Vol. XV. No. 380. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



37r 



health, and security from fraud. But as the writer 

 •quoted above infers, this is not science in the sense of 

 that investigation which leads to discovery: it is merely 

 the most elementary chemical manipulation borrowed 

 from science for legal or commercial purposes. 



The article shows how great industries have arisen 

 as the result of the pure research of a few pioneers, 

 research that has been carried on without any utilitarian 

 ideas whatsoever. Reference is made to the photographic 

 industrj', the electro-chemical industries, and the more 

 recent artificial production of nitric acid in Germany as 

 the outcome of the research of Haber. 



A suggestion is made in the article to the effect 

 that the State should step in and organize industrial 

 research just as it has done in connexion with agricul- 

 tural research *ork. When that is done it is believed 

 that the United States will attain to a position of 

 such economic power as to render her commercially 

 secure from any other nation in the world. 



The Effect of Light on the Germination of 

 Seeds. 



An interesting publication dealing with the ger- 

 mination of seeds has been issued as Bulletin l-'i9 of 

 the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University 

 of Minnesota. It is stated that practically all the grass 

 seeds and some of the flower seeds dealt with during 

 1914-1.5 were tested in a sunlight germinator. It 

 has been found that many of the grass seeds 

 germinate best in the light. The results obtained 

 from this germinator have been" very promising and 

 experimental work will be continued in the hope 

 of determining more accurately the real advantage of 

 light germinations. In connexion with the same sub- 

 ject, a note in the International Review of the Science 

 and Practice of Agriculture for April 191(i is of even 

 greater interest. It is concluded, as the result of care- 

 ful investigations, that blotting paper is the best medium 

 for the germination of most Grarnineae. Contrary to 

 the opinion of Nobbe, light is absolutely indispensable 

 to the germination of certain species. A change of 

 temperature from 20° to 30°C. (20° for eighteen 

 hours and 30° for six hours) has proved favourable in 

 many cases. A constant temperature of 20°G., with 

 absence of light is favourable to very few species. 

 A constant temperature of ."^O'C. is unfavourable to 

 most species. It is believed that in the case of several 

 species of grass, the germination faculty should be 

 studied under different sets of conditions. 



Studies on light and temperature as related to the 

 germination of seeds have been conducted with nine 

 species of Onagraceae, one of Hydrophyllaceae, and 

 two of Scrophulareaceae. It is stated in the Experiment 

 Station Record (Vol. XXXV, No. 3) that in the first 

 group, three different germination types may be dis- 

 tinguished as regards their relation to light and 

 temperature. The second division is characterized by 

 a low germinability optimum and by the injurious 

 action of high germination temperatures, the favouring 

 action of temperature change, and the unfavourable 

 action of light at extreme germinating temperatures. 



In the third grouj), the seeds require stronger light at- 

 low temperatures. Temperature variations also favour 

 germination, especially when regular, giving the most 

 marked results when the lower daily temperatures were 

 maintained for longer periods than were the higher 

 temperatures. 



Agricultural Development in Federated Malay 



States. 



As will be obser\ed from an article in the Chamber 

 of Commerce Journal for Septenber 1916, Mr. E. S. 

 Hose, Acting Director of Agriculture, has written an 

 interesting report on agricultural development in the 

 Federated Malay States in 1915. Although rubber 

 cultivation reaches its highest point of excellence on 

 the plantations of Malay, Mr. Hose does noD confine 

 himself to rubber planting only, but ranges over a wide 

 field of tropical agriculture, and the possibility of 

 introducing new forms of cultivation into the Malay 

 States. 



Among the products that have received the 

 attention of the department during the year under 

 review were, the African oil palm, camphor, cinchona, 

 tea, coffee, ipecacuanha, cotton, fibres, wild ginger- 

 and cardamoms for paper making, croton oil, eucalyptus,, 

 cocaine, Brazil nut, date palm, ground nuts, etc. It is^ 

 stated that in a field near the department at Kuala 

 Lumpur, a number of oil palms in bearing for the past 

 two years gave a yield of from 3.5 to 4.5 lb. of nuts each 

 palm per annum. Cinchona did well in Gunong Angsi 

 at an elevation of 1,000 feet, and about 2 acres of tea 

 have been planted at about 2,500 feet on Gunong 

 Angsi, and the growth so far ha.s been excellent. 



Statistical tables appended to the report show the 

 agricultural acreages of the Federated Malay States 

 alone, on estates over 100 acres in extent, in 1915, to be 

 as follows: rubber 499,479, coco-nuts 54,822, coffee 4,312. 

 other cultivations 1,234, making a total of 559,847 

 acres. Excluding the Straits Settlements (from which 

 the statistics had not come to hand when the report w^as 

 -written) but including other States of the Peninsula 

 under British protection, there w^ere, at the end of the 

 year, 703,535 acres under rubber on estates of 100 acres 

 and over; 82,250 acres under coco-nuts; and 6,085 acres 

 under coffee The export returns of the Commissioner 

 of Trade and Customs show that 44,523 tons of rubber 

 were exported from the F. M. S. in 1915. Mr. Hose 

 concludes that the total rubber export of British Malaya 

 is over 68,000 tons. From the stand-point of market 

 prices, producers of plantation rubber have little cause 

 to complain of the position of the industiy during the 

 year 1915. 



Among the more important problems of the 

 rubber industry in Malaya that are said to call for 

 immediate attention are, briefly — (1) the combating of 

 fungus pests on older estates ; (2) the consideration of 

 methods of coagulation in view of the almost prohibitive 

 price of acetic acid ; (3) the adoption of such methods 

 of treating rubber as will result in a uniform rate of' 

 vulcanization, or, in other words, in the standardizatiork 

 of plantation rubber. 



