Vol. Xlir. No. 32;;. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



369 



The other factor inHuencing fertility is the presence 

 of an adequate amount of carbonate of lime in the soil. 

 Jlr. Hall has devoted special attention to the inves- 

 tigation of this feature, and attaches great importance 

 to it: indeed, he says that of all the soil factors making 

 for fertility, he would put lime first; upon its presence 

 depentl both the processes which produce available 

 plant food in (piantity ade(juate for crop-production at 

 a high level, and those which naturally regenerate and 

 maintain the resources of the soil: it is, moreover, the 

 factor which is most easily under the control of the 

 agricultuiist. 



This pronouncement is of particular interest to 

 West Indian planters, for over very large parts of the 

 West Indies the soils are remarkably deficient in lime. 

 It wouM appear too, that here is matter for future 

 inve.stigation locally; for some of the eminently fertile 

 .soils, such as occur for instance in St. Kitts, contain but 

 very little carbonate of lime:, the amount being so small 

 in .some instances as to lead to the conjecture that, 

 under the conditions obtaining there, it may be that 

 crops take at least part of their nitrogen in the form of 

 ainmonia, rather than nitrate. 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



BENEFITS OF USING TOPS FOR 

 PLANTING. 



From time to tinu' the point arises a.s to whether it is 

 better to use toj).s for planting canes, or to use maturer parts 

 of the cane. W.»(jr. Taggart, in the Louisiana Planter, 

 October 17, 1914, unhesitatingly gives his verdict for the 

 tops, even in Louisiana, in spite of the fact that the reaping 

 .season, on account of the winter, is necessarily at a period of 

 the year some time removed from the planting sea.son. Of 

 course, in most of the West Indian islands, the practice of 

 planting from tops is almost universal, the reaping and plant- 

 iog seasons almost overlapping each other. Jlr. Taggart 

 suggests that tops, ' windrowed', might contain, even after 

 the lapse of some weeks, a fair amount of healthy material 

 for plants. He says that he is going to make the e.xperiment. 

 He proves, in tables given in his article, that the planting of 

 tops must be real economy in two ways. First : the man who 

 sells his cane by weight gains by only reserving his tops for 

 planting, liecause, even if by tops is meant the upper third 

 of the cane, they are less in weight, when compared with equal 

 lengths uf the lower two-thirds, in the proportion, roughly, of 

 10 to 15, in the case of D. 95, a cane well knowii in the West 

 Indies. Secondly, the man who grinds his own cane makes 

 a profit by only reserving tops for planting, because the lower 

 two-thirds of the cane contain, in samples of the same variety, 

 nearly 30 per cent, more sucrose than the upper third. 



As regards the question of the superiority in sugar con- 

 tent of the cane raised from the maturef joints over that raised 

 from the tops. Dr. Stubbs in his book (Cultivation of the 

 Siigar-Cane) thinks that there is none. This result was fairly 

 well confirmed by experiments conducted in Antigua some 

 years ago, under the direction of the Imperial Department 

 of Agriculture, 



PAPER FROM MEGASS. 



There is in Xhv Louisiana Planter ioi- September 1914, 

 a short account by .lames H. Dod on making paper from 

 bagasse, called almost universally in the West Indies, 'megass'. 

 It is said that the Preston (.'entral of the United Fruit Com- 

 pany, Limited, in Cuba, is now working regularly a factory 

 ff.r the making of paper from megass. The product is of 

 excellent quality, and of good strength, in the form of rolls 

 of wrapping paper of various colours. This achievement has 

 been the result of many experiments, involving a very large ■ 

 expenditure on the part of the projectors. Mr. Tennant Lee 

 who ha-s attained success in this at last, is in charge of the ■ 

 work, which has been in operation since April. According 

 to Mr. Lee's calculations the factory can produce about 1 ton. 

 of paper per day; and 1 ton of megass can yield aliout 

 50 per cent, of its weight in paper. 



THE OUTLOOK OF THE CONTINENTAL, 

 SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



The outlook of the continental sugar industry at pre-sent 

 is black. So thinks Dr. Geerligs in his letter from Amsterdam 

 to the Louisiana Planter of October 24, 1914. It was pointed 

 out in the last issue of the A;/riru'Jural A'ews that the sugar- 

 crop of Belgium and France must be reduced enormously 

 because of the theatre of the present war; and that on account 

 of the drain of the war on men and transport, the output of 

 Germany and Austria could hardly reach the normal amount. 

 These considerations are again put forward by Dr. Geerligs* 

 in the letter referred to above. He does not think, however, 

 that Great Britain has anything to fear in the matter of sugar • 

 suppl_v. She receives sugar cargoes from all parts of the 

 world, and after the arrival of the supply at present on its way, 

 there ought to be sufficient in stock to last till June 1915.. 



The German Government will allow an exportation of 

 German sugar to the same amount as that which has been 

 exported in 1913-14; but the great question is, who will buy 

 it, and how to get it shipped. The only neutral powers in 

 Europe that do not grow sufficient sugar for themselves are- 

 Norway and Switzerland, hardly able to take between them 

 the surplus stock of Germany, calculated at about 1,100,000 

 tons. Exportation over sea, either to the ITnited States or to ■ 

 the countries of South America, will certainly, under present 

 conditions, be stopped by Great Britain. 



There was evidently an idea in the mind of German 

 sugar manufacturers that they might be able to ship their 

 sugar clandestinely via Holland, but in a letter to the 

 Louisiana Planter of October 17, 1914, Dr. GeerUgs has 

 shown that the Dutch Government have taken steps to pre- 

 vent this in their own interest, so as to avoid the interference 

 of Great Britain with the Dutch sugar trade. 



The Dutch coming beet sugar crop is estimated at 

 275,000 tons. It is allowed that 60 per cent, of this may be 

 exported, 18 per cent, as raw sugar, and 42 per cent, as 

 refined. When the manufacturer ships his sugar to the 

 bonded warehouses he receives export certificates from the 

 Government to the extent of 60 per cent, of each shipping, in 

 the relation of raw and refined mentioned above. ^VheIi 

 he sells his sugar to the refiner he passes on also his export 

 certificates, so that the refiner can export the same if hp 

 chooses. In this way there is kept enough sugar in Holland, 

 the refineries are kept at work, and the raw sugar manufac- 

 turers have a share in the sugar exportation. As the 

 Government certificates will only cover the estimated total 

 exportation of Dutch origin, there is no fear of unhmited 

 exportation of smuggled German sugar. 



