76 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



MAiifH 1, 1913 



GLEANINGS. 



Accompanying the Trinidad and Tobago Colonial Report 

 for 1011-12 is a useful map of the Colony showing roads, 

 railways, coast steamer routes, water-supplies and the 

 different crop districts. 



According to the Platifers' Chronicle for December 28. 

 lSil2. a demonstration, in London, of cookery by sound, ha.s 

 revolutionized the ordinary method of roasting coffee. The 

 idea is that by turning the handle of the new machine at 

 a certain speed the beans are thrown into the air: the heat 

 passes through, causing the emission of certain sounds at 

 different stages, and the coffee is quickly roasted in 

 suspension. 



A copy of the Dominica rainfall returns, 1912, shows- 

 that the mean precipitation for thirty four stations for the 

 year was 9894 inches. Of these stations, twelve, situated 

 on the leeward coast, show a mean return of G575 inches; 

 six La Soye coast stations, 7919 inches; three windward coast 

 stations 9.")-94 inches, whilst the mean return for thirteen 

 inland stations was IS.JTl inches. The lowest precipitation, 

 38'17 inches, occurred at Batalie; the highest return waa 

 20001 inches of rain which fell at Gleau Manioc 



It is stated in the Journal of the Roijal Society of Arts, 

 for January 2-t, 1913, that the price charged in Italy for 

 irrigation by the Canal Cavour during the summer, was at 

 the rate of £92 per Italian modulo (that is a discharge of 

 22 gallons per second). 



A statement made in the Journal of the New Zealand 

 D'-partment of ArjricuUure shows, that in Brazil, for over 

 twenty years, the inhabitants have made l)anana flour and 

 hanana cloth; whilst the lace made from the filireof the banana 

 tree (from which the cloth is also made) is sold locally for M. 

 a foot. 



It is reported in The hoard of Trade Journal, for .January 

 23, 1913 that during the week ended January 16, 1913, there 

 were imported into the United Kingdom, 75,136 bales of 

 cotton, including 162 l^ales of I'.ritish West Indian, 23 bales 

 of British West African and 1,092 bales of I'.ritish East 

 African. 



During the fiscal year 1912, the Bureau of Soils, United 

 i-iates Department of Agriculture, performed 4.'54 square miles 

 of detailed soil survey work in Louisiana bringing the total 

 survey work done by the Bureau in the State to 9,210 

 square miles (From the Modern Sugar I'lanter, Jan- 

 uary 25, 1913.) 



The year 1911 provoil to be unique in the annals 

 of the Siam rice trade, both on account of the jjaucity of the 

 crop and the unprecedented fluctuation in prices. For the 

 first time for many years, rice had to be imported into Siam 

 from Rangoon. (From Diplomatic and Consular Jx'eporls, 

 No. .5034 Annual Series.) 



In the Monthly Bulletin of the JIureau of Economic and 

 Soiial Intelli'jence for November 1912, it is stated that 

 (Janada possesses what is probably a more complex system 

 for the inspection, grading and sale of grain than any other 

 country. By this system, the law establishes certain stand- 

 ards in accordance with which the grain is bought and sold 

 Irom the time it leaves the farmer's waggon until it reaches 

 its destination 



A notice in the United Empire, for January 191.3, 

 refers to Prinsen (ieerligs's new boojc on the World's Cane 

 Sugar Industry as being in every respect an admirable 

 treatise which will not only be partijularly useful to all who 

 arc practically engaged in the cane sugar industry, but will 

 also be of special interest to the general reader who wishes to 

 learn something of an industry that has been the victim of 

 more ups and downs than any other. A large section is 

 devoted to the West Indian islands. The work will shortly 

 be reviewed in the Agricultural Xews. 



The following conclusions are given in the Experimenf: 

 Station Jx'ecoixl for September 1912, in connexion with recent 

 work on nitrogen assimilation, under sterile conditions of 

 plants, from nitrates, ammonium salts, and asparagin: 'In 

 the plant tissues the nitrates are reduced to ammonia during 

 the oxidation of carbohydrates. The ammonia so produced 

 takes on the forms of various amide compounds, in some parts, 

 of asparagin: whilst ammonium salts absorbed from outside 

 pass over in large part into asparagin. Asparagin is absorbed 

 by the plant and appeared to be a good source of nitrogen." 



In the Jlulletin of Agricultural Statisti:x for December 

 1912, it is stated that in the recent Egyptian cotton crop 

 the first picking was abnormally large, especially in Lower 

 Egypt, and that subsequent pickings have not yielded as 

 well as was at one time expected. The att.icks of the boll 

 worm have been severe in some districts, but have not 

 materially affected the yield. As was anticipated the third- 

 picking was not satisfactory, and the total yield, particularly 

 in Lower Egypt, will be less than was predicted some time 

 ago. (See also Agricultural Xcwf, January 18, p. 28.) 



An abstract appears in the Experiment Station Recoid 

 for September 1912 (Vol. X.W'II, p. 324) of a paper de.s- 

 cribing an investigation in which rape plants were grown in 

 sterile sand practically free from potash, some of the plants- 

 receiving no potash, while in other cases a 2 per cent solution 

 of potassium sulphate was painted on the leaves from time 

 to time, but no potash was given for the roots. A a result 

 practically no growth was made by the plants in sterile sand 

 which remained untreated; whilst the others, receiving the 

 pota>h through the leaves, made normal growth and came to 

 maturity. 



