Vol. XV. No. 37 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



249 



"well only under a very restricted range of conditions — 

 plenty of humidity and shelter, and a fertile and well- 

 drained soil being essential. Therefore it ought to be 

 possible to obtain results in one place which are more 



■or less applicable to another. This could hardly be 



•expected with sugar-cane, for instance, which has to 

 grow in shallow soil in Barbados with a rainfall of, 

 say, 4.5 inches, in the teeth of a drying trade wind on 

 the one hand, and in a deep alluvial soil under con- 

 ditions of extreme moisture in British Guiana, on the 

 other. But as has been pointed out, in the case of cacao 

 it is different; and similar observations apply in the 

 case of limes and rubber. In regard to manurial and 

 other plot experiments conducted with such crops as 

 these, there is good reason to believe that it would be 

 found that results of wide application would be obtained 

 if an effort were made to employ uniform methods of 



•experimentation. 



Land Settlement in Jamaica. 



Rules as to sale of lands by the Government ot 

 ■Jamaica to settlers are published in the Jamaica Gaz- 

 ette ior^l&rch 16, 191<j. These provide firstly for the 

 appointment of a Land Board in each parish in which 

 the Government owns sufficient Crown lands to justify 

 its creation, and the duties of such Board shall be to 

 ■consider and advise the Government as to the best 

 means of opening up Crown lands for settlement, and 

 as to the methods of providing means for making and 

 maintaining roads into such Crown lands. 



They provide further that no more than 300 acres 

 will be granted to one purchaser nor less than -5 acres, 

 except in cases specially approved by the Governor, nor 

 shall any two grants of 300 acres be allotted to run 

 continuously and contiguously without such approval. 

 As far as practicable, the Ciovernor will adopt the 

 general principle that out of every block, say, of 1,000 

 acres, not more than one block of 300 acres should be 

 sold. The value of land to be sold will be fixed by the 

 Surveyor General in consultation with the local Land 

 Board with the approval of the Governor. Each 

 applicant for the purchase of land must submit a 

 recommendation from a person of good standing to 

 whom he is personally known. On deposit of one-fifth 

 of the price of the land, the Surveyor General is requir- 

 ed to cause a survey to be made of the quantity of land 

 applied for, and possession will not be allowed to any 

 applicant till a survey has been made defining the lot 

 purchased. The remaining four-fifths of the purchase 

 money are made payable in ten years by ten equal 

 yearly instalments. Provision is made, however, that 

 if within a period of ten years the purchaser shall have 

 established one-fifth of his acreage in coffee, coco-nuts, 

 cacao, oranges, or other permanent crop-producing 

 plants, and shall have erected and maintained on the 

 land a suitable dwelling house to the approval of the 

 Surveyor General, he shall be rele;vsed from payment of, 

 or be refvmded as the case may require, one-fifth of the 

 purchase money. Provision is also made for reservations 

 in the conveyance from the Crown, including among 

 ■others, reservation to the Government of the right to 



make railways and new roads,and reservation of all mines, 

 minerals and mineral oils whatsoever as are situate and 

 lying either above or beneath in or under the said 

 land, and of prospecting for mines, minerals and mineral 

 oils; also reservations to lay water pipes, and to con- 

 struct and operate telegraph and telephone lines, and 

 to take and use free of cost water on the said land for 

 public water-supplies, etc., the (Jovernment paying 

 the cost of any damage actually done to fruit trees, 

 growing crops, or cultivated ground, in carrying out any 

 such work.s. 



The Recent Trade of Foreign Countries and. 



British Possessions. 



As might be expected in view of the war, extra- 

 ordinary changes have taken place in regard to the 

 imports and exports of merchandise for different 

 countries during the past two years. The Board of 

 Trade Journai for I\Iarch 30, 1916, contains sum- 

 mary tables giving particulars as to the total 

 value of the exports and imports for 1913, 191-t, 

 191.5. In the case of the LTnited Kingdom, for instance, 

 the value of the imports rose from £601,161,000 in 

 1914 to £7.54,327,000 in 191.5, while the exports fell 

 from £52.5,24.5,000 in 1913 to £384,647,000 in 1915. 

 Canada's imports have decrea.sed, on the other hand, 

 while her exports have risen to the extent of from 

 £77,966,000 in 1914 to £126,238,000 in 191.5. This 

 remarkable expansion is no doubt directly attributable 

 to the increased demand for materials by England and 

 France on account of war. The exports of the United 

 States have risen fr<im £431,470,000 in 1914 to the 

 enormous figure of £726,2.53,000 in 191.5, and 

 this year (1916) no doubt this figure is still higher. 

 It is hardly necessary to mention that the value 

 of the United States exports is vastly higher than 

 that of any other country in the world, and it indicates 

 how great her commercial power will be in the perioil 

 subsequent to the end of the war. It is satisfactory, 

 however, to see the higher percentage or relative 

 increase in the case of Canada, which indicates the 

 great industrial development that the war has stimu- 

 lated in this part of the British Empire. It is satisfactory, 

 too, to notice that India and Egypt, though their trades 

 have suffered, are yet maintaining a satisfactory volume 

 in each case. 



Sea Island Cotton Market. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date June 24, 1916, with refer- 

 ence to the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton: — 



A fair business has been done in West Indian 

 Sea Island since our last report, most of the .sales 

 having been delivered on the forward contract. About 

 200 bales have been .sold, chiefly Antigua 13fi to Kifd., 

 Virgin Islands loiJ., St. Eustatius 13 to \(ihd., 

 together with a few superior St. Kitts at 20c?. Prices 

 generally are firm. 



