\(ju XIII. No. 305. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



from time to time been the subject of comprehensi%'e 

 articles in this journal, and it will only be necessary 

 here to say that if the rapidly increasing outturn of 

 Plantation Para is to find profitable sale, a re-organiza- 

 tion of the industry must take place to ensure uniform 

 production of high-class produce, better selling arrange- 

 ments, and an extension of the uses to which rubber 

 can be put. 



In regard to the stability of the market for the 

 produce of other minor cultivations, reference may be 

 made to the stability of the demand for bay-oil, which 

 has contin\ied throughout the year to be extremely 

 sustained, in spite of the serious competition which 

 bay rum — an article formerly so very popular — is 

 suffering from the innumerable hair washes of the 

 present day. According to reliable reports, it is likely 

 that prices for bay oil will continue to remain steady 

 (about 10s. per ft.). This should give confidence to 

 those who contemplate planting bay trees in the West 

 Indies. 



Lime oil has also continued during the year to 

 find buyers at rising prices — a circumstance probably 

 due to the high range of values for lemon oil. A parcel 

 of lime oil recently fetched in Luiidon l-4s.; that is to 

 say, nearly twice the price paid at the corresponding 

 period in 1912. Xo less in demand has been West 

 Indian sandalwood oil, and as Messrs. Schimmel report, 

 the course of the East Indian sandalwood oil market does 

 not materially affect the comuiercial future of the 

 West Indian oil, for since the West Indian product is 

 used mainly to adulterate the former, it is certain to be 

 in equally strong request whether the East Indian oil 

 rises or not. 



Of other minor products, arrowroot, and starches 

 generally, showed a decline towards the end of the 

 year, though the average price for 1913 was not below 

 that of the previous year. Considei'able control is 

 exercised over the London arrowroot market b}" the 

 St. A'incent organization, and recently it has been 

 decided to introduce a minimum price for St. Vincent 

 anowroot. 



In the case of many of the minor industries under- 

 going development — industries like papaw cultivation, 

 fruit growing, and onion and othor vegetable culti- 

 vations — the West Indies are looking towards the 

 Canadian demands for these products. Already circum- 

 stances have arisen which render the establishment of 

 definite markets for these exports in the Dominion 

 very hopeful, and there is every probability that at 

 the beginning of 1915 wc shall bi' able to record con- 

 siderable developnienls^in this direction. 



ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



Breeding Medicinal Plants.— A suggestive article 



on this subject appears in the American Breeders' Maj'f.ine 

 for October to December 1913. It is pointed out that an 

 examination of the crude vegetable drugs as they occur on 

 the markets of to-day reveals a mass of inferi"r materials 

 far in excess of what might be expected. This is princi- 

 pally due to a lack of power to control the production 

 of crude vegetable drugs. Too much is left to nature and not 

 enough to botanists. Cahnot the plants, it is asked, yielding 

 alkaloids, glucosides, saponins, resins, oleoresins and other 

 active principles Ije brought under the influence and control 

 of the breeder' It is suggested that the natural order 

 Solanaceae, in particular, offers a rich field for the develop- 

 ment of improved medicinal forms. As is well known, this 

 order includes belladonna, henbane, stramonium and tobacco 

 — all yielding alkaloids and readily amenable to chemical 

 methods of assay. Already some chemical selection work 

 has been done on Dntura stra/noniunt (the common West 

 Indian weed) and Datura tatnla. Selections of D. tatula 

 gave a variation of alkaloidal percentage of from 0'47 to 

 065. These figures are given mainly as an illustration of 

 tLe scope which the work under consideration offers tr' the 

 enthusiastic investigator. 



Sweet Potatoes as a Source of Sugar.— The 

 idea involved in the preceding note calls to mind the recent 

 suggestion that the sweet potato might, with botanical and 

 chemical selection, be turned into an important source of 

 sugar. Although from the economic aspect such work would 

 scarcely be justified, it nevertheless possesses several points of 

 considerable interest. In connexion with this line of work a 

 new method for determining sugar in potatoes, described in the 

 Eijitrimeni Station Hecord {October 1913), would be of direct 

 importance. The writer maintains that it is not advisable to 

 determine the sugar content of potatoes in the pressed juice 

 since the sucrose in this, when stored for a time, becomes 

 inverted. When the polarimetric method is used the intiuence 

 which the copper reducing, but optically inactive, bodies exert 

 is eliminated as a factor. The method is also advanta- 

 geous from the point of rapidity of execution. The use 

 of hot alcoholic digestion for extracting the sugar was 

 found to lie the most feasible procedure. It vi'as also 

 determined that the precipitation of dextrose by lead 

 salts is a process which proceeds very irregularly. For the 

 determination of sugar in potatoes, the author advises the 

 uses of the polarimetric method for the inverted substance 

 and the application of the dextrose formula. From this 

 another formula was derived which can be used where dex- 

 trose and sucrose are present at the same time. 



Aroids in New York. — An interesting account 

 of the aroid collection in the New York Botanical Gdrdec. 

 appears in the November issue of the journal of that 

 establishment. West Indian readers will be interested to 

 learn that the giant Philodendron, Philodendron fji^/a-ii- 

 teum, a native of tropical America, is included in the 

 collection. This plant has been in the collection since 

 1901, when it was brought from the island of St. Kitts 

 by Dr. Britton, the Director-in-Chief of the Garden. la 

 general, the article contains a great deal of informatioc. 

 concerning the economic characters of aroids in the West 

 Indies, which ought to receive the attention of all thosa 

 interested in this group of plants. 



