Vol. IX. No. 220. 



THE AGKIUULTUKAL NEWS. 



309 



Only a thin laj'erof soil should be removed for making dams, 

 and it is quite unnecessary to have them more than 2 feet 

 high. 



CULTIVATION. The best land for rice is a loamy clay. It 

 should be carefully forked or ploughed about a month before 

 the crop is to be planted, but if the land has already been in 

 cultivation in rice, it should be prepared at least si.K weeks 

 before replanting. This forking or ploughing should be about 

 6 inches deep, but should not turn up the subsoil to any 

 great extent. The first part of the land to be cultivated 

 should be the nursery. This should be situated on the best 

 lands, as on the careful choice of the nursery plot often 

 depends the success or failure of the crop. Immediately after 

 forking, the land chosen for the nursery should be flooded, 

 levelled and prepared for sowing. The working of the soil, 

 after forking or ploughing, is usually done with a hoe, or by 

 means of a primitive form of harrow. Levelling may be 

 accomplished by dragging a log of wood backwards and for- 

 wards, or by inverting the harrow and drawing that across 

 the beds. This preparation should not be to a greater depth 

 than 4 inches, and the soil should be in a condition of ' drift 

 mud' before it can be considered to be in a first class condition 

 for planting. 



TIMF, OF SdWISC AMI liUANTITV OK SEED KKljUIUEl). 



Sowing of the seed in the nursery should commence late in 

 March or early in April, and should be completed in the 

 month of April, if the best results are desired. Only by 

 planting at this time of the year can maximum crops be 

 depended upon. The quantity' of seed necessary to plant an 

 acre is calculated to be from S to 10 gallons, according to 

 variety and lo its germinating power. It should always be 

 remembered that sowings in the nursery should be successive. 

 No more rice should be sown in the nursery than can be 

 transplanted, when that time arrive.-*, in about a week; for 

 seedlings in the nursery are generally ready for transplanting 

 in four weeks from the time of sowing, and are of little use 

 after si.\ weeks, as they have begun to 'joint' at the base. If 

 5 acres of rice can be transplanted each week by any cultiv- 

 ator, the maximum he should propose to cultivate should be 

 25 acres in all, and sowings in the nursery suflicient for 

 5 acres should be made everj' week from the commencement 

 of the sowing to the last week in April. 



SOWING OF SEED IN NURSERY. Seed Selected for sowing 

 should be placed in a bag and soaked in a trench for twenty- 

 four hours. It should tlien be taken out and placed on dry 

 land in the shade, and covered down with leaves, etc., for 

 another twenty -four hours. It should then be thinly broad- 

 casted in the nursery beds, which should be perfectly level 

 and moist. No water must be on the surface, however, or 

 otherwise the seeds will rot. During growth, the surface of 

 the soil must be kept moist by allowing a small quantity of 

 water to flow over the beds, or by watering the young seed- 

 lings with cans. Ducks do not attack germinated seed as 

 readily as they do hard paddy. 



TRANSPLANTING. When the seedlings are about four 

 weeks old they are ready for transplanting for the general 

 crop. The plants should be about 12 to 1.3 inches high at 

 this time, and should have no 'joints ' showing at their bases. 

 The lifting of the plants from the nursery must be carefully 

 carried out. It is not sufficient to .simply pull the plants up. 

 Before lifting, the soil around the roots should be loosened by 

 sticking the fingers of both hands down around a quantity of 

 plants, so that a good ' double-handful ' can be taken up with 

 all the mud adhering to their roots. The greater portion of 

 thi.^ mud .should then be washed oS' and the plant put on one 

 side until about 1,000 washed plants, which are to be made 

 into a bundle, are obtained. The bundles are then carried to 



the fields for the planters and, to .save time, they should be 

 so distributed over the beds that the planters can read- 

 ily obtain them. The planter undoes the bundles, takes out 

 a handful of plants, washes off practically all the soil attached 

 to the roots, screws off the top 3 or 4 inches of the seedlings 

 and proceeds to transplant. The plants are pushed, two to 

 three plants in a hole, at distances of from 9 to 12 inches 

 apart in the soft ' drift mud ' to a depth of 1 or 2 inches. It 

 is desirable that when the plants are taken out of the nursery 

 only the strongest plants should be chosen, the weaklings 

 being discarded, and it has been found that the best results 

 are obtained from the Creole variety and with Nos. 75, .3 and 

 6, when the distances between the holes are not less than 9 or 

 more than 12 inches. 



AFTER CULTIV.VTION. Plants after transplanting usually 

 lie flat for a day or two and then commence to stand upright. 

 In a week, if the land has been carefully prepared they will 

 have taken root. As soon as a bed has been transplanted, 

 water, in irrigable areas, should be run on at once and 

 should not be more than 2 inches deep until the plants have 

 taken root. Afterwards the irrigation water should be kept 

 at from 2 to 3 inches as a minimum depth, to 5 to 6 inches 

 as a maximum. Two weedings should generally be given to 

 a rice crop after it has been transplanted, during the early 

 period of its growth. 



AGRICULTURE IN GAMBIA. 



So long as the ground nut crop continues to thrive and 

 to give the large return to cultivators and traders that it does 

 at present, it is difficult to induce the people to take iq) other 

 industries .seriously. 



The issue of 500 tons of .seed-nuts by the Government 

 to the people for planting (mentioned in last year's Report) is 

 accountable in a considerable degree for the large increase in 

 the nuts produced. The above amount was advanced by the 

 principal firms. The introduction of the Coromandel nut has 

 met with considerable success. 



His Excellency the Governor has obtained through the 

 late Sir Alfred Jones, Chairman of Messrs. Elder Demp- 

 ster >fe Co., a consignment of 3i bushels of soy beans for 

 experimental purposes. These beans were carefully distrib- 

 uted to .selected chiefs, and their planting and care were care- 

 fully watched over by the Travelling Commissioners, but the 

 result has been disappointing, and it appears that the soil is 

 not favourable to their introduction. 



African millet, or koo.s, continues to be cultivated by the 

 natives and, as has been shown in the trade section of this 

 report, its produce this year has been most .successful, thus 

 decreasing the demand for imported rice. 



The agricultural schools and farm at Abuko, subsidized 

 by the Government ?nd managed by the Roman Catholic Mis- 

 sion, has made great progress, and experiments have been 

 made in planting cacao, coffee, kola-nuts and other products, 

 which promise well. 



The imported Ayrshire bulls have been carefully housed 

 and have thriven. They have had some success, but the 

 natives of the country are very slow in availing themselves of 

 their services. The number of calves showing an improved 

 appearance is satisfactory evidence that the cross with the 

 native cattle will result in a very much improved breed. 



Some he goats were imported from the Canary Islands, 

 but did not stand the Harniattan wind, and the first consign- 

 ment succumbed, but it is hoped that their progeny will thrive, 

 and a further attempt to import and acclimatize them will be 

 made. {Coloni/i/ Keparts — Anntuil, No. 641, [i, 12.) 



