Vol. 51. No. 271. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



297 



have been felt, and the circumstance that the absence 

 of these is shown h\ the s-uccessful cultivation of cotton 

 in the island, reason after season. 



Publications of the Imperial Depaitment of 

 Agriculture. 



As has been advertised, the issue of the West 

 Indian Bnllefin, Vol. XIJ, No 3, has been made. 

 This contains the papers in full belonging to the 

 sessions in which Cacao and Sugar were dealt with at 

 the West Indian Agricultural Conference, 1912. 

 A detailed list of these papers is as follows: — 



Cacao: Methods of Spraying Cacao: Fungus Dis- 

 eases of Cacao; Cacao Canker; A Possible Inference to 

 be Drawn from the Studies on Cacao Canker; Insect 

 Pests of Cacao; Manurial Enperiments on Cacao in 

 Trinidad; A Description of the Barnard Cacao Polisher; 

 The Structure and Pollination of the Cacau Flower. 

 Sugar: Manurial E.xperinients on Sugar-cane in Trini- 

 dad and Tobago; A Comparison of some Seedling 

 Sugar-canes with the Bourbon variety in Barbados; 

 Bourbon and Seedling Canes; The Application of 

 Mendelian Principles to Sugar-cane Breeding; The 

 Study of Sugar-canes with a view to their Classifica- 

 tion; A Quick Method for Estimating Moisture in 

 Megass; The Sugar Industry in Antigua and St. Kitts- 

 Nevis; and the Determination of the Water Content 

 of Molasses. 



The West Indion Bulletin, Vol. XII, Xo. :i, may 

 be obtained from all agents for the sale of the publica- 

 tions of the Imperial Department of Agriculture; 

 price (irf., post free 8t/. 



It may be stated, at this opportunity, that the 

 usual issue has been made of the handbook published 

 by the Department, called the West Indies in Canad.i, 

 for distribution at the Canadian National Exhibition 

 and to firms in Canada and New York that are 

 interested in West Indian products, as well as to those 

 who have advertised in the book. 



Vol. XII, No. 4, of the WeM Indian Bidletiv, 

 dialing with papers on Plant Diseases and Pests, 

 Coco-nut, Lime and Fruit, and Kice Industries, pres- 

 ented for the Agricultural Conference, will be published 

 shortly. 



School Gardens in Jamaica. 



A copy of the Annual Report of the Education 

 Department and of the Board of Educaiion, Jamaica, 

 for the jear ended March 1911, has been received 

 recently. This contains the following information 

 regarding school gardens in the island: — 



'The number of school gardens recognized by the 

 Department at the end of the year under review was 

 377 as compared with 3(il the previous year. And the 

 expenditure under Article 112 was £74(i in 1910-11 

 as compared with £509 1909-10. Mr. IHurray, In- 

 tructor for School Gardens, reports having visited 14.5 

 of these school gardens and extraets from his report will 



be found along with those from the Inspectors' Reports. 

 As in previous years prizes of £3 and £2 and two of 

 £1 each were awarded to the best four gardens in each 

 Inspector's district, on the Inspector's recommendation 

 after consultation with Mr. Murray. Opportunities 

 were again afforded to teachers to obtain seeds at cost 

 price and cuttings and plants of many varieties gratuit- 

 ously through the Agricultural Department, but the 

 number of teachers who made use of these oppor- 

 tunities was only sixty-two as compared with sixty-one 

 last year. 



'In several districts the Agricultural Instructors 

 ha\ e rendered very valuable assistance to the teachers 

 in their school gardens and realize fully the important 

 part this encouragement of agricultural interest amongst 

 children may play in the development and success of 

 their own work. This co-operation of the Agricultural 

 Instructors is welcomed by the Department and 

 I hope to see it more systematically organized in the 

 future.' 



It is added that considerable encouragement 

 has been given to practical agricultural teaching in 

 Jamaica under a recent amendment of the Code, the 

 sjiecial grant for the work having been increased from 

 a maximum of £5 to one of £6; and better provision 

 has been made for supplying tools to small schools, and 

 for fencing. 



Treatment for Wood Preservation in India. 



The antiseptic treatment of timber in India, with 

 special reference to railway sleepers, is dealt with in an 

 interesting and valuable manner in Vol. Ill, Part 2, of 

 the Indian Forest Records, published during last 

 March. 



After a preliminary note on the antiseptic treat- 

 ment of timber, the various methods for this treatment 

 are grouped under two heads- the processes in which 

 injection by hydrostatic or pneumatic agencies are 

 employed, and those which involve the open tank or 

 brush method of treatment. 



The former of the.se — processes employing injec- 

 tion — include: creasoting, the haskinizingor vulcanizing 

 process, the boucherie process, the burnettizing process, 

 which involves the use of zinc chloride, the gardenerizing 

 process, the Riiping process and the cresol-calcium pro- 

 cess (the last was described in the Agricultural News, 

 Vol. IX, p. 137). 



With reference to the open tank or brush method 

 of treating timber, the employment of the following 

 receives description: chloride of mercury (kvanizing 

 process), saccharine solution (powellizing process), 

 avenarius carbolineum.jodelite, atlas solution, solignum, 

 green oil, microsol, bellit, cresol-calcium, cresojie and 

 other antiseptics. The last include include zinc chloride 

 and sodium chloride, bellitol, hylinit, anthrol, afral, 

 antiformine, antigermine, and lysol, as well as other.--. 



The publication concludes with an account of pro- 

 posals as to the way in which future investigation into 

 the antiseptic treatment of wood for sleepers should be 

 carried out. 



