Vol. IX. No. 21-5. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



231 



Time Number Seed- Seed- 

 of (if cotton cotton 



growth, tree.s. 1 rniluccd. ^'tree. 



Remarks. 



Early planted 



hybrid.s 

 Late [ilanted 



hybrids 

 Sea Island 



months. 



^- 13 

 J 



9i 



4.5 



It. 



i; 



35 



ft. 

 3-93 



1-40 

 0-22 



Exactly similar 

 field conditions 



As is pointed out in the account of the e.-cperiment, the 

 results show that, under exactly similar conditions, the yield 

 of hybrid cotton was much higher than that from the ordinary 

 Sea Island. In terms of weight per acre, it was more than 

 twice as great, for, working out the results in this way, 

 Dr. Gooding shows that the number of trees per acre and 

 the yield of seed-cotton per acre were as follows: early plant- 

 ed hybrids, 648, and 2,549 lb.; late planted hybrids, 1,210, 

 and 1,694 B&.; Sea Island, 3,630, and 795 It). 



In order to gain information as to the quality of the 

 lint, a special report was obtained on the cotton. This 

 showed that those of the hybrid and Sea Island types were 

 both practically the same, as the lint was of excellent length, 

 strength and fineness, and the same price was obtained for 

 both kinds. 



Further experiments are required to show if heavy bear- 

 ing is a definite property of the strain obtained, or whether it 

 is due to the stimulus of cros.sing, and a greater immunity 

 from disease, of the hybrids. 



VARIETIES OF RUBBER. 



CuEi'K, SiiEKT, AXip liiscLiT Kliimei:. Rubber reaches 

 the home market in almost every po.ssible shape and colour. 

 In most cases, the queer names which one reads in the market 

 reports are fairly descriptive. Thin pale crepe, for instance, 

 arrives in long strips, generally about 4 feet long and 8 inches 

 to 12 inches broad. It varies in thickness from jV to J-inch, 

 and has a roughish surface from which the name 'crepe' 

 is derived. This rubber is pale-yellow in colour, and when 

 held ui> to the light it is quite transparent, which proves its 

 purity, and accounts for the very high price obtainable for 

 this grade— viz., at present about 10s. 3(/. per ft. 



The so-called 'sheet' rubber is similar to crepe, but 

 slightly thicker, and cot so transparent. It is prepared in 

 a different manner and, unlike crepe, must be put through 

 the washing mills by the manufacturer before it can be used. 



Hard cure, fine Para is prepared by the native labourers 

 on the Amazon by dipping a so-called 'paddle' in the rubber, 

 and then holding it in the smoke of a fire, which hardens the 

 coating of milk on the paddle. The paddle is then dipped 

 again for a second coating; and again smoked, and so on, 

 until quite a large 'biscuit' — generally weighing about A-cwt. 

 — has been built up. The labourer then takes bis knife and 

 slits the biscuit down one side, in order to remove his paddle, 

 when he proceeds to make his next biscuit. Rubber thus 

 prepared is worth to-day about lO,'. per lb. 



African I'rohucts. From the Congo we get large 

 supplies of clean, solid, black rubber, coagulated originally in 

 large blocks, and then cut up into small cubes, in order to allow 

 it to dry and ripen. We also get from the Congo, rubber in 

 reddish sausages, collected directly from the tree, the reddish 

 appearance being cau.sed by small portions of the bark adher- 

 ing. The value of this Congo rubber varies to-day from os. 6d. 

 to 6s. M. per ft. 



From the Gold Coast we get rubber prepared by the 

 natives merely digging a trough in the earth and running in 

 the latex, which in time coagulates from the outside and 

 forms a hard .skin, and finally a fairly hard lump throughout: 



but this grade holds all the moisture which was originally in 

 the latex, and as a result, when cut across, such lumps are 

 found to contain 50 per cent, of their own weight in water. 

 Notwithstanding this, however, such rubber is to-day worth 

 about 2s. I'l. iier lb. This is the .so-called 'Gold Coast 

 lump'. 



On the Ivory Coast, the French Sudan, and in the Sierra 

 Leone neighbourhood, the product is known as 'Sierra Leone 

 Niggers', or 'Conakry'. This rubber is in large balls, consist- 

 ing of strips carefully wound together, varying in size from 

 that of a good-sized orange to that of a man's head. This 

 rolling process is carried out when the strips of rubber are 

 quite fresh, so that they become one compact, solid ball. 

 Rubber treated in this way is of a reddish colour, for whicH 

 reason these balls are often known as 'Red Niggers': they are 

 worth to-day approximately 6s. per ft. 



From the Niger District, we get rubber varying from 

 small balls of fine, white rubber of e.xcellent quality, known 

 as 'White Niger Niggers', down to a soft, pasty substance 

 which looks like bad honey and smells abominably. This is 

 known as 'Niger Flake' and is worth about Is. '2d. per ft. 



These descriptions might be multiplied indefinitely, but 

 sufficient has been said to show in how manj' various shapes 

 raw rubber arrives in the home market, and what a very wide 

 experience is necessary to judge successfully the relative 

 values of the different kinds. 



One point in connexion with the values of the different 

 varieties is, however, worth attention — namely, that values do 

 not move together For instance, the price of hard cure, fine 

 Para may be going up when the price of Red Niggers is 

 going down, and vice versa; each grade may be said to be 

 a market to itself. There is, of course, some sort of relative 

 proportion, but nevertheless each grade practically fluctuates 

 by itself. The market rejjorts of the auctions recently 

 show that pale crepe was fetching at the auction as much as 

 10s. 3irf., while hard cure, fine Para was selling at 9s. 9irf.; 

 a fortnight before, the respective values were 9s. Id. and 

 8s. lOd. per ft. (From the Aijrii-idtural Bulletin of the 

 Stiaits and Fedi-j-ated Mala;/ States, May 1910.) 



THE FEEDING HABITS OF BIRDS. 



An account of a valuable enquiry into the feeding 

 habits of the rook, which was undertaken in England and 

 Wales is given in The Journal "f the Board of Agriculture 

 for May, 1910. In all, 631 birds from forty-one counties 

 were examined, for the purpose of ascertaining the contents 

 of the stomach. 



The supposition that the food of this bird consists main- 

 ly of certain insects and earthworms was not borne out by 

 the results of the investigation. As a matter of fact, there 

 was surpri.singly little animal food in the gizzard; in twelve 

 months it only averaged 15 per cent, of the total amount. 



In addition to that of the specimens during 1909, an 

 investigation was made of 141 specimens collected in 1908, 

 as well as of 58 which had been dissected previously. In 

 the words of the article to which reference has been made, 

 a summary of the results from these 830 birds showed that 

 675 per cent, of their food consisted of grain, 35 per cent, 

 of seeds, fruit, roots and miscellaneous vegetable matter, 15-0 

 per cent, of wire worms and other in.sects, 105 per cent, of 

 earthworms, and 3-5 per cent, of miscellaneous food (eggs, 

 young game, field mice, etc.). Thus there is ample evidence 

 "to show that, with the present numbers of rooks in Eng- 

 land and Wales there is a preference for a grain diet, and it 

 seems that the usefulness of the bird might be increased by 

 reducing this number. 



