26 I 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



August H, 1915. 



EDITORIAL 



1 1 1 : x i ■ (Mini 



NOTICES. 



Barb 



Lei all 



Bpeci ing, should be addressed to the 



( lommi inej Imperial I 'eparl menl •■ \.gi iculture, 

 Barbi 



All applications for copies of the ' Agricultural 



Net her Dep: intal piiblicat ions, should I" 



addressed to the Agents, and no't to the Department. 



The complete list oi Agents; and the subscrip 

 and adi bi found on page 3 ol 



the i-(.\ er. 



Imp of Francis Watts, C.M.G., D.Si 



Agriculture fo> the West Indies I-'. I.e.. F.C.S. 



SCIE1S I llh ST VFK. 



Scientifii I ssi itani and 



Assistant Editor 

 Entom* 



A I 



\\. K. Dunlop. 



II. A. Ballon, M.Si 



\V. Nowell, D.I.C. 



CLERII VI STAFF. 



Chief Cleri 

 Assistant Cltrl 



Junior <'!■ I ' 



Assistant Junior CI' rk 



Typist 



Assistants fur Publications 



A. (r. Bowell. 



M. B. Connell. 



W. P. Bovell. 



P. Taylor. 



Miss B. Robinson. 



I A. B.Price, Fell. Journ.Inst. 



I L. A. Corbin. 



^qricultural Mtm 



Vol. XI V. SATCKhAV. MOIST it, itnr>. Xo. :U7. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Fresent Issue. 



The editorial in this number deals with the value 

 of birds to the agriculturist, in particular regard to 

 W. si Indian species 



Under the heading of Fruil and Fruil Trees will 

 i , founil interes iling with coco nuts 



.ippli s, and i-ii ins fruit. 



On page 203 is reviewed the reporl of thi 



Barbai I ' : irl men! of A IM14-I-V 



Tun a • ill In- found on page 261 



with practical thods oi eradicating weeds. 



I,, rl Fungus ?\Totes on pages 266 and 270, 



a deal w itli ]" sts in Barbados, and li .-is 



us well us oth 

 of interest. 



Telephone Troubles in the Tropics. 



In the Colonial Journal for Juh L915, reference 

 is made to the troubles in hot, damp countries to which 

 telephones are subject, and which are said to be due 

 to the great amount of water thai air at high temper- 

 atures can hold, and M6 the energy and ingenuity of the 

 insects « lui-li appear to taki i fane; to tele- 



phones. With these trdubli s, and ways of meeting them, 

 Mi . W. Llewellj n Pre i d als in a paper read 

 the [nstitution of Electrical I. in March last. 



spider, he sti is a real pi si all over i he tropics; 

 ii delights to ret reat into the tel< pi and to 



bi 'Id for itselfa nesl therein, so thai it is incom- 



mon experience to find instruments entirely hove 

 t ombut from thi dilig rl of the i To 



imvenl the spider, it is suggesti 'I thai the 

 telephone cases should be sealed up us closely as 

 possible. Insects also settle on the insulators 

 mi overhead li I their webs connect the 



wire to the insulator stalk, thereby reducing the 

 insulation resistance of the wire to a few ohms. In 

 British Guiana it has been found that glass insulators 

 prevenl this practice, probably because the insects like 

 a dark place for their home. Another trouble is 

 lightning, which iimerous interruptions. These 



air due to the strong discharges through the protectors 

 to earth, which carry so much carbon ilusi across the 

 gap as to place the two carbon blocks in contact. The 

 remedy suggested here, is to use a vacuum typo of 

 protector in which the two carbon blocks are inserted 

 in an exhausted glass tube, the opposite surfaces being 

 serrated and fixed about ,',.,-iiich apart; these, it is said, 

 have been adopted in the Malay States. 



New Vegetable Products. 



In the CJiamber of Commera Journal (Supple 

 ment) for July 1915, mention is made oi nev vegetable 

 products that are likely to become of considerable 

 commercial importance in the United Kingdom in Ijhe 

 very near future, in consequence of the changed 

 conditions that have been brought aboul by the war. 

 Amongst these is palm kernel cake. Before the war, 

 palm koine] and copra crushing industries were 

 practically German monopolies; the import of palm 

 kernels alone to Haiaburg exceeded ~>\ millions 

 sterling in value in a single war. In Germany these 

 ilarU fed to milch cows and other live- 

 stock. In the United Kingdom their valuable food 

 properties have been established by analysis at the 

 Imp. rial Institute and elsewhere, and it is hoped that 

 large palm kernel and copra crushing industries will 

 ere long be built up there indeed, a start in this 

 direction 1ms already been madi The question has 

 i. up en _ /• by the Wesl Afi ican 



v n of the l...nd.m ( !han < lommerce, and al 



the suggestion ot Sir Owen Philipps (the Chairman 

 of thi S "in the leading British Agricultural 

 jes are no« conducting feeding trials with palm 

 kernel cake. 



