ToL. VIII. No. 190. 



THE AGRICULTUEAL NEWS. 



2i5 



bean shall get an equal amount of poli.^h. The cylinder is 

 driven at the rate of ten revolution.s per minute, and the 

 shaft at sixty to eighty. At this rate of work, the machine 

 in operation at Park estate, which is a four-pedal machine, 

 polishes one bag of cacao of 200 lb. in ten to twelve minutes. 

 This is a record unattainable by the present method, in which 

 the polishing is done by means of the human foot. The 

 machine may be had in various sizes, from those which 

 may be worked by hand to those Avhiph are engine- 

 driven The beans are fed into the polisher and damped 

 (just as at present) before starting and, on removal, are 

 placed either in the sun on trays or direct into the drier. 

 Thus it will be seen that with a polisher and a drier the 

 cacao planter is now enabled to hold his own against the 

 vmcertainty of the weather, the excessive rainfall in some 

 ■districts at the reaping season, or the indolence of the 

 labourer. 



PACKING AND SHIPPING FRUITS. 



The; following is taken from an article in the 

 Hawaiian Forester and Agriculturist, Vol. V, No. 5. 

 It deals with the packing and shipping of five fruits : 

 the avocado pear, the mango, the papaw, the banana 

 and the pine-apple : — 



TJie picking of the avocado pear should be done within 

 as short a time as possible previous to the sailing of the 

 steamer, for this fruit begins to soften quickly, and should 

 therefore lie placed in cold storage as soon as possible. Even 

 if there are facilities for keeping this fruit at a low temper- 

 ature for a time until the steamer arrives, the ehacge of 

 temperature consequent on its removal is likely to do serious 

 harm. In picking, the stalk should be cut at a distance 

 •of I or I inch from the fruit, and great care should 

 be exercised so that the fruit may not be bruised. For 

 packing, crates large enough to hold one dozen, or at the 

 most two dozen fruits, are most convenient, and each of these 

 crates should be only one tier deep. All fruit should be 

 wrapped in rather thin, but strong paper ; packing paper 

 between the fruits is inadvisable, as it interferes with 

 refrigeration and ventilation. The time during which this 

 fruit will keep in good condition in cold storage is at least 

 three weeks, and, probably, the best tenqjerature is between 

 45 and 50 degrees Centigrade. The first signs of deterioration 

 lander conditions of refrigeration are the darkening of the 

 flesh near the seed and the presence of a rancid smell. 



The treatment of the mango is much the same as that 

 for the avocado pear, with the following exceptions, namely : 

 though the crates should be small, there is no need for them 

 to be as small as those for the avocado pear, and they may 

 be made with two or three tiers ; the mango can be kei)t 

 longer in cold storage, for six weeks' exjiosure to such con- 

 ditions will not harm the fruits. 



The papaw should be picked as soon as the faintest 

 signs of yellow appear, and as in the case of the avocado, 

 just before the time of despatch. About 1 inch or li 

 inches of the stalk should be left on the fruit, which 

 must be handled with great care. The \\rapping should be 

 done with rather heavy paper, preferably glazed, in order to 

 ])revent the free passage of moisture, to the sound fruits, 

 from any of those which may have begun to decay or get 

 i5oft. While the fruit is in transit, ventilation alone is 

 insutlicient to keep it in condition ; it must travel at a reduc- 

 ed temperature. 



Bananas for export should be cut before they become 

 too ' full ', that is before the ridges on them disappear ; 

 naturally, the exact stage at which to cut \\ill depend on the 

 time which must elapse between their despatch and their 



arrival in the market. As a wrapper, grass has been used, 

 but this is liable to absorb and hold moisture ; banana leaves 

 are much preferable, as they will keep dry. In some places, 

 this fruit is being exported in drums made of cardboard or 

 thin wood, large enough to contain a single bunch. The 

 chief feature of the drums is that the top hoop holds a strong 

 piece of paper in place, to which the bunch is tied by its, 

 stalk, so that the weight is supported by the latter. The 

 practicability of such a method of shipiiing, in the case of 

 any particular place, would depend on local conditions. 

 Bananas cannot be carried at a very low tenqjerature, as 

 they turn black without ripening; the temperature maybe 

 lowered, but only sutticiently to delay the ripening process 

 a little. The Jamaica is superior to the Chinese variety as 

 it is not subject to the disease known as ' ripe rot ', and 

 because the individual fruits do not show so great a tendency 

 to drop from the bunch. 



As regards pine-apple.s, those cut with long stalks arrive 

 at their destination in much better condition than those 

 which have been cut off short. The crates for packing 

 should not be too large, and are made preferably with round- 

 ed corners in order to prevent damage by the splitting-otf of 

 staves. The packing material may be grass or any other 

 suitable vegetable material .so long as it is quite dry. As ia 

 the case of the papaw, the wra[iping should be of heavy- 

 paper and preferably glazed : it should be large enough to 

 cover the whole fruit with the exception of the crown. 

 Finally, fruits should be packed solid in order to prevent 

 damage from being shaken ai^ainst one another. 



SELECTION OF GROUND NUTS. 



The following fiictors, which should be taken into 

 consideration when varieties of ground nuts are being 

 examined for selection, are given in the Annual Report 

 on the Experimental Wark nf flie Agricultural 

 Station, Surat, 1907-iS. This information, together 

 with that recently published in the Ai/rivulturol A'eu-s, 

 Vol. \'III, No. I!S7, pp. 20(J-7, shoidd be of assistance to 

 those who are making experiments with different kinds 

 of ground nuts. The factors which are given are : — 



(1) The suitability of the variety to the existing 

 climatic conditions. 



(2) The percentage of seeds on the weight of unslielled 

 pods. With different varieties, this varies considerably. 



(3) The percentage of the c>il on the weight of seed 

 from which it is extracted. This ia inqsortant when the nut 

 is being chosen for oil-extraction rather than for edible 

 purposes. A value of over 50 per cent., in this respect, 

 indicates a valuable commercial ground nut. 



(4) The yield per acre, which, when considered in con- ■ 

 junction with the foregoing factors, determines the real value 

 of the variety. 



(5) If the uncrushed nuts are to be sold for oil-extrac- 

 tion, the thickness of the shell is important in deciding if the 

 variety can be economically crushed for this purpose. 



In the same report, figures are given from which 

 some idea can be gained as to the varietal differences 

 in the percentage of seed on unshelled pod. The lowest 

 percentage was 7l'78 and the highest c's2'0li, giving 

 a difference of over 10 per cent. Information is also 

 given as to the variation, in a similar manner, of the 

 percentage of oil on seed. This was one of about 8 

 per cent., between the highest at 53'50 and the lowest; 

 at 4.5'(i9. With inferior kinds of ground nuts, these 

 percentages would not, of course, be as high. 



