Vol. XIII. X.). 319. 



THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. 



239 



DOWN THE ISLANDS. 



ITEMS OF LOCAL INTEREST. 



Tlic Aitiiig Agikiiltiuiil .SiipLTiiitciiik'nl, St. N'incL'iit, 

 write.s to say that the newly ijlaiited . otton throughout the 

 island is germinating regularly a.s a result of the sea.sonal 

 daily showers that have Keen received. The rainfall for .Tune 

 at the Botanic Station was 9'47 inche.s. The 8t. Vincent 

 Cotton Growers' and E.\[X)rters" Association and the I.,o<al 

 Agricultural and Commercial Society have held a meeting to 

 discuss the jirospects of estalilishing a ca.ssava dried root 

 industry, definite information concerning which has now lieen 

 oVitaineil. It is likely tiiat an important Iiade in this jnoduit 

 A ill lie eventually estalili.shed. 



The St. Vincent Goivrnnient Gazette for .June \'I, 1914. 

 contains several official notices of local intere.st. In view of 

 the existence of the disease called mal ile caderas in British 

 Guiana and other parts of South America, the importation of 

 animals from these countries is prohiliited. Further, in I'ou- 

 ne.xion with cattle, an amendment lia> lieen made of tlie 

 bye-laws of the meat market principally in connexion with 

 prevention of the sale of the Hesh of sheep and lainlis as goat 

 meat. In regard to the Land Settlement Scheme in St. Vincent, 

 notii'e is given that the (jovernment will act[uire certain rural 

 lots for the construction of roads on I'elair estate which has 

 ju.st been estalili.shed as a Land Settlement. The Supervisor 

 of the Government Cotton Ginnery in the same pulilication, 

 makes known the prices that will lie pn'ul during the coining 

 sea.son on account of seed-cotton: 1st. white grade fijc. 

 per lb.: '2nd. ditto oc. per !b. : 1st. stained, .V. ]x'r ft).; 

 I'nci. stained 2c. per ft). I'nr 1-t grade Marie Cialante 

 cleaned and well jjieiiared, I'.'.c. per ft), will be given, and for 

 second grade under similar conditions, the |)rice will be 

 2c. |)ei- H). 



Information reieived from St. Lncia .states that in tlie 

 •Soufriere di.strict considerable activity is lieing displayed by 

 the peasants in regard to tlie planting of limes. The (iovern- 

 inent lime juice factory at Ca.stries has now started a .second 

 year of ojjerations, and there is every |iros[)ect that the results 

 of the coming- .sea.son will lie even nmre encouraging than 

 those experienced last vear. 



' From I)<iminica Mr. .Joseph .lorio inlorms this otfice 



that the prospects ahead of the lime crop are good. l)nring 

 June, <'<,799 barrels of fresh lime were shi|i|H-d tn N'lprth 

 America. The price of concentrated lime juice continues to 

 rise and the latest cable (piotation is ^£41 per pipe. The 



I 'Curator states further that an experimental shipment of 

 grafted mangoes ha.s been made to London and a further 

 shipment of fresh lime.s has been forwarded to the Tropical 

 Products Exhibition. The annual survey of the results 

 ■obtained from the cacao manurial plots is nearing completion. 

 It will be reiiieinl>ered that an important study of the results 

 oVitaineil from these plots during the ])eriod 1902 to 1912 

 a])jiears in the recently issued number of the Weit Indian 

 Bulletin, Vol. XIV, Xo. 2. 



Mr. Shepherd, acting Sn])erintendent of Agriculture for 

 the Leeward Islands, in a report on a recent visit to Antigua, 

 states that planters in that island are tinding weeding machines 

 ^nd similar implements of material service. Another satisfac- 

 tory feature of agriculture in Antigua is the likelihofKl that 

 large areas may be successfully planted with coco-nuts in that 

 island and in Barbuda, a matter, the iiossibilities before which, 

 have frequently been pointed out by the Imperial Department 

 ■1.1 Agriculture for srnne time past. At present the weather 



conditions in Antigua are favourable and the young cane 

 crop is in a promising condition. 



Recent observations of considerable interest have shown 

 in Montserrat that the unthriftiness of the lime ti'ees in many 

 parts of that island may possibly be connected with the .soil 

 grub iif the beetle known as Kxupluhalmuii esurlens. In thi.s: 

 connexion it will be of interest to announce the forthcnmiMg 

 pain|)hlet dealing with soil grubs in the Leeward Islands 

 which is shortly to be issued by this Department. 



On .July 1, Mr. Shepherd paid a vi.sit to Xevi.s. With 

 the gocKl weather of the jiast two months, he states that the 

 cotton crop has made remarkable progress and is looking 

 ■perhaps better and more advanced than for many seasons past. 

 The attacks of worms which are causing some damage in 

 certain places are being adequately controlled by the employ- 

 ment of Paris green. The coco-nut cultivations in Xevis are 

 making gof«l progress and the trees are looking thoroughly 

 healthy. Large shipments of nuts have been made lately, 

 and it is likely that a neighbouring estate to Pinneys will lie 

 planted up this year so that it would seem that coco-nut cul- 

 tivation in Nevis is likely to be greatly extended. 



Rope and Its Use on the Estate. — Minnesota 



Station Bulletin. Xo. 1.36 describes liriefly the material.s, 

 inethods of manufacture, strength and use of ro])e in general 

 estate work. It is re[>orted in the Exfjeriment Station Record 

 that the following infonnation is given as regards the 

 strength of rojx-. Four-strand ropes have about 16 per cent. 

 more strength than three-strand ropes. Tarring rope 

 decrea-ses its strength by about 2-5 per cent., because the 

 high temperature of the tar at the time of its applica- 

 tion injures the fibres. The breaking strength in pounds 

 for new .Manila ro{)e may be found approximately by the 

 formula, .S = D- X 7,200 and for hemp rope S = D-x5,400 

 where S = the breaking strength and D = the diameter in 

 inches. The safe load is usually regarded a.s one-sixth of the 

 breaking strength. 



Other sections in the bulletin de.scribe how to prevent 

 ends of rope from untwisting, how to tie knots, loops at the 

 rope's enil, loo()s between the rope ends, hitches halters, 

 and the like. 



Progress in Synthetic Rubber, ^r/i- Tiims 



reports that at a general meeting of the Synthetic Products 

 Company last December it w-as said that with regard to 

 synthetic rubber the small plant at the company's works was 

 now in regular operation, and they hoped, liy adding further 

 units to the existing plant, to turn out sufficient (^uantitie,'? 

 for practical tests, .\lready the small plant at the works had 

 produced rubber of good ([uality. The directors proposed to 

 issue an interim report during the coming year on the results 

 cif the tests of synthetic rubber. 



Sir Williani Itam.say, one of the direetor.s, .said he wished 

 to emphasize the fact that they had proceeded cautiously. 

 Everything had lieen tried on a small scale, and when that 

 was "done any alterations that might show themselves to be 

 necessary eoiild be carried out quickly and inexpensively. 

 LaVioratiiry operations were being transferred to manufacturing 

 operations, but still on quite a small scale. They did not wi.sh 

 to put up a large factory until they were sure of their points, 

 and that would not take very long now. The units had not 

 reached the final size. When a full scale unit was working 

 well, plant would be put up to produce, say, half a hundred- 

 weight of rubber per week. 



