ToL. XIII. No. 307. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



43 



AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING. 



CHEMICAL NOTES. 



steam Tractor Ploughing in Rhodesia— An 



interesting summary of the actual working costs of ploughing 

 Sjy means of a steam tractor in Kbodesia, is given in the 

 Sho'hsia Agricultural Journal (December 1913). In the 

 trial under consideration, the area ploughed was 4 to o acres 

 per day. The ground was exceptionally rough, and the 

 engines pulled only five furrows. The cost of labour per 

 imonth worked out as follows: one engine boy, 40s.; one 

 steering boy, 30s.; one plough boy, 20i.- two boys with can 

 and water tank at 30s and 20s, .50s.; one boy cutting dry 

 ■wood, los.-^giving a total of £1 1.5s. The other ccsts are 

 coal, 8 tons at 30s. per ton, £12; oils, packing, etc., £1 10s. 

 This makes a total monthly working cost of £21 5s. 

 This estimate against, .say, 80 acres ploughed per month 

 ■would mean 5s. Qd. per acre. The writer of the article under 

 consideration superintended the work referred to, but if 

 a European were employed, the total cost per acre would be 

 increased by about 10s. Gd. As regards ihe cost of repairs, 

 £15 to £20 per annum and 10 to 15 per cent, depreciation 

 Jjave to be allowed. It must be remembered, however, that 

 not all this must be charged against ploughing, for the 

 tractor can do other useful work besides. 



A Wheel for Rural Transport.— A special feature 

 of the India Jiul/ber World is the section devoted to 

 a de.scription of recent patents of rubber goods. For some 

 time considerable attention has been given to the possiMlities 

 of manufacturing automobile wheels with the qualities of the 

 ynuematic tyre without its disadvantages. A newly invented 

 wheel is one which has a solid rubber tread consisting of 

 rubber blocks, each attached to a steel plate so that each 

 plate iuid block is independent of the one adjacent to it. 

 In the centre of each plate is a steel spring which connects 

 the tread with the inner rim. The resiliency is, of course, 

 •due to these springs lying between the outer rubber rim and 

 the inner steel one to which the ends of the spokes are 

 attached. A wheel of this type will very probably be found 

 useful in large tropical countries where motor transport is 

 rapidly coming into use since it can stand rough country, 

 ■whilst at the same time it can aftbrd a requisite degree of 

 comfort. 



A comparison is made in the Erpa-imtnt Station Rtcord 

 (October 1913) between the cost and service of motor trucks 

 and horse drawn vehicles. The results in general are in 

 favour of the motor trucks. 'For low daily mileage up to 

 18 miles, the three-horse truck is more economical owing to 

 the time required in loading and unloading, but the motor 

 truck has the advantage of being able to operate economi- 

 cally over a daily mileage varying from 15 to 75 miles. In 

 addition, quick loading and unloading devices are being put 

 on the market, which the tests indicate will allow motor 

 trucks to operate at a low daily mileage with an economy 

 equal to or greater than the horse truck. 



Those who live in the country without any quick means 

 of communication with a reliable source from which the 

 correct time can be obtained, will be interested in aii article 

 entitled A New Sun-dial, written by the Government Astron- 

 omer of New South Wales, and published in the Agricultural 

 Gazette of that State, for November 1913. Practical details 

 of construction, careful explanations, and two plates of very 

 clear drawings are given. 



The Phospho-Constituent of Maize.— For some 



time a series of articles has been running in the Agricultural 

 Journal of the Union of South Africa on the chemical com- 

 position of South African maize and other cereals. The 

 article in the November issue deals with the question of the 

 phosphatic constituents, and brings out several interesting 

 points. In the first place, in comparing the figures repre- 

 senting the average composition of whole maize and mealie 

 maize in South Africa, with the composition given by 

 Primrose McConnel for maize consumed in Great Britain, 

 we notice that the percentage of digestible carbohydrates is 

 much greater for the South African produce (namely about 

 70 per cent.) than in the case of the grain consumed in 

 Europe (namely 58 per cent, digestible carbohydrate). 



Hut the immediate point at issue is the question of 

 phosphorus as a food constituent of maize. It was found by 

 means of analyses that the phosphoric content of the ash 

 of maize is increa.sed by milling, presumably through the 

 rejection of those parts of the grain which are poor in phos- 

 phorus. The same thing occurs in the case of the fat. The 

 percentage of proteins, on the other hand, appears to be 

 scarcely altered at all by milling. It is interesting to note 

 the following diflferential analysis of maize as regards the 

 phosphoric oxide content: whole seed 83 per cent.; husk 

 ■23 per cent.; germ 6 16 per cent.; endosperm 35 per cent. 



It is hardly necessary, in conclusion, to point out the great 

 importance of phosphorus in animal nutrition, not merely for 

 the synthetic processes only, but also as a factor for preserv- 

 ing a proper balance between other food constituents during 

 the metabolic changes which occur within the animal body. 



Composition of the Baobab Tree. -According 



to the Journal of the Chemical Society (October 1913), the 

 composition of the fruit and seeds of Aclavxouia digitata (the 

 baobab tree) has just been determined. The seeds contain 

 moisture, 121; ash, 35; oil, 11-6; protein, 112; fibre, 225; 

 carbodydrates, 391. It is worth noting that the ash of the 

 kernels contain as much as 31 per cent, of potash and 

 34-2 per cent, of phosphoric acid. The seeds are free from 

 alkaloids and cyanogenetic glucosides. The pulp of the 

 fruit contains: moisture 15 to 16 per cent.; ash, 476 to 

 6-10 per cent.: and matter soluble in alcohol, 16-7 to 

 187 per cent. The pulp contains a fair amount of citric 

 acid whilst its ash is composed principally of alkali 

 carbonates. 



Endeavours to Cheapen Nitrate Produc- 

 tion. —It is stated in The Hoard of Trade Journal (Decem- 

 ber 18, 1913), that the Chilian Government has decided to 

 carry out a series of extensive experiments on a practical 

 commercial scale, with a view to discovering some method for 

 the treatment of low grade 'caliche' (soil in which nitrate of 

 soda occurs) that is not worth treating by existing methods. 

 If the experiments are commercially successful they will 

 certainly tend to lower the present high cost of this manure. 



A note in the Journal of the Chemical Society (November 

 1913) states that chloral hydrate has an antitoxic action on 

 copper sulphate ,,wh,en present in water cultures. Growth 

 goes on best when both substances are present in about equal 

 amounts. The action of chloral hydrate in diminishing the 

 toxicity of copper sulphate is similar, although less marked 

 to the influence of calcium on magnesium. 



