140 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Apkil 30, 1910. 



GLEANINGS. 



No. 70 of Colonial Reports and Pai^ers — Miscellaneous 

 has been issued recently. It presents a list of colonial laws 

 dealing \\ith patents, designs, trade marks, and the marking 

 of merchandize, and regulations issued thereunder. 



Pamphlet No. 96 of the Wellcome Chemical Research 

 Laboratories has been issued as a reprint of part of the issue 

 of the Pharmaceutical Journal, dated November 13, 1909. 

 It deals with the tests for purity of quinine salts. 



The Report i if the Dii'ision of litoloijv and Horticulture, 

 1909, of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture, 

 states that the bee industry in New Zealand is rapidly 

 expanding, and that it was confidently estimated that the 

 output of honey and wax during 1909 would be worth at 

 lea.st £45,000. 



The Comptroller-General of Trade and Customs at 

 Melbourne reports that, during the half-year ended December 

 1909, 70,795 lb. of cotton was gathered in Australia, all 

 being produced in Queensland. The total production for 

 the year amounted to 173,470 If'. (The Board of Trade 

 Journal, March 24, 1910.) 



Acci->rding to the Report on the I'ro'irexs or Ai/riculture 

 in. India for 1907-9, experiments with calcium nitrate and 

 calcium cyananiide, as manures for wheat and linseed, did 

 not give very encouraging results. There was a small increase 

 in yield due to the application of calcium nitrate, but this 

 was not sufficient in any case to constitute a profitable return. 



The Union Coloniale I'rancaise, which began its colonial 

 congresses by that in North Africa in 190s, and by that of 

 the older French colonies in 1909, is continuing its work, and 

 it has been decided th;it the congress which will take place at 

 Paris on October 10 to 15, 1910, will have for its subject the 

 questions which are of interest with respect to East Africa; 

 that is to .say, on one hand Madagascar and its dependencies, 

 and on the other hand the Somali Coast (Djiboutil). 



It is stated by Mr. Joseph Jones, Curator of the Botanic 

 (lardensand Ksperiment Station, r)ominica, that the weather 

 in that island during the three weeks ending March 1, 1910, 

 was very abnormal for the time of the year. In common with 

 the rest of the ^^"est Indies, very high winds were experienced, 

 accompanied by heavy rains. The unusual nature of the rain- 

 fall at the Botanic Cardens during February 1910, is shDwn 

 by the fact that it amounted to 11-42 inches for that month, 

 whereas the mean rainfall for the same period, during sixteen 

 years, is 2'87 inches. In relation to this matter, it may be 

 mentioned that a note on the rainfall of Dominica for 1909 

 appeared in the last issue of the A'jrieiJtural Neirx. 



The area under sugar-cane in Eastern Bengal and Assam 

 in 1909 is estimated to have been 170,800 acres, as compared 

 with 177,800 in 1908. The final forecast of the crop, issued 

 by the Department of Agriculture, gives this as 97 per cent, 

 of the normal outturn per acre. Taking the latter at 1-2 

 tons, this gives a total yield of 198,S10 tons, or 14 

 per cent, more than that of last year. During the year 

 under report, the quantity of raw sugar produced from date 

 palms is estimated to have been 53,950 tons. 



It is not considered good policy in Mexico to plant 

 rubber alone. On account of the climatic conditions of the 

 country, there is a season when the rubber does not provide 

 labour for all the hands, and for this reason it is advantageous 

 to have other crops on the e.¥tate. It is, besides, a matter of 

 wisdom and foresight not to stake everything on one crop, 

 however good it may be. Most Mexican rubber plantations, 

 therefore, have a diversity of crops, such as coffee, cacao, 

 sugar, fibres and others. (Dr. Pehr Olsson-SefFer in Troi^- 

 ical Life, March 1910.) 



The Annual Re/jorf on the E.cpieriniental Work of the 

 Dharwar [India] Agricultural Station, for 190S-9, .states 

 that the expensive cultivation of potatos in the wet season 

 in black soil, and the primitive way of making furrows for 

 planting the ]»otatos by the native method, caused the Depart- 

 ment to introduce a new improved English double mould-board 

 plough for such «ork. On the Experiment Farm this had 

 been done hitherto by means of a Planet Junior hoe, but it 

 was found that the double mould-board plough was much 

 superior to that implement for the purpose. 



The results obtained in the science subjects taken by the 

 candidates at the St. Kitts Oranimar School in the Cambridge 

 Local Examinations held in December last were as follows: 

 Agricultural Science (Senior), I candidate: 'good': Chemistry 

 (Senior), 1 <'andidate: 'good'; Chemistry (Junior), .5 candidates 

 four 'good', 1 'pass': Chemistry (Preliminary), 3 candidates: 

 ' good ', ' moderately good ', ' i)ass ': Botany (Junior), 3 candi- 

 dates: 2 ' moderately good ', 1 ' pass '. It is thus seen that 

 there were no failures in any of the papers in Natural Science, 

 and that of the thirteen papers taken, ten were marked 'good ' 

 or ' moderately good ', and three satisfied the examiners. 

 Fourof the candidates were holders of agricultural scholarships. 



With reference to the Second International Congress of 

 Tropical Agriculture and Colonial Development to be held at 

 Brussels on ^[ay 20 to 23, 1910, of which an announcement 

 was made in the Aijriculfural Xewx, Vol. IX, p. 12, the 

 following information has been recently received. The 

 subscription to the Congress for non-members of the Inter- 

 national A.ssociation of Colonial Agriculture is fixed at 1.5 

 francs, for those who desire to receive copies of the Congress 

 publications, and 10 francs for those who do not. The 

 subscription for members of the International Association 

 will be 10 francs, and this will entitle them to receive copies of 

 all the Congress publications. Subscriptions for the Congress 

 should be sent to il. Vandervaeren, ^finistry of the Interior 

 and of Agriculture, Brus.sel.s, Belgium. It may be stated 

 that associate membership of the International Association of 

 Colonial Agriculture may be obtained by payment of an 

 annual subscription of 15 francs. 



