124 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



April 13, 1912. 



GLEANINGS. 



Reports received recently from England, on cotton from 

 Montserrat, indicate that the lint is being more carefully 

 prepared than in the past, for there is little mention of the 

 presence of leaf. There is, however, frequent allusion to 

 irregularity of staple. 



Information has been received from the Governor of the 

 Gold Coast to the effect that the cacao crop of the Colony for 

 last year amounted to 89,482,226 ft., valued at £1,613,458, 

 as compared with 50,609,950 lb. in 1910, 45,277,606 fc. in 

 1909, and 28,545,910 8). in 1908. {The Board of Trade 

 Journal, February 22, 1912.) 



Food Inspection Decision No. 1 39 of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, issued February 23, 1912, holds 

 that any oil other than olive oil is misbranded when it is sold 

 under the name Sweet Oil. This makes it incorrect in the 

 United States to label cotton seed oil, or mixtures of this 

 oil and olive oil, with the words Sweet Oil. 



Latest reports indicate that the sugar crop of the Philip- 

 pines this year will break all previous records, exceeding that 

 of last year by 35,000 tons. The total crop of this year is 

 estimated by experts at 240,000 tons. Of this quantity about 

 8,000 tons will enter into home consumption, leaving 232,000 

 tons for export. {American Sugar Industry, March 1912.) 



According to the Modern Sugar Planter for March 2, 

 1912, sugarcane planting is backward in parts of Louisiana, 

 and seed cane of the home variety has proved to be bad in 

 several instances. The Demerara seedlings 74 and 95, are stated, 

 however, to be giving very good planting material, there 

 being very little difference between them in this respect. 



The Uganda Official Gazette for January 31, 1912, shows 

 that the cotton exported during the period April 1 to 

 September 30, 1911 was as follows: ginned cotton, 1,421 

 tons value £104,318; unginned cotton, 1,123 tons value 

 £26,935. The similar quantities and values for the same 

 period in 1910 were 706 tons value £51,322, and 1,110 tons 

 tons value £19,600. The percentage of lint on seed-cotton 

 may be calculated at 33" 3. 



The State of Ohio, United States of America, has passed 

 a law, which comes into force in May, requiring all orchards 

 in whick there are ten or more trees to be sprayed at least 

 ''bliice between November 1 and April 30. The preparation 

 used must be such as will destroy the San Jose, oyster shell, 

 and scurfy scales. A fine of §25 to ^100 is to be imposed 

 for each year that spraying is not performed. (The Garden- 

 ers' Chronicle, March 2, 1912.) 



Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, February 

 26, the Minister of Agriculture said it is proposed to place at 

 the disposal of Kothamsted a sum of about £2,000 annually,, 

 to help the extension of new work on special lines of research. 

 Arrangements are being made to send several scientific ex- 

 perts to India to prosecute enquiries relating to foot and mouth- 

 disease, in connexion with the Commission recently appointed 

 upon the subject It is anticipated that the cost of thi.s Com^ 

 mission i\ill run into some thousands of pounds. {Nature, 

 February 29, 1912.) 



In the Bulletin of the Bureau of Agricultural Intelli- 

 gence and of Plant Diseases for June 1911, page 1262, 

 a note is given reviewing recent work in regard to the possi- 

 ble action of gypsum with respect to nitrifying bacteria. 

 The investigation has shown that there is no such action, . 

 neither was there any effect when lime and magnesia were 

 used. Experiments with artificial soil and with natural soil' 

 of the clay type have supported the hypothesis that the 

 beneficial action of gypsum in clay soils is due to a chemical, 

 and physical modification of the soils. 



A publication issued by the Institut Colonial Marseil- 

 lais, called Le Commerce des Colonies Francaises en lOlO, 

 states in regard to Martinique that this colony is recovering; 

 from the catastrophe of 1902, and that the trade figures, 

 which in 1904 showed imports of £593,267 and exports ofv 

 £500,556, giving a total of £1,093,823, had reached, in. 

 1910 ; imports £774,363, exports £1,076,161; total 

 £1,850,524. The continued increase of exports since 1907" 

 is regarded as an indication that the ancient prosperity of 

 this colony has been regained, for it is necessary to go back- 

 as far as the year 1884 in order to find similar figures. 



Information received from Mr. W. H. Mitchell, M.A., 

 Head Master of the St. Kitta Grammar School shows that in 

 the Cambridge Local Examination held in December last, as 

 far as the science subjects are concerned, eleven boys were 

 entered from the school as candidates, ten of whom were 

 successful, eight of the latter being holders of agricultural 

 scholarships. In the individual science subjects taken, the 

 results were as follows: agricultural science — 1 entered, 

 1 passed (with the mark good); chemistry — 8 entered, 8 pass- 

 ed (2 with the mark good); botany — 9 entered, 7 passed 

 (1 with the mark good). The less favourable results in. 

 botany are partly due to the fact that this is a new subject in- 

 the school. 



Articles having reference to the extraction of wax from 

 the sugar cane have appeared in the Agricultural News, 

 Vols. VIII, p. 360, and X, p. 51. The International Sugar 

 Journal for February 1912 has a note dealing with the same 

 subject, which states that a large sample of the wax was for- 

 warded from Hawaii to Europe, as much as two years ago, for 

 an opinion on it, when it was condemned, and nothing further 

 was done in Hawaii. It is stated, on the other hand, that 

 several firms in Java ventured to recover large quantities of 

 the wax before they took steps to ascertain the possibilities 

 of the market, and, as a result, sustained a heavy loss. The 

 opinion is given, however, that more will be heard of the 

 extraction of wax from sugar cane, as fresh patents for the 

 process have been taken out from time to time. 



