Vol. VIII. No. 1.^0. 



THE AGKICULTUKAL NEWS. 



89 



Agricultural Bank at St. Vincent. 



Some notes in the St. Vincent press contain 

 particulars of arrangements that have been made to 

 start an Agricultural Credit and Loans' Bank in that 

 island. 



The capital of the bank will consist of $5,000, 

 which will be raised by the sale of .5,000 shares. It will 

 be seen, therefore, that there can be but few among 

 those who will probabl}* benefit from the establishment 

 of the bank, who cannot aftbrd to become shareholders. 

 The promotors of the enterprise state in their pros- 

 pectus that the management of the bank will be 

 entrusted to a Board of Directors, who shall be elected 

 by ballot every year, and any shareholder possessing 

 not less than ten shares shall be eligible for election. 

 A Chairman elected by the Board will act as adminis- 

 trative head of the bank. Rules as to government of 

 ■the bank will be made by the first Board of Directors. 



The bank should prove a useful institution to 

 small holders in St. Vincent, and its working will be 

 watched with interest from other islands as well. 



Balata Output in British Guiana. 



Balata, as is generally known, is a product which 

 more nearly resembles gutta-percha than india-rubber, 

 and is exported from British, French, and Dutch 

 Guianas. It is obtained from the bullet-wood tree 

 ■{Mimusops glohofia), the wood of which forms a very 

 useful timber. This tree is indigenous to South 

 America and to Trinidad. 



The balata output from British Guiana has shown 

 steady and very satisfactory advance of recent years. 

 In 1904-5 the export was 501,509 lb.: the shipments 

 increased to 634,242 lb. in I90(J-7, to 978,269 It), in 

 1907-8, and to no less than 1,124,958 lb. during the 

 calendar year 1908. 



In the past, licences to collect lialat'a in British 

 ■Guiana conferred this right for only one, two, or three 

 years : licence-holders have lately obtained a more 

 ixed tenure, however, by the extension of the period to 

 fifteen years. This concession has been made in the 

 hope of attracting more capital to the industry. 

 Labour difficulties at present form the chief obstacle to 

 further development. 



^^^^* ^ — 



Ecanda Root Rubber. 



A small supply of the seed of an interesting rubber- 

 yielding plant — Ra'phuinacme utllis— or ' Ecanda 

 rubber,' the home of which is in Portuguese West 

 Africa, was lately received from Kew, and has been 

 <listributed to several of the West. Indian Botanic 

 Stations. The plant in question (which belongs to the 

 order Asclepiadaceae) differs from other sources of 

 rubber in that it does not develop into a tree, but 

 is merely a dwarf herbaceous plant, and the rubber 

 latex is obtained not from the stem, but from the fairly 

 large and tuberous root. Plants of R. iitilis are 

 reported to exist in large quantity over the ' treeless, 

 sandy, and alluvial tracts' that occur at altitudes of 

 from 4.000 to 5,500 feet in certain districts of West 

 Africa. 



The particulars at present known of this 'Ek;anda' 

 plant are summarized in the Keir BullHin (No. 5, 

 1908), from which it is seen that rubber, containing as 

 much as 92-6 per cent, of caoutchouc has been 

 prepared from the latex of the roots. Reports on the 

 development of the young plants at the Botanic Stations, 

 and the age at which the tubers may be expected to 

 yield a supply of latex will be awaited with interest. 



Good Varieties of Sweet Potatos. 



Since the sweet potato is such a prominent article 

 of diet in the West Indies, it is natural that a large 

 number of experiments should have been carried out 

 in different islands to determine the varieties which 

 give the best yield. Perhaps the most conclusive 

 trials of this kind have been those conducted at 

 St. Kitt's and Antigua. 



At St. Kitt's, on the avei'age of from four to seven 

 experiments, eight varieties have given yields ranging 

 from 11,000 to 16,500 lb. per acre: the best of these 

 are ' Spooner,' ' Blue Bell,' ' Caroline Lee,' ' White 

 Gilkes ' and ' Hug-me-tight.' The potatos were planted 

 in June on 3-feet banks, and at distances of 2 feet 

 apart on the banks : the crop was gathered in the 

 following March. 



In the results obtained at Antigua, the varieties 

 ' Caroline Lee ' and ' Spooner ' are again well to the 

 front with yields of 15,040 it)., and 12,320 lb. respect- 

 ively. ' Hen-and-Chickens,' however, did best of all 

 with a return of 19,200 ft. per acre ; this kind was not 

 so successful at St. Kitt's. Other varieties which were 

 very satisfactory at Antigua are ' T. 4,' (12,640 lb.), 

 ' T. 1 ' (12,160 lb.), and ' Barbados Barrel,' (11,040 lb.). 



Encourapfement for Agriculture in Panama. 



The National Assembly of the republic of Panama 

 lately voted the expenditure of a considerable sum of 

 money with the object of encouraging agricultural devel- 

 opment in that country. Labour being one of the chief 

 needs, £2,000 are to be allotted for the purpose of assist- 

 ing in the establishment of small foreign labouring 

 colonies in districts that can most readily be opened up, 

 and Spanish immigrants are to be specially encouraged 

 to settle there. A further sum of £800 is assigned for 

 the purchase and free distribution among the poorer 

 agriculturists of light labour-saving machiner}', such as 

 light ploughs, cultivators, seed-sowing machines, corn- 

 shelling mills, and agricultural implements in general. 

 With the object of introducing superior varieties of 

 grain and grasses, seeds to the value of £100 have been 

 imported and distributed, and a further £50 has been 

 allotted for the purchase of ' foreign agricultural 

 journals of recognized utility,' which will also be 

 distributed among agriculturists in the country. 



The republic of Panama possesses considerable agri- 

 cultural resources, large districts being suited to the 

 production of rubber, cacao, bananas, cocoa-nuts, 

 sarsaparilla, vanilla, etc. 



