Vol. XIV. Xo. 347. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



2G3 



Mention is also made of a p which grows wild 



in British Honduras, pa |ihe < Irangi Walk 



and Congo districts towards t hi' Mexican border and 

 which I" ars a I he planl is called 



i>\ i he ii.it i\ es ass' on a il the Sn 



i, si n ngl li of i he fibres il cont; ;n-. In appearance 

 it is somewhal like the heneqtien, bul the 

 are much longer, sometimes attaining to 9 



seventy-five or a hui i are found on 



one plant. The planl is prop sucl i - and is 



ol fairly rapid growth. From tin fibres fishing lines of 

 greal strength and durability ai made oulj a few 

 strands sufficing to make a line i i ol holding 

 fish: hammocks are also made <>i it. Ina reporl on 

 samples of this fibre, the United States Department of 

 Agricultun says, il is evidently pita Hoja', obtained 

 from the pita floja plant. Ananas macrodontes. This 

 planl 'is closely related to the pine-apple, and its fibre 

 is superior to the pina fibre of the Philippines, I> is 

 possible that this fibre might be successful} cleaned b) 

 some modified form of machines used for cleaning hene- 



quei n and sisal I'ita Hoja fibre has long been 



ignized as a fibre of greal promise, and in small 

 quantities it commands a high price in Mexico for 

 domestic use, but owing to the difficulty of cleaning it 

 by hand, it has never been placed upon the market in 

 sufficient quantities to become of commercial impor- 

 tance. 



Rainfall and the 'Degree of Wetness'. 



Mr. Walter, F.R.A.S., in his book The Sugar 

 Industry of Mauritius, which is a mathematical study 

 in correlation, points out thai the number of rainj day- 

 plays as important, if not a more important, part in the 

 formation of the sugar crop than the amount of rain. 

 Main planters are quite aware of this, but Mr. Walter 

 gives to the idea an accurate expression. In order to 

 introduce the combined effect ol quantity and chron- 

 ological distribution, he treats the Mauritius rainfall 

 data in the following manner with interesting results. 

 The degree of wetnessofany month is considered to 

 be repri < nted by the expression 



i: - 

 i 

 where R is the total rainfall in the month, i the 

 number of days, and / '. the number of rainy days. The 

 of this expression is ti give any rainfall II. 

 a weigh I corresponding to the number of days during 

 which rain fell. It is verj evident that if a rainfall of 

 5 inches occurs on one day in any month, and in 

 another is distributed more or less evenly over twenty 

 days, tin' latter is the wettei nth, from an agricul- 

 tural point of view at least, than the former, and we 

 should obtain as a result: 



30) 



,:, ; 30) ■: 20 



respectively, as the relative degree of wetness for the 

 1 i months. 



Wr. Walter publishes a table showing the distinct 

 correlation that exists between this rain, and crop 

 For example, in Mauritius in 1897 the degrei 



•167 

 3-333 



of wetness for th ring season (Octobei to May) 



was 762, and the wi ight of cane hat ■• onlj 



iliJ.'l. In the nexl year the degree of wetness was 

 24*33, and the weight of run' harvested was 25*03. The 

 circumstance thai total rainfall is onlj one factor to be 

 considered is made clear by several instances to be 

 observed in Mr. Walt >les, where low yie 



cine occurred in years of good total rainfall. For 

 example, in 1901 the total rainfall was t0*05 inches for 

 rowing season, and the yield was as low as 



1. 6 "38 because the decree of wetness was onlj 20*49. 

 In 1893 the rainfall was only 37*67 inches, but as the 

 i e of wetness was 24*33 the yield of cane recorded 



was as high as 2503. 



It is hardly necessary to point out thai the above 

 correlation is not inflexible and, indeed ma} in cei iii 

 years become secondary toother relationships. Still 

 when considering the rainfall of a district, or of an 

 estate, it is always well no1 to be content with totals 

 but to enquire also into the records showing chronolo- 

 gical distribution. 



Utilizing Coffee Pulp as Manure. 



In the July issue of Tropical Life, Mr. R. I>- 

 Anstead, Planting Experl to the United Planters 1 

 Association of Southern India, contributes an article on 

 the above subject. Coffee pulp as it conies from the 

 pulper contains a large amount of water, and although it 

 also contains a considerable quantity of nitrogen,. 

 phosphoric acid, and potash, it, is unsuitable for manu- 

 rial purposes in the fresh state, and must therefore be- 

 rotted down. If properly conserved and composted, it 

 then supplies a valuable form of manure at a low cost, 

 containing between 50 and 90 per cent, of organic 

 matter. 



Two methods of composting the pulp are recom- 

 mended: if cattle are available on the estate the pulp 

 is best used by removing it from the pith, drying it 

 and then spreading it daily on the floor of the cattle 

 shed and dusting it with bone meal. The cattle 

 trample it with their litter, and it is removed once 

 a fortnight and put ina water-tight pit, protected by 

 a shelter from the rain and sun. 



When cattle are not available the pulp should b 

 allowed to drain and then be placed in water-tight 

 tanks constructed for the purpose and mixed with 

 hone meal at the rate of I cwt. for each ton of pulp. 

 Alternate layers of pulp and general refuse are placed 

 in the tank until it is full, the whole will compacted 

 are protected from the ram and sun first bj a covering 

 of I foot of dry earth and then a shelter, and left to rol 



down. Although not as g las the manure made by 



the cattle method, il is no less a useful material 

 produced at a low cost. It is important to beai in 

 mind that both kinds of manure are rich in potash, 

 a constituent for whicl there is a greal demand at the 

 present time. It is also important to direel attention 

 to the fact that il is a had practice to mix lime with 

 the pulp, for when this is done there is a consequ 

 loss of nitrogen 



