7oL. IX. No. 211. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



ir,9 



The Leeward Islands Agricultural Department. 



In his address at the opening of the session of the 

 general Legislative Council of the Leeward Islands in 

 Antigua, on April 5, 1910, his Excellency the Governor, 

 Sir Bickham Sweet-Escott, K.C.M.G., drew the atten- 

 tion of the Council to the fact that, under existing 

 arrangements, the Imperial contribution toward the 

 support of the Leeward Islands Agricultural Depart- 

 ment will cease on March 31, 1913. 



The reply of the Council to the address contained 

 the following: ' We note that under existing arrange- 

 ments, the Imperial contribution toward the support of 

 the Agricultural Department will cease on March 31, 

 1913; but we earnestly hope that a matter of such vital 

 importance to the colony will receive the further 

 consideration of His Majesty's Government, with a view 

 to the grant being continued.' " 



Baobab Trees for Storing Water. 



The Kew Bulletin, No. 3, 1910, gives an account 

 of the way in which the natives of Kordofan, Soudan, 

 use the trunks of living baobab trees {Adansonia 

 digitala) for storing water. 



For this purpose, in order to prevent the trunk 

 from splitting when it is hollowed out, the large 

 branches are first cut off close to it. A branch is left 

 on the trunk to serve as a platform, and a hole is out 

 in it just above this, through which it is hollowed out. 

 The water for storing is collected in a shallow basin, 

 20 to 2.5 feet in diameter, round the bottom of the tree: 

 from this, the tree is filled after a storm. The water 

 stored in this way remains perfectly good until after 

 the end of the next hot season. 



In some trees, this artificial preparation is not 

 required, as they are naturally hollow, and possess 

 a hole at the top of the trunk between the branches, 

 through which the water gains entrance. Much of the 

 water collected runs down the branches, which act as 

 gutters. Trees of this kind are called ' Lagai', and are 

 valued highly by the Arabs. 



Forestry in New Zealand. 



An abstract of a report, issued by the Department 

 of Lands and Forestry in New Zealand, which is given 

 in the Bmird of Trade Journal for J;umary 27, 1910, 

 shows that the area in that country .still covered with 

 forest is about 17,074,000 acres, which is a little more 

 than one-quarter of the total area. An estimate which 

 is given of the total amount of timber that may be use- 

 ful for commercial purposes, growing in the Crown and 

 State forests, and on private and native freehold land, 

 shows this to be about 33 billion superficial feet. In 

 the year 1908, the output of sawn timber was nearly 

 414 million superficial feet. 



Up to March 31, 1909, planting for reafforestation 

 had taken place on 12,17.5 acres: of this area, 2,709 

 acres were planted in 1908. It is expected that the 

 trees grown in this way will produce an appreciable 

 quantity of timber for milling purposes in fifty to sixty 

 years from the present time, and that the yield of each 

 successive year after this will give a farther supply. 



The Action of Manganese Salts on Growing 

 Plants. 



According to the Journal d' Agricidture Tropicale 

 No. 105, 1910, the Bulletin Econoniique de I'lndo- 

 Cliine gives an account of several experiments that 

 have been carried out at the Tokio University, which 

 have shown that the salts of manganese in small quant- 

 ities are capable of affecting the growth of plants, and 

 that they become rapidly injurious in larger quantities. 

 The same journal draws attention to work which 

 has been done in Hawaii, showing that the best soils 

 for pine-apples are those which contain about 561 per 

 cent, of manganese sesquioxide, while the least suitable 

 only contain 037 of this substance, and in so doing 

 points out that probably, in the near future, the salts 

 of manganese will take a general part in manuring. 



The Amount of Lime in Basic Slag. 



The Annvjd Report, for 1909, of the Rothamsted 

 Experimental Station gives an abstract of a paper, in 

 which the results are presented of an examination of 

 the amount of free lime contained in basic slag. It 

 was observed that the proportion of lime in this product 

 is much smaller than that which is usually considered 

 to be contained by it. The quantity found was 5"29 

 per cent, to 1'28 per cent., in freshly ground samples. 

 The best method for estimating the amount of free lime 

 in the basic slag was discovered to be one which con- 

 sisted in extracting the finely ground slag with cold 

 water free from carbon dioxide, and titrating the extract 

 obtained. The suggestion is made that, in the early 

 days of the manufacture of steel by the Bessemer process, 

 basic slag contained a greater proportion of free lime 

 than it does at the present day, just as it was usually 

 poorer in phosphoric acid. 



— — ^■^•-♦-^ 



Trials with Calcium Cyanamide and Nitrate 



of Lime. 



The Journal of the Boards of Agriculture for 

 March, 1910, contains an article by A. D. Hall, which 

 presents the results of experiments designed to com- 

 pare the manurial effect of calcium cyanamide and 

 nitrate of lime with one another, and with nitrate 

 of soda and sulphate of ammonia. In each case the 

 plots treated with the particular nitrogenous manure 

 received a dressing of superphosphate of lime, while the 

 control plots received superphosphate alone. In all 

 cases, the plots treated with nitrogenous manures 

 showed a large return; this was chiefly due to the 

 initial poor condition of the land. In a comparison of 

 the effects of the nitrogenous manures, it was found 

 that the variations in the yield caused by them were 

 within the limit of experimental error, so that the con- 

 clusion is reached, as regards the Rothamsted soils, that 

 any of these manures will serve as well as the others. 

 In a general way, the result of the experiments is to 

 show that the character of the soil and the relative 

 price of the manures per unit of nitrogen should be the 

 chief considerations in deciding which of them should 

 be employed. 



