380 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



November ■2!?, 1909,' 



GLEANINGS. 



The number of bales of cotton imported into the United 

 Kingdom during the present year, to September 23, was 

 24,867. This included 6,1.58 bales of liritish West Indian 

 cotton. 



During the year ending March 31, 1909, 91 packages 

 of seeds, bulbs, cuttings, etc., as well as 12 bags of Sea Island 

 cotton seed were fumigated at the St. Lucia Botanic 

 Station. 



An International Agricultural Exhibition is advertised 

 to be held at Buenos Aires in .June and .July, 1910. Com- 

 munications relating to this should be addressed to the 

 Secretary, 316 Florida, Bitenos Aires. 



The cultivation of Sea Island cotton has been intro- 

 duced into the French posses-sions in the Society Islands. 

 It is now proposed to grow a certain amount of Egyptian 

 cotton, as well. The amount of the former kind produced 

 in these islands last year was 300 bales of 400 lb. each. 



According to a recent Colonial OflBce Report on the 

 Trade of Sierra Leone, it has been shown by experiment 

 that the ochro plant, if cultivated on a large enough scale 

 will yield a fibre which will fetch a higher iirice than jute. 

 Plants which are cut at the end of two-thirds of their 

 natural life give a fibre which is worth £20 a ton. 



At the Botanic Gardens, St. Vincent, live posts of the 

 Mudura. (Gliricidia maculata) have been .substituted for the 

 plants of the ])hysic nut {Jafvopha Ciircas) in consequence 

 of the deceased condition of the latter, which was used as 

 a support of the vanilla. The growth of the vanilla has 

 improved in consequence. 



Tlu! West Iiidin C'oihiiiitlcc Circiihir states that the 

 Burma Sugar Refining Company has been incorporated at 

 Rangoon, under Government encouragement, with a capital 

 of $324,400; it will acquire land for plantations, and erect 

 a sugar refinery. In 1908, 13,4.52 acres were planted in 

 sugar-cane in Burma, the average yield being 30,000 U). of 

 cane per acre. The cost of cultivation is estimated at §11 

 per acre, of which one half is for seed cane. 



The present forest area of the LTnited States of .Vnierica 

 consists of about .550 million acres. Of this, 200 million 

 acres arc mature forests, 250 million partly cut or 

 burned over, and 100 million more severely cut and 

 burned over. The annual growth of the forest, taken as 

 a whole, does not exceed 12 cubic feet per acre; this is 

 a total of less than 7 billion cubic feet. (The Board of 

 Trade Journal, September 9, 1909.) 



The world's consumption of camphor in 1907 was 

 estimated at 10,600,000 lb. About 70 per cent, of this was 

 used in the manufacture of celluloid; 15 per cent, in the 

 preparation of disinfectants; 13 per cent, in medicinal and 

 pharmaceutical preparations: and the remaining 2 per cent, 

 in the manufacture of explosives. To this amount Formosa 

 contributed 5,388,918 &.; the remainder came from other 

 ■Japanese islands and from China. (Agricultural Jiulktin of 

 tlw Federated ^[alay States, Vol. VIII, Xo. 8.) 



According to the results of analysis which are given in- 

 the A'atal A (jri cultural Journal, Vol. XIII, X'o. 2, the- 

 edible portion of the avocado pear has the following percent- 

 age composition : water 82-1, protein, 1-2, fat Sw, sugar 

 2'9, cellulose and undetermined matter 4'6, ash 0-5. Starch 

 and tannin are not present. It is stated that the fat is 

 a green, aromatic oil, with an odour like that of laurel oil, 

 and that it solidifies at 15° C. A reducing sugar was found 

 in the fruit; that which exists in the seed is not of the same 

 kind. 



In the JSifi-cheiitical Journal, Liverpool, a note is- 

 published by Dr. A. C. Hof on the action of iodo-eosin as 

 a test for free alkalis in dried plant tissues. To obtain the 

 substance required, an alkaline solution of iodo-eosin is 

 treated with an excess of acid, and the resulting dye-acid is- 

 dissolved in ether. This indicator gives a red colour in 

 vegetable tissues containing free alkali, and preparations ia 

 which it has been employed may be mounted in neutral 

 Canada balsam. It is suggested that it may be found useful 

 in investigations of the alkalinity of the tissues of sugar-cane 

 grown in calcareous soils. 



In Ceylon, a great deal of damage is being done to tea 

 plants by a beetle known as the shot-hole borer. Aa attempt 

 is to be made to reduce the numbers of this by the intro- 

 duction of a predacious beetle (Clerus formicarius), which. 

 has been well proved in the United States to be an enemy of 

 such insects. It is not certain, however, that the experiment 

 will be successful, as Clems forinicarius belongs to the 

 temperate zone, and there is some doubt as to whether it will 

 thrive in the tropics. An insect .similar to the shot-hole 

 borer is also reported to attack canqshor plants in Ceylon. 

 (The Tropical Agriculturist, Vol. .\XX11T, Xo. 3.) 



The death is announced of Professor John Scott, ot». 

 October 11, 1909, aged 63 year.s. Profe.s.sor Scott was well 

 known as a Consulting Agriculturist and an Agricultural 

 Engineer. In 1882, he resigned the I'rofessorship of Agri- 

 culture and Kural Economy at Cirencester, and accepted 

 a commission to proceed to the Western States of America 

 to report on the large area of grazing land there. Several 

 useful agricultural hand-books were published by Professor 

 Scott, and for some time he edited the Farmer's Gazette 

 (Dublin), the Scottish Agricultural Gautte and the Farininff 

 World, the two latter being now merged in the Scottish 

 Farmer. He was one of the pioneers of implcmenlal tillage, 

 using motors, in England, and held several patents ia 

 connexiou with this. 



