Vol. IX. No. 215. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



233 



A Lime-Sulphur Wash for Use on Leaves. 



An article appears iii Tlir Journal of the Board of 

 Agriculture for June 1910, the object of which is 

 to direct attention to the fact that a wash for use 

 against certain fungus cJiseases of plants can be made 

 by boiling lime and sulphur together, and that this 

 wash differs from 'flowers of sulphur' and 'liver of 

 sulphur', in that it is not easily wasiied off by rain. The 

 special mixture th.it is dealt witli was originally pre- 

 pared and described at the Pennsylvania State College 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, and an account of it 

 is given in Bulletin No. 92 of that station. An extract 

 of the chief contents of this bulletin, showing how the 

 wash is made and stored, was reproduced in the Ayr'i- 

 cultural News, Vol. VIII, p. 311. 



To return to the article first nientioned, which is 

 written by the Mycologist to the South-Eastern Agri- 

 cultural College, Wye, Kent, the chief conclusions 

 reached are as follows: (1) a lime-sulphur wash made 

 in the way described is effective against several serious 

 fungus diseases of the apple in England: (2) it is cheap: 

 (3) it does not readily wash off: (-i) the quick deposition 

 of sulphur which takes place after the wash has been 

 applied makes it easy to see how thoroughly the spray- 

 ing has been done. In conclusion, it is pointed out 

 that Bordeaux mixture is still the best fungicide for 

 general use against certain diseases of apples, and that 

 the lime-sulphur wash must not be considered as a sub- 

 stitute for it, but only as a spray for varieties of apples 

 which are injured by Bordeaux mixture. 

 ^ I ^ 



The Yield of Camphor from Diffeient Parts 



of the Plant. 



In the Agricultural Neivs, Vol. VIII, p.328, a note 

 was given on experiments that have been conducted 

 with camphor in Jamaica and Antigua, and it is point- 

 ed out there that, in both cases, the younger parts of 

 the plant gave the largest yields. In connexion with 

 this, attention may be drawn to experiments that have 

 been carried out by the Agricultural Department of the 

 Federated Malay States, an account of which is con- 

 tained in the Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits 

 and Federated Malay States, Vol. VIII, p. 3-44. 



In these trials, the same conclusion was reached, 

 in connexion with the amount of camphor that can 

 be obtained by distillation from dififerent parts of the 

 plant. In addition, the following interesting conclu- 

 sions were obtained: (1) that air-drying, unless it is 

 carried out in direct sunlight, does net reduce the 

 yield: (2) that, under the conditions of the experiment, 

 the principal products are camphor, with a small per- 

 centage of oil; (3) that in the Federated Malay States, 

 a yield of at least 1 per cent, of camphor, with a small 

 percentage of oil, maybe expected from the primings 

 of trees five years old, and probably from trees young- 

 er than this. 



Investigations have also been carried out by the 

 same Department with the Borneo or Sumatra camphor 

 tree {Dri/olialanops Cainphoiu), from which the valu- 

 able product known as Borneo camphor is obtained. 

 This is not a true camphor, but a closely related com- 



pound called Borneol. It has not, so far, become an 

 article of general commerce, but is chiefly used in 

 various parts of the East for ritualistic purposes, and for 

 embalming. 



The Tobacco Industry in the United States. 

 The present status of the tobacco industry in the 

 United States is defined in Circular No. 48 of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, issued last February. 

 According to this, there are produced in that country 

 a number of distinct types of tobacco, each of 

 which possesses definite characteristics which adapt 

 it to certain particular trade requirements. It 

 has thus been brought about that the types of leaf 

 recognized by the trade are obtained from definite 

 districts, so that the tobacco industry has become 

 established most firmly in those districts where it has 

 been carried on the longest. The important result of 

 this condition is the circumstance that the merits of 

 a product from a new growing area, or of a new variety, 

 must be shown unmistakably, before it is accepted, and 

 even then, it must be identifiable with an already 

 established type. 



The Trade and Commerce of Sicily, 1909. 



No. ^.i"!! Annual Series, of the Diplomatic and 

 Considar Reports deals with the trade and commerce 

 of Sicily for the year 1909. This shows that the 

 quantity of citrate of lime deposited with the Green 

 Fruit Chamber (see Agricultural News. Vol. VIII, 

 p. 377 ) was 7, .500 metric tons (of 2,200 ft.), of which 500 

 tons was carried over from the previous season. The 

 amount of concentrated lemon juice deposited during 

 the same period was 4,039 pipes. During the time 

 under review, l,594i tons of citrate of lime were sold 

 for about £104,046, while the amount of lemon juice 

 disposed of was only 32 pipes, of a value of about 

 £586. Since this time, financial difficulties have caused 

 the Government to delegate a committee to enquire into 

 the condition of the chamber and to propose measures 

 for its reorganization. This action was followed by the 

 resignation of the Council of the Chamber, and a Royal 

 Commissioner has been appointed to take over the 

 administration. 



It is estimated that the ( )ctober to December crop 

 of citrus fruit, 1909, on which the whole season's calcu- 

 lations are based, was about one-quarter less than that 

 of a normal year and one-third below that of the 

 preceding similar season. As the new crop of lemons is 

 below the average, it is predicted that the citrate 

 produced during the current season will not be more 

 than about 4,500 tons. 



The increase, last year, in the United States 

 tariffs caused considerable anxiety to producers. It is 

 not anticipated now, however, that the increased duty 

 will have any injurious effect on Italy's trade with the 

 Eastern States, on account of the fact that the United 

 States railways have raised their freight rates for 

 Californian fruit to an extent which compensates for 

 the effect of the increased tariff. 



