Vol. XI. No. 274. 



THE AGRIf^ULTURAL NEWS. 



34- 



by him for the purpose, and an\ resulting plants which 

 are suspected of disease may, at the discretion of the 

 Superintendent of Agriculture, be destroyed.' 



As these regulations have been uiade, a Proclama- 

 tion was issued on August .SI, 1ft 12, declaring that a pre- 

 ventive Proclamation dated November 30. 1910, shall 

 cease tobe in force, so far as it relates to coco-nut plants or 

 parts of them, or coco-nuts in husk or any earth or soil, 

 or any package, article, covering or thing packed or in 

 any way associated with coco-nut plants or portions of 

 plants, or coco-nuts. 



A New Method for Investiaraticg the Needs of 

 Plants. 



The A'nnales de I'Institut Pasteur for October 

 1911 contains a paper in which it i.s suggested that) 

 scientihe progress in agriculture is receiving inter- 

 ference, not so much on the account of the want of 

 ideas but because of the lack of e.xperimental methods 

 suitable for their verification. (Jreat stress i.s laid on 

 the suggested necessity of cultivating the higher plants 

 in nutritive solutions free from bacterid, when it is 

 desired to gain further information concerning their 

 physiological functions. 



It is recognized that past methods of experiment- 

 ation have been most valuable, but it is submitted 

 that they reijuiro amplification in the direction indi- 

 cated. The mode of procedure brought forward is to 

 develop the plants at first in ;i complete nutritive 

 solution, and then with these plants, after their roots 

 have been well washed, to conduct investigations in 

 incomplete nutrient solutions free from bacteria. The 

 author calls this uiethod the method of interrupted 

 nutrition: he has employed it already in studying the 

 formation of citric acid in fungi. It has also been 

 applied to a certain extent to the study of the growth 

 of maize. 



It will be recognized that the idea is not new. 

 The method is rendered extremely difficult because 

 mean.s have not been devised .so far for growing plants 

 tasily in nutrient solutions that will remain free from 

 fcactcria. 



Candelilla Wax. 



Articles and notes on candelilla wax have appeared 

 already in the Agricultural Nevs, Vols. IX, pp. 104 

 ar.d 124; X, pp. 203 and 409; and XI, pp. 72 and 199. 



Diplomatic and Considar Reports, No. 4943 

 Annual Series, July 1912, shows that in the year 1911 

 there were several companies in Mexico which were 

 exploiting candelilla. One of these has a plant vi^ith 

 a capacity of 25 tons of the wax per month, and it is 

 intended to erect a second plant having a similar 

 output; the product of this company, which find.*^ 

 a ready market in the I nited Kingdom, the United 



States of Auierica and Germany, possesses a melting 

 point varying from 67' to 76 C. 



The plants producing the wax only grow in the 

 most arid regions; in well-watered districts they 

 contain little or no wax. With the best plants the 

 quantity extracted averages about 2 per cent. It is 

 expected that some by-products will be obtained,, 

 among them tannin. 



As has been stated in the Agricultural Neivs,. 

 candelilla wax is used at present in the manufacture 

 of such articles as shoe polishes, floor waxes, varnishes, 

 carbon papers, phonograph records and for electrical 

 insulation. It sells for llrf. to Is. per lb. delivered in 

 Eurojie. 



The record has already been made that plants of 

 candelilla are growing in the Botanic Stations in Mont- 

 .serrat, Antigua and St. Kitts, from planting material 

 obtained by the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture. 



The Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Sulphur Content 

 of Plants at Different Times. 



The Bidletin vf th<- Bureau 0/ Agricultural 

 Intelligence and of Plant Diseases, for August 1912, 

 gives an abstract of a paper appearing in the 

 Cumptes lieadus de L Academic des Sciences, Paris, 

 1912, p. Iti27, dealing with this subject. It points out, 

 first, that Isidori' Pierre had discovered that the weight 

 of the dry matter and of ash in wheat diminishes from 

 the time of Howering until the grains are mature, and 

 that Joulie had found the same to be true for all 

 cereals. The fact that the losses vary with different 

 plants and the circumstance that they are very irregu- 

 lar have caused the author of the paper to make 

 further investigations regarding the matter, using 

 barley as the plant cultivated. 



It seems from the results that the dry matter in 

 the plant increases regularly up to the time of com- 

 )jlete matiirity; after this a lessening takes place. The 

 phosphoric acid content also increases regularly up to 

 maturity but does not take part in the diminution 

 afterward. The facts are the same for sulphur, except 

 for a slight lessening in the content after ripeness. 



It is claimed that this demonstrates that both 

 phosphorus and sulphur exist in the plant in a state 

 insoluble in water and not diffusible, such as lecithin, 

 nuclein and albuminoids, and that the phosphorus is also 

 probably in an insoluble state in a mineral form such as 

 the phosphates of lime and magnesia. This would serve 

 as an explanation of the fact that the phosphorus does 

 not diminish even after the plant has attained maturity. 



There is an increase in the nitrogen content up to 

 the period of maturity, and after this it suffers con- 

 siderable lo.'s, which may be as much as 16'4 per cent. 



The acid elements considered here have their 

 maximum percentage in the plant at the time of com- 

 plete maturity. The author does not think that this 

 is the case with the alkaline elements, and he proposes 

 to demonstrate the truth of his opinion later. 



