VcL. .XI. No. 256. 



VTHE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



the draining was very insufficient and faulty; while the 

 cultivators require instruction as to the proper method 

 for the application of pi'n manure. The work of the 

 Agricultural Instructor in this district has been ])ro- 

 ductive of good results, though some indifference exists 

 on the part of those who worked in the' competition on 

 the last occasion. " 



In St. Andrew's parish the results were disappoint- 

 ing, and did not compare well with those of the 

 previous years, the chief failures being with those who 

 have worked previously in the competition. The 

 judges, Messrs. W. G. Lang and H. II. Preudhomme, 

 recommend that mountain holdings should be allowed 

 to compete separately from the others, on account of 

 the difference in conditions. Especial praise is given 

 to some of the mountain holdings, which have been 

 worked e.xcellently, chieHy on account of the assistance 

 that has been afforded by a neighbouring planter. The 

 judges continue to urge very strongly that all holdings 

 should be visited by some of the Society's officers, as 

 some of the work offered at present is very inferior. 



The report on the competitions in St. David's 

 'parish, by Messrs. A. H. B. Gall and D. G. Alexander, 

 states that the work was very second-rate when com- 

 pared with that of previous competitions, except in the 

 case of one competitor. The suggestion is made that 

 ihe Agricultural Instructor should be prbvided with an 

 assistant during part of the year, in order that more 

 attention may be given to the holdings. 



The judges of the competition in St. John's, 

 Messrs. S. Parkinson and D. Lang, state that very little 

 work above the ordinary standard was shown, except 

 on the part of one competitor. 



It is concluded by the authors that ammonium 

 sulphate is often wrongly considered to be inferior to 

 nitrate of soda, as a source of nitrogen, because it is not 

 employed with sufficient reference to its suitability for 

 the*2)articular soil or crop. 



The Utilization of Ammonium Salts by Green 

 Plants. 



This matter receives attention in an abstract of 

 a paper describing work on the subject, contained in 

 the Experiment Station Record, Vol. XXV, p. 223. 

 The plants employed were grown in sterilized liijuid 

 cultures, in sterilized soils of different structure, and in 

 soils under normal crop conditions. 



In liquid cultures where nitrification could not 

 take place, it was found that certain ammonium salts 

 are directly absorbed for food by green plants: this 

 , result is in accordance with those obtained by other 

 investigators, which have received attention already in 

 the Agricultural News. When the ammonium salts 

 are absorbed rapidly, the nutritive liquid becomes acid: 

 but if an ammonium salt such as ammonium mag- 

 nesium phosphate, which is only slightly soluble, is 

 employed, the amount of acidification is much smaller, 

 and there is the additional advantage ( that the rate 

 of the absorption of ammonium is mnch decreased, 

 so that the plant is enabled to use it in the most 

 thorough manner The principal conditions affecting 

 the action of different salts of ammonia, in sterile soils 

 where nitrification is excluded, are the power of the 

 soil to absorb ammonia an.d the amount of lime 

 present. 



Changes in the Arsenic in Dipping Fluids. 



This subject was considered in a note on page 2.5 

 of this volume of the Agricultural News, where it was 

 stated that investigations conducted in the United 

 States are said to have shown that the oxidation of 

 sodium ar.senite to sodium arsenate, in dipping fluids, 

 takes place through the agency of bacteria. 



In relation to the same subject, it is of interest 

 that the Journal of Agricultural Science for October 

 191 1, contains an account of work which shows that the 

 oxidation of the arsenite takes place chieHy because 

 of the presence of tar products in the fluids. The in- 

 vestigations show cd that the change takes place especi- 

 ally quickly where wood tar is used in making up the 

 mixtures. 



The practical outcome of these experiments is 

 expressed as the necessity for official analysis, at proper 

 intervals, of arsenical dipping fluids, wherever the use 

 of these is prescribed legally. 



The Treatment of Yaws. 



Several notes on work connected with the curative 

 treatment of yaws ire presented on page 8() of the 

 Erperiment Station Record for July 1911. In the 

 first of these, success is claimed in trials conducted in the 

 Philippine Islands in which the drug salvarsan, com- 

 monly known as ' G06 ' was employed. In ten to 

 twenty days the cases presented a perfectly smooth, 

 pigmented skin in the areas previously occupied by the 

 yaws. 



The matter is advanced further by work which 

 is noted from the Britislt Medical Journal, 1911, 

 p. 360. In this, it was found that the blood serum of 

 patients who had received Salvarsan was as effective 

 as the drug, producing an improvement, and again that 

 this property was shown by the serum of patients that 

 had themselves received serum. It was demonstrated 

 further, by control experiments, that the serum from 

 yaws patients can produce the improvement, and 

 this only when the patient is under the influence of 

 salvarsan. 



Additional work, conducted in Trinidad by the 

 author whose conclusions have just been given, and 

 described in the British Medical Journal, 1911, 

 p. 618, has supported the fact of the curative action of 

 serum from patients receiving salvarsan, but has 

 shown that yaws tubercles in the nostril are not 

 affected either by the drug or by the serum. Other 

 conclusions are that a curative effect is exhibited by 

 the ailministration of the milk of a goat injected with 

 salvarsan, and attention is drawn to the only other 

 organic compounds that are known to cause benefit 

 in yaws. 



