350 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



November 13, 1909. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



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 Barbados. 



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^grirultiiral |]inu!J 



Vol. VIIL SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 13, 1909. No. 197. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



In this number, the editorial deals with the address 

 of the Chairman at the opening of the sub-section 

 As;rieulture at the British Association meeting at 

 Winnipeg. 



Interesting general results of work that has been 

 recently undertaken for the purpose of finding out what 

 possibilities as a producer of alcohol are shown by 

 Hawaiian molasses appear on page 35.5 



Page 356 contains particulars of manurial experi- 

 ments with cacao that have been carried out on 

 a private estate in Grenada. 



An abstr.'ict of an article which deals with the way 

 in which timber should be sawn and used in order to 

 lessen the chance of its being attacked by fungi is given 

 on page 357. At the same time, it is suggested that 

 a little powdered copper sulphate, placed in or near the 

 joints of timber where it is likely to become wet, would 

 often delay, if it did not prevent, rotting. 



Notes of a lecture on the relationship of the 

 scientific worker to the practical agriculturist, which 

 was given by the Commissioner of Agriculture while 

 in England recently, will be found on page 359. 



The Insect Notes (page 8(J2) of this number con- 

 tain the continuation, as Part II, of the series of 

 articles on the Natural History of Insects, under the 

 heading ' Structure and Crowth.' 



In the Students' Corner, on page 365, will be found 

 a critical review of the answers given to the questions 

 set in the recent Preliminary E.xamination, in con- 

 nexion with the Reading Courses Scheme. 



The Manurial Value of Gypsum. 



In Bulletin No. 5 (1908) of the Colorado Agri- 

 Cultural E.\periment Station are given the results of 

 pot experiments in which observations were made on 

 the ett'eets of gypsum in use with other manures. lb 

 was found, generally, that gypsum decreased the yield 

 when used with acid njanures, and increased it with 

 alkaline manures. It therefore appears that gypsuni 

 would give good results with a manure such as sodiuni 

 nitrate, but that it would decrease the yield with 

 superphosphate and atinnonium sulphate. The e.xperi- 

 ments also showed that gypsum lessens the injurious 

 effect on plants of an e.xcess of magnesia in the soil. 



Implemental Tillage in Egypt. 



The Diplomaiic and. CoDsular Reports, Annual 

 Series, Xo. 4,324, states that the use of steam ploughs 

 IS e.xtending in Egypt, over 150 sets of one British 

 make having been imported in the last six years. The 

 larger engines and agricultural implements are only 

 being used at present on the big estates. The difficulty 

 of transport and of finding skilled mechanics for the 

 machines, together with the high price of fuel, causes 

 ])rogress to be slow, though the last circumstance :nav 

 be ameliorated if it turns out that the recent discoveries 

 of oil springs on the shore of the Red Sea give the 

 means of providing cheap fuel. 



In Upper i'^gypt, associations are being formed, 

 for the purpose of {lurchasing agricultural machiner}', 

 among the smaller agriculturists, in order to enable the 

 smaller cultivators to hire such implements. 



Extraction of Wax from Sugar Scums. 



Much interest is being taken at the present time 

 in the utilization of the waste products from the sugar- 

 cane industry. JIany of the ways of doing this are, of 

 cour.se, familiar. In a recent issue of the Journal dcs 

 Fabricants de Sucre, an account is given of an article 

 in I)ic Lk'iitchc Zuckerindu-Hrlc, which deals with 

 a recent thesis on the wax of sugar-cane and its techni- 

 cal extraction. From this it appears that the scums 

 resulting from the defecation of the juice of the cane 

 contain at least 10 or 12 per cent, of wax, reckoned on 

 the solid matter. When such scums arc exposed to the 

 action of the air for some time, changes take place in 

 them by which the grea.sy matters are destroyed, and 

 the extraction of the wax is facilitated. This is per- 

 formed in the following way. The scums are allowed 

 to remain in heaps until the changes which have just 

 been indicated have taken place. They are then dried, 

 either artificially or in sunlight, broken into small 

 pieces, and the wax is extracted with benzene. 



From estimates given, it is shown ihat this wax 

 can compete profitably with carnauba wax, which is 

 obtained in commercial quantities from the leaves of 

 a palm (Cdjicrnicia cerifcra) in Brazil. (See Agricul- 

 tural Xcu-s ^'ol. VH, p. 261.) The remo\al of the 

 wax from the scum cake would not, of course, atl'ect its 

 manurial value. 



