Vji. XII. No. 2S0. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



29 



STUDENTS' CORNER. 



In continuation of the notes on economic matters 

 relating to estate management, which list appeared in the 

 Aijrictdtiiral Xcws, Vol. \1, p. 319, the student';! attention 

 is now directed to the subject of the grading, packing and 

 transport of agricultural produce. 



In central sugar factories, owing to co ope^itive and 

 labour-saving methods, and chemical control, the grailing, 

 packing and transport of produce attains a high standard of 

 etticiency. P.ut the student will not fail to uote that in 

 supplying the central factory — which can be regarded as 

 a local market — the same principles apply in sending to the 

 mills healthy, well packed and uniform sugar cane. In this 

 connexion, also, the variety of cane is of importance. 



In the case of cotton, the grading is entirely in the 

 hands of the grower, the packing and shipping are done by 

 the central ginneries, or the exporting may be done through 

 individual agents. (See Agrictdluml. Xews, Vol. lY, p. 273; 

 and the AJSC of Cotton Cnltivatioii, Pamphlet Series, No. 4.5.) 



P)Ut, as the student will realize, it is in connexion with 

 the more peri-shable agricultural produce — fruit— that grad- 

 igg, packing and transport demand the greatest consideration. 

 The public taste in large communities has become cultivated 

 and critical: the demand, say, for a pound of oranges, to day, 

 means the demand for a pound of oranges of a definite variety, 

 uniform in size and condition. The force of this demand 

 affects the retail tradesman, the wholesale buyer and, finally, 

 the cultivator. The grading, packing and transport of fruit 

 is dealt with very fully in the following articles: Packing 

 and Transport of Fruit, ll'rs/ Indian Bulletin, Vol. I, p. 296; 

 Cold Storage of Fruit, West Indian Bnlletin, Vol. V, p. 117; 

 Kegulation of Quality of Exported Fruit, Went Indian Bulle- 

 tin, \a\.\l\l, p. IBI; Jamaica Fruit Trade, West Indian 

 Bull'-tin, Vol. II, p. 2G3; Packing of lixhibits. Agricultural 

 News, Vol. IX, p. 130. Reference is also made to the 'Fruit 

 and Fruit Trees" columns in the Agriruttural News. 



Consideration of the perishable nature of agricultural 

 produce suggests the question of insurance. Apart from the 

 insurance of shipments, there is the insurance of cultivations 

 — particularly sugar cane — and of buildings and live stock. 

 Mutual insurance of live stock is worthy of consideration, 

 particularly as regards those islands where land settlement 

 schemes have largely increased the number of peasant propri- 

 etors. The following articles should be referred to in con- 

 nexion with agricultural insurance: Aijririiltural N'ews,Yo]. V, 

 p. 390; VII, p. 18.5: IX, p. 1. Also the publications of 

 insurance companies should be consulted. 



It should be stated that of the following questions the 

 intermediate and final are based upon notes given in the 

 Agricultural X /'■«, Vol. XI, p. 349. 



Questions for Candidates. 

 Preliminary Questions. 



(1) How would you show that plants (a) take in, 

 (b) give off, water' 



(2) -Mention as many uses of roots as you can. 



Intermediate Questions. 



(1 ) Where a two-horse team draws 3,000 lb , a three-horse 

 team draws .5,000 ft). Discuss the reasons for this ratio of 

 2:3:: 3,000 : 5,000: and make diagrams to show how you 

 would attach the animals to ihe vehicles in each case. 



(2) State how you would measure the area of a field. 



Final Questions. 



(1) What do you understand by agricultural law? Give 

 a short account of the plant disease legislation in your own 

 island. 



(2) Make a cross section diagram, approximately to 

 scale, of any well constructed cattle shed you have seen. 

 Xaiue the different parts .and give measurements. What 

 would be the approximate cost of such a building, constructed 

 to accommodate twenty animals.' What sanitary arrangements 

 would you enforce in the construction and managemecit of 

 such a building.' 



VEGETABLE SILKS. 



The nature and production of one of the vegetable silks, 

 namely silk cotton or kapok, has already been described in the 

 Agricultural Neivs, on page 324 of this volume and in other 

 places. The present article ia based upon useful information 

 concerning vegetable silks in general which appears in the 

 Bnlletin of the Ihirean of Agricultural Intelligence and of 

 Plant Diseases, for September 1912. 



It appears that attention has been recently directed 

 toward the utilization of various fibres other than kapok and 

 akon, the outcome of a discovery that the preliminary chemi- 

 cal treatment, necessary before weaving, can be applied to the 

 new fibres in question. 



The fibre of Chlorocodon Whi/teii (see Agricultural N'eivs, 

 Vols. X, p._ 285; XI, p. 280) is" considered first, and it is 

 stated that it was tested at the spinning factory of Chemnitz 

 and found to be of good quality. The above-mentioned 

 plant is a liane which grows in the neighbourhood of Amani, 

 though not in sufficient <]uantities to make its exploitation 

 in a wild state a profitable undertaking. AVhetheir its culti- 

 vation will pay or not will be proved when the experiments 

 begun at Amani are Ijrought to a conclusion. 



The fibres which cover the seeds of Funtumia elastica 

 were thought well of, as also were the brown fibres of 

 Bomhax rliodognapltilon, a tree which is fairly abundant in 

 the forests of German East Africa. 



With regard to the production of akon two species, 

 Colotropis procera and C. gigantea are of interest. The 

 latter species is distributed from India to South China and 

 the Malay Archipelago, while the former has also been found 

 on the steppes of l<>ist Africa, especially io the German 

 Colonies. The two species differ very little from one another 

 but C. gigantea yields a rather better grade of fibre than 

 C. procera. Hitherto akon has come almost entirely from 

 India, but there appears to be no reason why the industry 

 .should not be gradually established in other parts of the 

 Tropics. (See Agricultural Neirx, Vol. XI, p. 364.) 



The fibres so far considered are obtained from plants 

 growing in the wild state. It will be remembered that the 

 characteristic feature of kapok production is the fact that the 

 trees are frequently cultivated. Kapok is, of course, a com- 

 mercial term, and the vegetable silks included under this 

 term are derived from Briodendron aufractuosam (the silk- 

 cotton tree of the West Indies) and Bomhax sp. The seeds 

 of Eriodendron anfract uosn m weigh nearly twice as much 

 as the fibre and contain 23 per cent, of oil, about 20 per cent, 

 of which can be extracted with good machinery. This oil, 

 which is used principally in the manufacture of tallow, has 

 fetched of late years from £14 to £24 per ton. The cake 

 can be used as manure, but it contains only 4 per cent, of 

 nitrogen. The wood of this tree is also of commercial value; it 

 is exported to Germany where it is much used for veneer work. 



