Vol. XI. No, 273. 



THE AGRICDLTDKAL NEWS. 



325 



TRADE OF PANAMA, 1911. 



An account of the agricultural possibilities of 

 Panama was given in the Agricultural News for .June 

 22. The following details of the trade of the Republic 

 during 1911, taken from Diplomatic and Consular 

 Reports, No. -lOTH Annual Series, issued in .Vugust, is 

 of interest in connexion with that article: — 



Exports from the Republic of Panama, with the exception 

 of bananas, are insignificant in amount and value. The entire 

 export of bananas comes from the plantations of the United 

 Fruit Company, an American company, at Bocas del Toro, 

 s.nA amounted to 3,643,900 bunches, valued at £184,2-")7 in 



1910 and to 4,297,260 bunches, valued at £214,83-5 in 1911. 

 Dther exports are rubber, coco-nut», ivory nuts, gold an<l 

 mother-of-pearl. Mahogany, cedar and cocobolo are 

 3i'ginning to be expnrted. 



Attention may be drawn to the increase in the 

 exportation of ivory nuts, locally known as Tagua, which in 



1911 was the export of highest value after bananas. These 

 nuts are collected by Indians on the Caribbean coast aad are 

 brought by them to Colon, where they are readily liought 

 ■by merchants for shipment to New York and Hamburg. 

 A new field for ivory nuts is being developed near the 

 headwaters of the Chepo, or Bayana lliver, whence the nuts 

 are shipped to Panama. These nuts are larger in size than 

 those brought to Colon, but in actual quality they are not 

 ■equal to the Ecuadorian nuts. They command a high price 

 in New York at present, where there is a demand for the 

 'arge size buttons which can be made from them. Specimens 

 of the nuts have been forwarded to London firms, but 

 j3ritish button makers demand the highest quality, and their 

 prices are as a rule not so good as those ottered in New York. 

 There are also cacao and ipecacuanha growing wild on the land 

 referred to, but the latter is valuable and easily damaged, 

 and the cultivators have not yet touched it with unskilled 

 workmen. 



Coconuts come from the San Bias coast and are shipped 

 1iy a merchant in Colon to the United States in his own shii^s. 

 The San Bias nuts rank high on the Xew York market, and 

 lave realized $40 per 1,000 nuts. The Smithsonian Institute 

 at Washington has pronounced them superior to any on the 

 European or American markets. Two large plantations have 

 recently been started, one for a grove of .50,000 tri'es at 

 Xombre de Dios, on the Caribbean coast, and another near 

 the Pacific entrance to the Canal. 



Practically all the gold exported comes from the mines 

 of the Darien Company, a French company registered in the 

 I'nited Kingdom, which has been working for years. 

 Nearly all the streams of the country bear evidence of gold, 

 but the difficulties in the way of practical working appear 

 to be insurmountable. Prospectors continue, however, to 

 explore the Darien country and the provinces of Los Santos 

 and Veraguas in the hope of making a rich 'find'. No other 

 minerals are worked. 



Mineral rights in the Canal zone are reserved to the 

 United States Government, and it is stated that quicksilver 

 exists. The Canal geologist has examined the so called 

 'coal deposits' in the Zone, and has reported that it is certain 

 that no coal of any commercial importance will ever be found 

 ■within the Canal Zone, and that the local lignite shale beds 

 of Culebra Cut, and at other points, have no commercial 

 Talue whatever, because of their very high percentage of ash 

 and high content of water. 



The efl'ect of the completion and opening of the canal 

 ■on local trade is difficult to predict, but on the whole there 



appears no reason for expecting any development, unlevs 

 Colon is made a free port and its merchants are permitterl 

 by the United States Oovernment to supply, or compete in 

 supplying, shipping in transit through the Canal, Local mer- 

 chants fear that when the caual is completed the Gfovernment 

 stores which furnish supplies duty free to canal employees, 

 will be continued and will extend their operations to ship- 

 ping, also that the supply of coal and ship chandlery will 

 be made a Government monopoly. 



A NEW GROUND BEAN. 



The discovery of a new genus of Leguminosae in Togo- 

 land, three years ago, led to the addition of a new generic 

 name, Kerstingiella, to the very large number of naine.s 

 under that order. The plant first described by this name is 

 KerstingiiUa ijmcarpa and it is particularly interesting from 

 the fact that its fruits, like those of the common ground or 

 monkey nut [Aiafhu hypogaea) and of the Bambarra ground 

 nut ( Voaiich.eia xuhlmanea), ripen underground. The same 

 plant was also reported from Dahomey under the name 

 Voaodzna Poi-isoni. It has since been under cultivation in 

 the Botanic Gardens at Dahleni and .Jena. 



The plant is cultivated fairly largely in Upper Guinea 

 and exists as a field crop in British Nigeria; the /uw 

 Biillfiiii, 1912, p, 209, which is the source of this informa') 

 tion, states: 'The plant is undoubtedly of some economic 

 importance,' and suggests that further information should be 

 obtained. 



In Togoland there are three varieties, and the plant goes 

 under the name of Kandela: in Dahomey it is called 1 )oi; varie- 

 ties also exist in the latter place, and in both cases they are 

 separated by the appearance of the seeds. Analyses of these 

 indicate a high nutritious value; they are said to have 

 a nitrogenou.-i content as large as that in the richest ground 

 nuts, and it is claimed that Europeans find them more 

 palatable, the taste recalling that of the best varieties of 

 beans. The seeds are small, so that the yield is not large; 

 their size is given as 8 to 10 cm. by 6 to 7 mm , but cm. is 

 here surely a misprint for mm., and this means a maximum 

 size of §-inch by nearly |-inch. The French explorer Chavalier 

 states that, in Dahomey, the women are not allowed to eat 

 the seeds. 



K. yeocarpa, like V. subterranea at first, is not known, so 

 far, out of cultivation. It is described as a prostrate herb with 

 a main stem 2 inches to something over 3 inches long, which 

 roots from the nodes; the tap root possesses slender branches 

 sometimes bearing nodules. Each leaf consists of three 

 leaflets, and there is much variation in size. The fiowers are 

 in pairs, or solitary, borne in the axils of the leaves; while 

 the outer covering of the seed is thin, and its colour white, 

 red or black, or it may be mottled. The article in the K'ivj 

 Bulletin gives a useful table of differences between the plant 

 and V. suhtevranea. 



The way in which the pods of A', geocaipa are buried 

 in the ground to develop and ripen is almost unique among 

 the Leguminosae. The fully-developed flowers are close to 

 the ground, and after fertilization the very short base of 

 the pistil lengthens and turns toward the ground, and then 

 the corolla and style fall away. This lengthening causes the 

 ovary, while it is still very small, to be pushed out of the 

 calyx, and it is eventually driven into the ground, where 

 it ripens. 



The article concludes by giving circumstances of the 

 discovery of the Bambarra ground nut in the wild state. 



