ToL. XIII. \o. 31 i. ^ 



THE AGEICULTURAL NEWS. 



153 



The total exports ot lime products from Montserrat 

 during the year were valued at £9,370, and consisted 

 of raw and concentrated lime juice, green limes, citrate 

 of lime, and essential oil. From Antigua the exports 

 of lime products were valued at £1,209. Interest 

 continues to be shown in lime growing in Xevis and 

 Tortola; and in regard to coco-nuts, the cultivation 

 continues to increase in almost all the Presidencies of 

 the Leeward Islands Colony. 



In Dominica, the lime crop for 1912 is recorded 

 as 370,000 barrels. Considerable falling off is reported 

 in the export of citrate of lime, brought about by 

 a demand in Canada for large supplies of raw lime 

 juice. The total value of the exports of lime products 

 was £9(3,073. The increase in values over the crop of 

 1911 amounted to £22,791. It may be added that of 

 the 37,038 barrels of green limes exported, 35,040 

 barrels went to New York, 301 to Canada and 1,323 

 to the United Kingdom. 



As regards other industries, the export of cacao 

 ■was 11,877 cwt., being 1,822 cwt. over the shipments 

 of 1911; the number of coco-nuts shipped, totalled 

 539,791 as against 402.622 in 1911; 22 000 seeds of 

 Para rubber {Hevea, brasiliensis) were imported from 

 Singapore and a germination at the rate of 60 per cent, 

 was secured; of cassava starch 31,1.56 lb. valued at 

 £260 was exported, while 873 cwt. of dried bay leaves, 

 and lo3 gallons of bay oil were shipped. A small 

 quantity of coSee (76 cwt. valued at £213), and cured 

 vanilla beans to the value of £113 were also exported; 

 whilst of lumber over a million feet, the value of which 

 was returned at £11,488, was shipped. 



'The proposed Convention excludes from its opera- 

 tion vines, grain, seeds, tubers, edible bulbs, rhizomes 

 and roots, as well as fruit, fresh vegetables, field roots 

 and general agri^.ultural produce.' 



International Phytopathologica! Conference. 



The Board of Trade Journal for March 2tj, 

 1914, publishes the following provisions which were 

 adopted at the recent International Phytopathological 

 Conference at Rome, at which H. M. Government was 

 represented: — 



'The signatory States undertake to admit to 

 importation only plants accompanied by phytopatho- 

 logical certificates issued by a competent oflScial 

 authority, except in the case of plants imported for 

 scientific research at an Institute authorized by the 

 Oovernment. These certificates, which must be in 

 conformity with a model given in the Appendix to the 

 proposed Convention, include a declaration by the 

 consignor that the plants come from a nursery subject 

 to phytopathological inspection, a certificate m accord- 

 ance with the Phylloxera Convention of Berne and 

 a certificate from the official phytopathological service 

 as to the sound condition of the plants and their 

 freedom from the diseases, or enemies of plants, 

 scheduled by the Government of the country to which 

 the plants are being sent. This schedule of diseases, 

 etc., is to be left to each importing country but it was 

 decided that the list must be as short as possible and 

 confined to diseases which are epidemic in character and 

 destructive or at least injurious in their action, as well 

 as easily propagated, and must not include common 

 diseases which are widely distributed. 



Present Position of the Wattle Bark Industry. 



In the early part of last year it was thought 

 possible that the cultivation of plants yielding wattle 

 bark might eventually be of practical interest in the 

 West Indies, and in view of this fact a series of articles 

 on wattle bark were published in this journal during 

 February and March. In the third article it was 

 pointed out that although the exports of wattle were 

 increasing and there was every probability of a very 

 large future supply from East Africa, there' was no 

 indication that the supply would necessarily exceed 

 the demand. Indeed it was noted that a new demand 

 for wattle bark had arisen in Canada — a circumstance 

 of special interest in the West Indies. 



Since the time that these articles were written it 

 would appear that the demands of the wattle bark mar- 

 ket have undergone considerable change. According to 

 the Agricultural Journal of the Union of South 

 Africa — rejjresenting a country especially interested 

 in the industry — the production of bark is on the 

 increase, whilst the market for bark is at least) 

 stationary and possibly becoming restricted. Wattle 

 bark, which was formerly employed extensively in 

 England is now being displaced by prepared extracts, 

 and the sole market for the raw bark at the present) 

 time would appear to be Hamburg. The position at 

 present appears to be this: that in any case exported 

 bark must be properly graded, whilst profitable returns 

 comparable with those that have been obtained in the 

 past, can only be maintained by the preparation of 

 extracts from the bark and the entire cessation of the 

 shipment of the raw material. 



The Fractional Liquefaction of Rice Starch. 



In a paper published in the Memoirs of the 

 Department of Agriculture in India (see Vol. Ill, 

 No. -5), 5Ir. F. J. VVarth and D. B. Darabsett describe a 

 new method by means of which rice varieties can be 

 distinguished from one another by differences in the 

 quality of their starches. It is shown that the cooking 

 quality of rice is correlated with starch quality. Glut- 

 inous rice btan-h liquifies at a lower temperature than 

 the starches of the non-glutinous rices. 



The paper consists of two parts. In the first part 

 the method of fractional liquefaction for comparing rice 

 starches as devised and tested by the senior author is 

 described. The second part contains the application 

 of the method to the differentiation of the starches of 

 seven common rice varieties of Burma. This shows the 

 oreat advantage of fractional liquefaction. Methods 

 which only indicate the temperature of complete scarcely 

 enable certain important distinction.s to be made, whilst 

 by fractional liquefaction the differences are strikingly 

 brought to light. 



The paper is to be considered an important con- 

 tribution to agricultural research in connexion with rice. 



