Vol. XV. No. 377. 



THE AGKICULTUKAL NEWS. 



331 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



PROGRESS 



OF SUGAR 

 IN CUBA. 



PRODUCTION 



this 



The data given in the notes on page 323 of 

 issue refer to the crop of 1913-14.. Since then some 

 twelve new houses have been erected, all of which have 

 had at least a crusher and 12roller outfit installed, and 

 one of which has been designed from the start for cru.sher 

 and 1.5-roller. With the pre.sent high prices there has 

 been imported into Cuba much new machinery, and .several 

 of the older milling outfits have been torn down and 

 the less efficient trains been converted into 12-roller tandems. 

 The outstanding feature in Cuban development during the 

 last three years has been the extraordinary interest, in .some 

 cases amounting to a mania, for electrification. t)f the 

 advantage of the centralization of all the small units in one 

 power producer there can bp no doubt; but many engineers 

 look askance at the electrification of the grinding plant; there 

 is no centralization here, but rather a decentralization with 

 a double conversion of power and its consnquent los.ses. 



In Western Cuba there is an increasing interest shown 

 in the use of fertilizers, in the possibilities for irrigation, and 

 in the use of mechanical as opposed to manual cultivation of 

 the cane. 



Exports from St. Lucia.— The Agricultural 

 Superintendent of St. Lucia (ilr. A. J. Brooks) has forwirded 

 the following returns showing the exports of produce from 

 St. Lucia for the periods January 1 to August 1.5, 1916 and 

 1915:— 



The satisfactory increase of bay oil will be noted. It is 

 likely that this item will become an important one m the 

 exports in the near future as the local factory is now being 

 enlarged to undertake the manufacture of bay rum on a 



large scale. Some idea of the extension in this business may 

 be obtained from the fact that the Management is now 

 spending annually something river £1,500 on the purchase 

 of fresh leaves from the peasants in the Choiseul, Laborie 

 and Gros Islet districts. A second factory for the manu- 

 facture of bay oil has recently been opened in Castries. 



The lime exports for the period under review would 

 have been much greater if shipping facilities had been better. 

 A considerable quantity of juice is stored awaiting shipment. 



Information has been furnished by the Agricultural 

 Superintendent, St. Lucia, to the effect that 218 casks of 

 concentrated lime juice and 72 carboys of lime oil were 

 shipped from St. Lucia by the S.S. 'Catalina' on September 

 28. It is understood that the total would have reached 260 

 casks but a few were 'short shipped'. The foregoing is 

 a record shipment for St. Lucia, and indicates that good 

 progress is being made in the lime industry. Included in the 

 above shipment of concentrated lime juice were 45 casks 

 shipped by the Goverment Lime .luice Factory. This quan- 

 tity constitutes a record for the Factory. 



The House-fly in Relation to the Pen 

 Manure Heap. —In the Veterinary Series of the Renew 

 ■ •f Applied Entomology, \o\. IV, pp. 108 and 109, a sum- 

 marj' is given of a paper appearing in the Journal of 

 Agricultural Science, describing some experiments on the 

 house fly in relation to the manure heap. The object of 

 the work was to test the fly-breeding capacity of the pen 

 manure heap in the open as distinguished from heaps close 

 to dwellings, and to ascertain how far it is true that all 

 manure heaps, wherever placed, breed flies. Records of 

 the experiments are given in the original paper in detail and 

 the following general conclusions are stated to have been 

 reached. 'The house-fly will breed in large numbers in 

 stable refuse stored close to dwellings, the controlling 

 factor being the dwellings rather than the stable refuse, the 

 latter providing a breeding place for flies visiting the house 

 in search of food: the open farm manure heap far from 

 houses is but little frequented by house-flies: spent heaps 

 under rural conditions produce practically no flies at all; 

 the farm heaps though producing hardly any house-flies are 

 a prolific source of Slomoxys calcitrant and for the protection 

 of farm animals all such heaps should be sjiecially treated; 

 when the farm dwellings and buildings adjoin one another, 

 the danger is even greater especially if dairies and other food- 

 preparing <lepartments are in proximity to farm refuse. 

 Town manure heaps should be far more strictly regulated 

 than at present. In addition to S. calcitrans which, though 

 regarded as chiefly a pest of horses, is a serious pest of man, 

 Afusca autwmnahs, De G., is a great nuisance in houses, 

 entering attics and disused apartments in enormous numbers 

 in autumn So-called hibernating house-flies are almost 

 invariably of this .species. No difficulty was found in breed- 

 ing this fly from cattle dung found in fields. 



For further information on the subject of the house-fly 

 see Insect Notes in the last issue of the Agricultural Newi 

 and the editorial in this issue. 



