Vol. XIV. No. 337. 



TIIK AC KK'I I. T URAL NEWS 



[05 



arri\ ing thei on January 2 and remaining till the I 0th. 

 II,, a conference was held with the Directors of the 

 Antigua Cotton Factory, Limited, as Bhe n sull of which 

 a memorandum outlining certain disabilities attend 

 ing the cotton industr} in Antigua was presented to 

 Mr. Fonda. 



Returning to Barbados from Antigua on Januarj 

 11, per C.R.M.S. 'Chaudeire Mr. Fonda proceeded to 

 Trinidad on January 12 , and thence to Tobago, return- 

 ing to Barbados on Januarj 25, where he remained to 

 January 27, During this visil lie attended a special 

 meeting of the Barbados Agricultural Societ} held on 

 the 26th. Mr. Fonda lefl Barbados for St. Vincenl on 

 i ,r\ 27. arriving al the latter place on the 28th. 

 tied until February 7. and during i his 

 visit attended a meeting oflocal cotton growers, with 

 whom cotton cultiva i d the market situation were 

 discussed. From St. Vincenl Mr. Fonda returned to 



Bi idos on the 7th, and proceeded on the same date 



by the Q.S.S. 'Korona', to St. Croix, whence it was Ins 

 intention to return to England direct, or via New York, 

 pending steamship opportunities. 



The results of Mr. Fonda's visil will be published 

 as soon as the information has been supplied bj In- 

 Principals. 



German Potash. 



The United States has perhaps more than any 

 other country felt the cessation of supplies ofpotassic 



manures from < rermany, anil a g I dial has been written 



latel} in America mi the local manufacture of potash 

 aalts t" take tin place of the fertilizers which ordinari- 

 ly come from Strassfurt. The proposed manufacture 

 includes the production of potash from felspar, ami 

 also the production of potash from sea kelp. Reference 



t,, these two industries has already 1 n made in the 



Agricultural News. According to recent information 

 in the American Fertilizer, chemical engineers are 

 dubious as to the success which it is hoped will attend 

 the extension of th.so two industries. Concerning fel- 

 spar, much depends upon the production of by-products 

 as well as the potash. In the cast' of the sea kelp 

 industry, the American press points out ■ the. need for 

 further investigation and commercial experimentation. 



It should be stated, however, that ac pany already 



exists in California, ami considerable bracts oi sea board 

 have been taken over with a view to the collection of 

 kelp, and the manufacture of potassic manures from it. 



At i he present time there is of course no possibility 

 of shipment of any potash whatsoever from German} 



mi ing to the > plete stoppage of t he sea trade. It is 



instructive however to consider briefly the principal 

 features of the German- American potash relationship 

 during the past few month-. The ( Serman I lovernmenl 

 prohibited the exporl of all potash salts after January 

 29. This led to the formation of a committee in Berlin, 

 with the object of placing proposal- before the Govern- 

 ment in regard to the denaturizing of potash salts so that 

 they would !»■ useless in the manufacture of explosives, 

 while remaining valuable for purposes of manuring. 

 Towards the end of Februaiy, the United States 

 Government issued an announcement thai the German 

 Government had agreed to allow the exporl ofkainit, 



a salt containing l< - than 20 per cent, of potash. 

 Consumers in New York according!} attempted to place 

 t hemselves in comn on with 1 he American < 



of the Potash Syndicati /ithaview to securing supplies 

 ofkainit. The remarkable facl is, that although that 



office had been in co nication with the head office 



al I lerlin, it had recei\ ed up to March t no mno 

 menl « hatsoevei to the i fleet ' hal a lift ing of the 

 embargo had been permitted by the German Govern- 

 ment and the oli\ Lou ' nclnsion is thai i he eml 

 never had been lifted. 



Potash Deposits in Spain. 



The Agricultural News was one of the fit I 



journals to deal with the questii i the war's effect 



upon the supply of potash, and a c< nsivi note 



on the subject appeared in the issue for September 

 12. 1915. To the sources there referred to as es 

 outside Strassfurt, we can now, according to the 



nber of Commerce Journal (London, February 

 L915), add that of Servia, south of Cordova, in Cata- 

 luna. Spain. Here potash mines have been worked 

 for some years, bul n is believed bhal the dep 

 have by no means been thoroughly exploited. The 

 Government of Spain, with the assistance of the Geolo- 

 gical Institute of thai country, is said to be making 

 reservations for a technical survey. It, is believed that 

 there will be some difficult) in arriving at an accurate 

 estimate as to the extent of the potash beds because 

 the salt does not lie in a regular basin as in upper 

 Alsace and al Strassfurt. A Spanish mining engineer 

 has stated that an appreciable amount of capital will 

 be required to make the necessan survey, but that the. 

 chances for finding potash in remunerative export 

 quantities are favourable. 



Composition of Beans and Peas. 



In view of the new interest which is being taken 

 in the cultivation of food crops, especially beans, in the 

 West Indies, the table of analysis of different species 

 of leguminous plants grown in ( ierman East Africa, and 

 published in the Bulletin of the Bureau of Agricul- 

 tural Intelligence and Plant Diseases (August- 

 Octoher lilll) should lie of interest. The composition 

 of five different species of Phaseolus is given, also that, 

 of the pigeon pea (Cajanus indicus). the lablab bean 

 (Dolichos Lablab), Vigna catjang, Canavalia 

 ensiformis, and Voandzeiti. subterranea (Anjola pea). 

 As a general rule the Phaseolus species seems to be li -- 

 rich in protein than the other beans, though the 

 percentage of crude fibre is greater in the ease of the 

 others. Vigna catjang, of which fourteen varieties 

 were analysed, showed considerable variation in 

 composition, the fat, for instance, varying between 0'86 

 and 4*33. As a general rule these beans and peas 

 contain about 88 per cent, of drj mailer, of which 

 about 50 per cent, is digestible carbohydrate. 



It is perhaps unnecessary to point out that beans 

 constitute the most concentrated foodstuff which the 

 farmer grows. Indian coin possesses man} advantag s, 

 but beans are better from the point of view that thejj 

 contain a higher percentage of nitrogenous matter. 



