Vol. XV. No. 372. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



245 



estates had at the time of writing finished cutting. The 

 Central Factory this season has made some 10,700 tons of 

 sugar and it was expected that the factory would close 

 down about the middle of July with between 1l',000 

 and 13,000 tons. The young cane crop is well ad- 

 vanced, and in the Northern district where there has 

 been good rains, the plants are in excellent condition. The 

 prospect generally speaking are very favourable as regards 

 the sugar cane crop. The cotton crop has now been all 

 planted, and in the Northern district the earlier cotton is 

 boiling well. In the valley, some trouble has been experienc- 

 ed in establishing the joung cotton owing to the diy weather; 

 there has been no soaking rain but only showers at intervals 

 of a week or so Mr. Shepherd states that a very satisfac- 

 tory report has been received from Mr. J. W. McConnel on 

 the four samples of cotton lint sent to him for spinning tests. 

 About .500 acres of cotton will be planted in St. Kitts from 

 this strain of seed. 



VIRGIN ISLANDS. Work in the Tortola Experiment 

 Station during iVIay appears to have consisted chiefly in the 

 ^veeding of the difterent plots. A good deal of interest, says 

 Mr. Fishlock, is being shown in the coming cotton crop. 

 There has been quite a considerable amount of seed already 

 sown, notably at Virgin Gorda and .Tost van Dykes. During 

 May a visit was paid to ^'irgin (jorda and also to Anegada. 

 I)uring the first part of May the weather was dry; but from 

 the 20th onwards it became more favourable. 



THE COCO-NUT INDUSTRY IN 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



The area planted with coco-nut palms in the colony has 

 been slowly increasing for some years, but during recent 

 years there has been much greater activity in coco-nut plant- 

 ing, and the continued extension of the industry may be 

 expected. 



The coco-nut palms growing in the colony are scattered, 

 being owned chiefly by small growers; but there are a few 

 fair-sized coco-nut estates, and the large proprietor is paying 

 increasing attention to the cultivation of the palm. On one 

 estate, where coco-nut planting is being carried out on a large 

 scale, upwards of 50,000 trees have been planted, while 

 another property possesses 20,000 trees. The acreage in 

 the colony under cultivation in coco-nuts in 1914-15 was 

 15,894 — an increase of 1,717 acres over that of the previous 

 year. The gradual extension of the industry is shown in the 

 following table: — 



Year. 



1904-5 



190.5-6 



1906-7 



1907-8 



1908-9 



1909-10 



1910-11 



1911-12 



1912-13 



1913-14 



1914-15 



No. of acres planted. 



5,140 



6,560 



6,700 



6,828 



8,315 



9,466 



9,761 

 12,236 

 1.3,698 

 14,177 

 15 894 



A very large proportion of the acreage is still young and 

 has not yet come into bearing. The export of coco-nuts is 

 .small in comparison with the acreage under cultivation, both 

 for the above reason and because the major portion of the 



nuts is utilized in the colony in the manufacture of coco nut 

 oil and cattle food. There is a large consumption of coco- 

 nut oil, especially among the East Indian section of the 

 community, and the locally prepared product has gradually 

 replaced the imported kinds of coco-nut oil. 



EX POET OP NUTS. 



The export of coco-nuts during 1914-15 was 1,890,000 

 as against 872,000 in the previous year. The following table 

 shows the average annual exports for quinquennial period* 

 since 1892:— 



Periods. 



1892-6 



1897-1901 



1902-6 



1907-11 



1912-14 (3 years only) 



Average Annual Exports. 



80,374 nuts 



21,892 „ 



187,305 „ 



526,901 „ 



1,427,644 „ 



A small quantity of copra was made in the colony during- 

 the year, the export being 1,690 cwt. 



Better attention is being paid to the proper spacing of 

 the plants, but the necessity for proper drainage is frequently 

 overlooked. 



YIELD OF NUTS. 



Most of the varieties raised at the Botanic Gardens from 

 imported and from selected local nuts are now bearing, and 

 the .seed is being distributed for planting purposes. Five 

 hundred and sixty-nine nuts were distributed during the 

 year, the number being made up as follows : — 



Total 



569 



The following returns giving the average number of nuts- 

 per tree occurring on some of the trees growing at^the Experi- 

 mental Fields, Botanic ( Jardens, are of interest: — • 



Origin of trees. 

 Trees raised from Singapore nuts 

 „ ,, ,, selected local nuts 

 ,, „ ,, Tobago nuts 

 „ ,, ;, Trinidad nuts 



(Journal of the Board of Agriculture of British Guiana for 

 May 1916.) 



The effect of water in the ration, on the composition of 

 milk in the cow, is dealt with in the Journal of Agricultural 

 Bes'^arch for April 24, 1916. In the experiments described, 

 certain individual cows at times produced milk havinc an 

 abnormal fat content. This eflect was apparently independ- 

 ent of the ration as it occurred not only with the high water 

 content ration, but with the dry as well. A study of the 

 data obtained in the four series shows that the watery 

 character of the rations has no effeet upon the fat contejit of 

 the milk. There was even less variation in the other milk 

 constituents than in the fat. This indicates that rations of 

 varying water content have no effect upon the compositioa 

 of milk. 



