4i6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICOLTUKIST, 



[Decemdes 1, 1883. 



SELECTIONS OF OFF-SHOOTS, PLANTINU, AND THE NnMBElt 

 KEaWRED FOB PLANTING AN ACEE. 



The best size of off-shoots for planting is 2' up to the 

 apex of the highest leaf calculated from above the bulb. 

 Smaller plants do not succeed so well being so very tender, 

 and larger ones suffer from trausiilantations, owing to the 

 delay of springing out of fresh roots without which the 

 plant cannot establish itself, also for the rapid and great 

 exhalation of water from the stem and leaves. 



Young plantain plants should be planted one foot deep, 

 in the middle of the trench, preceded by a hoeing of the soil 

 if possible, six feet apart from plant to plant in the same 

 trench, and immediately irrigated, iiut it would be very 

 desirable to so time the planting time, as to fall on rainy 

 day or days, and at the time when it is fast raining; as 

 the planting at this time would ensure economy and re- 

 markably facilitate the establishment and gi-owth of the plants. 



From what I have said in this and previous headings it 

 will appear there are 4 plants in each trench, and as there 

 are 330 such trenches in the acre, the number of plants 

 per acre will be 330 ^ 4=1,320 plants, each of which eventually 

 growing into a group of from 6 to 15 plants of various sizes. 



laEIOATION. 



Wliere natnaral advantage of humidity of the soil does 

 not exist, irrigation for plantain is very important. In 

 such places the soil (trenches only), in which plantain plants 

 are growing, requires to be constantly flooded with water 

 by artificial means, in the summer and winter ; and during 

 the rains also if the falls of rain be at long intervals 

 and .scanty. AVlien, however, the fruit-spikes have been 

 sent out, total withdrawal, or in moderate quantity accord- 

 ing to the nature of the soil and condition of the season, 

 of irrigation should be made, to allow the sap to concen- 

 trat<; for the formation of new substances for the fruit, 

 to be again apphed when the fruits have established them- 

 selvse on the spike. 



AFTER-CULTtniE. 



This cousits in the elimination of weeds from the trenches, 

 hoeing round the plants, not less than sLx inches deep, 

 and manuring once a year during the rainy weather. 



THANSPLAKTATION. 



Every thu-d year plantain plants require to be rooted up, the 

 root-l'ulbs deprived of the stems, separated, and only 

 the healthy otf-shoots or young plants planted out in the 

 same trench which has been well hoed and manured. By 

 doing this fresh vigour is imparted to the young plants 

 which had to struggle for existence between the intermin- 

 ing iiet-work of root of old plants, ripened, fruited and 

 removed. 



HARVESTING AND STORING OF FBUIT-SPIKE. 



A\lien one or two fruits on the spike have ripened, the 

 spike .should be removed from the plant, and the plant, 

 also. The fruit-spike should be stored i.e., hung from 

 the ceiliugs, in a warm ah'-tight room, to allow all the fruits 

 to ripen. 



YIELD. 



The yield of plaintain plant is very various owing to 

 various causes. Again, two varieties or species not produc- 

 ing alike in the number, size, and quality of its fruit. The 

 minimum, per spike or plant, is SO fruits, and the maxim- 

 um 5('0 fruits, of various sizes. — O. L. Bbvck, Agri-Analyt- 

 ical Uhemist, Lxte Supdt. Agri-Hortl. Socy. of Oudh Gard- 

 ens. — Indian Ajriculturist. 



AaoiiNT OF 'Water in Irrigation. — In India and Oeylon, 

 water not only is wasted but worse than wasted in rice 

 cultm'C. By tile application of too much water the soil gets 

 water-logged and the crops suffer. We quote a paragraph 

 from a paper by Mr. P. O'Meara, M. Inst. O.E. : — "It was 

 laid down as a rule that the duty of water in u-rigation 

 must vary with the character and condition of the soil, 

 the amount of rainfall, the temperature, evaporation, &c. 

 Details are given to ascertain the amounts of water and 

 length of time required to moisten different soils in the 

 Cache La Poudre Valley. The condition of some of the 

 older farms was held to indicate that the quantity of 

 water required for beneficial irrigation became gradually 

 less year by year af tei' a few years from the commence- 

 ment," 



AGEIOULTURAL AND PLANTING ITEMS. 

 (From the Queensland "Planter and Farmer".) 



The plant cane on the Grove Ranch Plantation in 

 Hawaii is said to be yielding an .average of five tons and 

 a half per acre on the whole crop. We should like to 

 learn the varieties planted. 



It is said that common salt is a certain cure for white 

 ants. A contemporary mentions a selector who entirely 

 destroyed these pests by a liberal application. It should 

 be easy enough to test this on either buildings or fences. 



A VERY novel and interesting industry has been started 

 in the South Seas by an American firm — the drying and 

 preservation of local grown fruit. The process used is called 

 the Aldcn process, of which we have no details. The firm 

 has fifty acres or more of bananas under cultivation, and 

 intend also to buy from outside planters. The bananas are 

 first thrown into boiling syi-up, and then subjected to the 

 drying process, the sugar crystallising upon the fruit and 

 imj^arting a delicious flavor. If this plan of utilising this 

 most nutritive aud wholesome of fruits could be introduced 

 into Queensland, thousands of acres might be grown for 

 export, and the industry become most lucrative. [And why 

 not in Oeylon. — Ed. J 



The Planters' Monthly of Honolulu continues to incre.ase 

 in interest. Its articles are eminently practical, and are 

 e\ddently the outcome of much experience on the part of 

 it^s contributors. From its June issue we learn that the 

 Hilo Planters' Association have stopped talking about intro- 

 ducing the inungoose, aud have gone to work. The sum 

 of SI. 100 has been subscribed among them, to send a man 

 for mungooses. If the mungoose will accomplish what 

 is claimed for it in the way of extermmating rats, this, 

 it thinks, will be a good investment. One planter estimates 

 his loss from rats last season at £2,000. 



The Chinese, among others, are going in for breeding 

 polled cattle. Recently a consignment of Aberdeen polled 

 cattle and Ayi'shire cows were exported from Greenock. 

 The polled cattle, together with some other breeding stock, 

 are intended for the Kiai-Puig breeding farm. Tin Sin,* 

 extending, it is said, to about 100,000 acres, aud owned 

 by Mr. Tong-King-Sing, an enterprising merchant and cattle- 

 breeder in the north of China. The Ayrshires, together 

 with some dairy shorthorns from the Southea,st Farm. 

 Leighton Buzzard, are for the Shanghai Dairy Company, 



So far the present season appears Id be most favorable 

 in all the Australian colonies. The accounts from New 

 South AVales as to the sugar and other crops is satis- 

 factory. In Victoria the weather continues favorable, and 

 good reports are arriving from all quarters' wheat sowing 

 having been concluded in a satisfactory manner. The 

 temperature having risen, pastures arc improving, and dairy 

 produce is becoming more plentiful. Lambing is also pro- 

 ceeding satisfactorily. Evidence is to hand that an increased 

 area of land in the northern districts is being sown with 

 wheat. Reports from South Australia are also cheering 

 in character. A contemporary states that " from all the 

 centres of population throughout the colony the news is 

 uniform in character, all reports agreeing that the present 

 season is, so far, the best that we have had for years, 

 and that the rainfall during the mouth is greater than 

 has been experienced for a similar period since 1875." 



The following extract from an article on t'.ie " Agri- 

 cultural Outlook in England," from the pen of that well- 

 known farmer, Mr. C. S. Read, will be read with interest: — 

 " The records of Rotbamsted show that the climate of 

 England is certainly altering. During the past forty years 

 each succeediug decade gives a larger rainfall, so that of 

 the last ten years is the heaviest recorded by Sir John 

 B. Lavves. But wh.it strikes the farmer of the presen*. 

 day more oven than the increased rainfall are the long 

 spells of wet aud of dry weather which prevail. There 

 may be weeks and months with nothing but rain, and 

 then a sharp drought sets in of long continuance, which 

 hardly ever pa.sses away without some electric disturbance. 

 There is a total absence oE that mild, baliny, growing weather 

 which was considered one of the most pleasing features 

 of our English climate. Last year, after a dry spring, the 

 suuuuer was made up of a few hot days and a thunder- 

 storm, followed by a prolonged period of cold wet 

 weather." (So that the weather iu England and Oeylon is 

 much alike: abnormal and ungeniftl ?— Eo.] 



