28 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



January lo, 1916. 



GLEANINGS. 



It is stated in The Board of Trade Jnurval that the 

 -exportation of rubber has been prohibited from the Belgian 

 Congo except to English or Freneh ports, or to the port of 

 New York. Special permission must be obtained before 

 consignments of rubber destined for New "N'ork can be 

 exported. 



The food value of the jack bean {Caii'ivalia ensiffrmis) 

 is dealt with in a note in the Monthly Bulletin of Agricul- 

 tural Intelligence avd Flant Diseases for November 1914. 

 In regard to the wholesomeness of this bean as a foodstuff 

 for animals, it is stated ibat 44tb. of crushed beans were given 

 in a ration in some of Kellner's experiments, wiihout appar- 

 -ently producing any ill eftects. 



It is stated in the India Rubber Journal for October 23, 

 191."), that the average production of rubber per acre in 

 Malaya and Sumatra considerably exceeds that for Java, 

 Ceylon and other countries. The article which provides this 

 information has been written with a view to forecasting the 

 future production at the present rate of planting. It is 

 stated that many people have exaggerated the high yields to 

 ■be expected. 



A good method of advertising is adopted by ihe 

 American Genetic Association who have issued large sheets 



■ of specimen illustrations from the Journal of Heredity^ the 

 publication of that body. All of these illustraiions have 

 appeared some time or other in that journal, and this alone is 

 a sufficient guarantee of their excellence. The above 



■ constitutes an interesting, striking and legitimate form of 



■ advertising a good cause. 



The editorial which we published in this .Journal some 

 months ago on hedges and wind-breaks attracted some consid- 

 able attention, and it'may interest readers to know that in the 

 Rlwdeda Agricalt.wral Journal for August 191-3, a very 

 useful article appears on the same subject with reference to 

 Itliodesia. Lists of plants recommended for hedges like 

 Tecoma spp., Hybiscusspp., Bougainvillea, etc^, are given, and 

 i]ucalypts are srtongly recotiimeuded for wind-breaks. E. p mi 

 culaia, E. crebra and E. microtheia are amongst those 

 recommended for the drier districts. 



Accompanying a letter recently- received from Dr. Cope- 

 laud, Dean of the Philippine College of Agriculture, are recent 

 budgets of the Philippine College of Agriculture and of the 

 Department of Agriculture in .Java, respectively. These give 

 the positions and names of the different officers together with 

 the salary of each. The total amount of money spent on the 

 Philippine College of Agriculture for six months is 64,100 

 pesos. The total for the .Java department cannot be definitely 

 stated owing to the omission of certain items, but it amounts 

 to an even larger sum than that recorded above for the 

 Philippines. 



The Bristol Times and Mirror for October 18, siys that 

 • evaporated bananas are never seen on the local market now. 



■ Several consignments were received, presumably from 



■ Jamaica, but the public did not take to the product. It is 

 suggested that they had grown accustomed to (!at the fruit 

 when fresh. The colour was also atainst th(^ material, for 

 the process adopted chinged it to a dark brown, though 

 this in no way affected the flavour. 



It appears from an article on the feeding value of palm 

 kernel cake in the HuUetin oj the Imperial Institute 

 (Vol. XIII, No. 3) that this feeding stuff is already being used 

 to a certain extent by farmers in Great Britain, and although 



■opinions as to its merits differ somewhat, on tlie whole they 

 are (juite favourable. In llenford the cake is stated to be 

 finding favour for pig feeding, the flesh of pigs fed on the 

 cake being very firm. It will be remembered that until the 

 beginning of the war the employment of palm kernel cake as 



■SI feeding stuff was almost entirely confined to the Continent. 



Tho.se who may require information as to the relative 

 areas under different crops in Ceylon and their distribution 

 in that island, should refer to Colonial Reports —Annual, 

 No. 8.5.5, which contains a very instructive map of the 

 Colony in colours. 'Coco-nut cultivation, which occupies 

 a large area, extends principally along the coast with 

 Colombo as the central point. Rubber cultivation is 

 situated chiefly in the Kaudy district, where also at higher 

 elevations tea plantations are to be found. The distribution 

 of cacao areas is more or less patchy, and lies on the outskirts 

 of the chief tea and rubber areas. 



It is stated in the Demerara Daily Chronicle (Mail 

 Edition) December 10, that in view of the fact that it has 

 been stated that rubber cannot be grown on the coastal belt 

 of the Colony, it is interesting to note the Department of 

 Science and Agriculture has recently delivered to the 

 Consolidated Rubber and Balata Estates, Limited, 743 tt). of 

 Para rubber, the produce of the Government Station, for 

 shipment to London, whilst the Departmental export for 

 1915 amounts to 1,080 ft). The Issorora Rubber Station is 

 within 12 miles of the coast. It is understood that the 

 Consolidated Rubber Company are shipping some 900 ft), of 

 Para rubber from their own rubber cultivations. 



We have received three interesting forest bulletins (Nos. 

 27, 28, and 29) from the Superintendent of Government 

 Printing in India. The first deals with black wood {Ralbergia 

 latifoUa, Itoxb.). This wood, owing to its handsome appear- 

 ance, is used largely in the manufacttire of high-class furni- 

 ture. It is also one of the finest timbers known for gun- 

 carriage wheels. The second refers to a wood called Bhauri 

 {lAigerstroeniia parvijlora, Roxb). This wood is used for 

 hou.se building, and if it were antiseptically treated with 

 a view to securing immunity to white ant attack, its employ- 

 ment could be considerably extended. The last timber under 

 notice is Sundi wooil (Heritiera minor. Lam). This timber 

 is used extensively in boat-building, as ])lank.s, boat oars, 

 spars, masts, and for carriage-building as shafts, spokes and 

 naves. 



