- 

 tious food. (The .Antigna .SV/,. June 18, 1918.) 



Tliii Board oj Trade Journal, May 16, 1918, notes 

 that during the past year a .systematic study of possible 

 means of effecting improvements in the actual manufacture 

 of indigo in India has been in progress It is hoped that by 

 controlling the bacterial action during the process of fermen- 

 tation, a considerable improvement in the yield may be 

 effected. Surprising increases in the yield of indigo are re- 

 ported to have been obtained this s'-ason at many factories by 

 the use of the so-called 'dhak' gum, which promotes better 

 settling. 



In l'.»17 the United States 

 worlds total output of rubber, 

 tion rubber produced in the world 

 Mast. The plantations occupy 

 which approximately 1,000 000 ; 

 sula, 500,000 in the Dutch Kast 

 distributed through Ceylon, Iiid 

 and Borneo, with a romparnliv 

 Philippines. Forest rubber, on 

 |)roduced in South and Centr-.l 

 (The fu'ha Ruliber Journal, May 



took 7 1 I er cent, of the 

 Practically all the planta- 



is It present grown in the 

 about 2,()()0,000 acres, of 

 ire in the Malayan Penin- 



Indies, and the remainder 

 ia, lUtrma, Cochin China, 

 ely small acreage in the 

 the 'ither hand, is chietiy 

 .America, and West .Vfrica. 



11, 191S.) 



A eiirrespondent of the Jamaica G'-auer, May 17, 1918, 

 advocates the u.se of boiled yam mi.ved with Hour for bread 

 making. The yam, having been previously boiled, is 

 well mashed, and mixed with tlnur dougli in the 

 proportion of 2 parts flour and 1 pirt yam, the water in 

 which the yam was boiled being used as the liquid to make 

 the dough. I )ough mixed in this manner rises, he says, 

 much ijuicker than that made with ilour alone, and the bread 

 made in this way is as light and white, and will keep as 

 long as the ordiniry all-wheat bread, h"ing icdistinguisl al.le 

 from it in taste. 



