Vol. VIII. Xo. 193. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



295 



OVERHEAD TRANSPORT FOR 

 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 

 It has been .sugL;ested in Tniiiirdl. Life that the 

 system of can-jiiia; Jigi'icnltiiral produce in the tropics 

 by means of overhead nipeu-Mj-s shoul^ he more gene- 

 rally adopted. At the .'-aine time, an account of the 

 working of these in Jamaica and Ceylon was given : — 



An endless rope is supported on wooden trestles, and is 

 jjrovided with carriers, which are firmly fixed to it, and which 

 therefore move with it. For comparatively light loads, 

 such as bunches of bananas, the rope need not be more than 

 f-inch in diameter. The carriers are usually in the form of 

 a cradle, and are provided with a catch, so that when this is 

 released, they discharge their contents ; luading and unloading 

 can be done while the rope is in motion. For the purpo.se 

 of tighteidng the rope, which naturally- sags after use, a long 

 screw and a powerful steel spring in compression are 

 provided. 



A ropeway which has been erected in Jamaica deals 

 with 100 bunches of bananas per hour, the weight of each 

 of these being, on an average, 90 tt). The rope travels at the 

 rate of about 2 miles an hour and is driven by means of 

 a 3 horse-power oil engine. The length of the line is a little 

 under a mile, and it includes a number of very steep gradients. 



It would seem that such a system might be 

 adopted for the transport of agricidtural products 

 which would entail the carrying of greater weights 

 than those which have to be dealt with in the carriage 

 •of tea and bananas, and that it would be specially use- 

 ful in meeting the difficulty of taking such produce 

 over steep gradients. 



FORESTRY IN FRANCE AND THE SOUTH- 

 ERN UNITED STATES. 

 From her State forests France derives an annual income 

 of appro.\imately one million pounds sterling, or 7s. per acre. 

 Eighteen per cent, of the entire area of the country, or 

 .23,.i>00,000 acres is forest land. Approximately 6 million 

 acres are managed by the state, 'the annual cost of manage- 

 ment being about -f.s. per acre. The great achievement of 

 F" ranee in forestry has been the establishment of ]:iroteetive 

 forests where much destruction has been caused by floods. 

 Toward the close of the eighteenth century about 2,.500,000 

 acres comprised in the Department of the Landes was little 

 more than shifting sand dunes and disease-breeding marshes. 

 This section is now one of the richest, most productive and 

 iealthful in France. This change has been brought about by 

 the intelligent cultivation of pine forests, , Immense forests 

 now cover the country, the sand dunes and marshes have 

 long since disappeared, and the wood, charcoal, turpentine, 

 rosin and kindred industries have broughc prosperity to ttie 

 Depiirtment wliich was formerly the most liarren and 

 miasmatic in France. The climate is now mild and balmy, 

 the great change being wrought by the forests. The thin 

 layer of clay beneath the sandy surface, formerly impervious 

 to water, has been so pierced by the roots of the pine that 

 there is now thorough drainage to the spongy earth below. 

 The manufacture of rosin, tar, turpentine, pitch, pyroligneous 

 -acid and wood vinegar is conducted in much the same way 

 .as in Georgia and the Carolinas. The trees destined for 

 ' short life ' are bled as soon as they are big enough to 

 stand bleeding, when they have a circumference of 1 foot 

 or 15 inches, the sapping of young trees being the only 

 production of a new forest for a time, and when the ' thinning 

 out ' time comes they are 'bled to death', and the timber is used 



largely for pit props, the English demand guaranteeing 

 a steady and profitable market. The ' standing trees ' — those 

 giving promise of most vigour — are never tapped until they 

 are about .3 feet in circumference. AVhen these have reached 

 the age of fifty or si.Yty years they are cut down, and utilized 

 for telegra[ih poles and railway ties. To prevent the .spread of 

 forest fires, wide trenches are dug, about limited areas, and 

 the .space kept clear. 



The Southern United States, with 27 per cent, of 

 the total area of that country, contains about 42 

 per cent, of its total forest area. The forest area by St;ites is 

 as follows : Alabama, 20 anllion acres ; Arkansas, 24 million: 

 Florida, 20 million ; Georgia, 22,300,000 : Kentucky, 

 10 million : Louisiana, 1(5,. 500, 000 ; Maryland 2,200,000; 

 Mi.ssi.ssippi, 17.500,000 : Xorth Carolina, 19,600,000 : South 

 Carolina, 12 million ; Tennessee, 15 million ; Te.\as, 

 30 million ; Virginia, 14 nullion, and West Virginia, 

 9,100,000. The south, it will be .seen, has still much of the 

 virgin forest of the country. This forest must be used, of 

 course, in order to meet the steadily expanding wants of 

 this section. It must be used in such a manner, however, 

 that the very most may be made from its annual cut, while 

 at the same time, this cut is being replaced by new growth. 

 In this way its timber will remain a source of perpetual 

 wealth. The importance of forest conservaton to southern 

 interests is clearly understood by the people of the south. 

 The future of the south is more nearly bound up in the 

 plan of forest preservation, with its accompanying protection 

 to water-sheds, power-streams, and wood-working industries, 

 than is anything now before the people of this part i;if the 

 country. Not only is the protection of the watersheds, 

 which will some day furnish the power to run all manufac- 

 turing establishments in the entire south, an important 

 matter to the south, but the industries depending upon the 

 forest products will also be benefited by the protection 

 thrown about the remaining timber area. (Science, July 30 : 

 August 20: 1909.) 



FEEDING VALUES OP COTTON 

 AND LINSEED CAKES. 



The following e.xperiment was reeentl}' carried out, 

 under the direction of the College of Agriculture aC 

 Bangor, for the purpose of comparing the feeding value 

 of these two products, from the point of view of 

 economy : — 



Each of two evenly matched lots of bullocks received per 

 day 3 11). maize meal, 70 lb. swedes, and 7A tt). hay and straw, 

 the one lot getting in addition 3 lb. decorticated cotton cake, 

 and the other lot 3 lb. of a mixture of linseed and undecorti- 

 cated cotton cake in equal parts, the allowances being 

 increased slightly as the fattening proce.ss progressed. The 

 results, from an economical point of view, were in favour of 

 the decorticated cotton cake. The lot of bullocks receiving 

 it throve exceedingly well, gaining in weight an average of 

 16 It-), more than the lot getting the mixture of linseed and 

 undecorticated cotton cake. After making allowance for the 

 difference in the cost of the food, this gain represents \s. 'dd. 

 for each bullock, and is e(pral to 14.<. 6(1 per ton of the cake 

 used. Another consideration in favour of the cotton cake is 

 that its residual manuriai value is greater than that of linseed 

 cake. It is reported that similar results were obtained in 

 experiments on the same lines with sheep. In this case the 

 gain from decorticated cotton cake over the gain from the 

 mixture of linseed and undecorticated cotton cake repre- 

 sented l-'i. 5<i. per head, equal to ll.t. 9i/. per ton of cake 

 consumed. 



