THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



March 11, 1905. 



EDUCATIONAL 



St. Lucia. 



The following note on agricultural education in 

 St. Lucia ajipearcd in the An mud Bepart on the 

 colony for 1908: — 



In .Tuly 1903 twenty-five teachers went into residence 

 at the Union Agricultural School and passed a fortnight 

 there, receiving lectures and practical demonstrations in 

 agricultural subjects from the Curator and the Agricultural 

 Instructor. The experiment proved very successful, and 

 cannot fail to be of benefit both to the teachers themselves 

 and to their pupils, as demonstrations and objectdessons on 

 agricultural subjects now form a regular part of the ordinary 

 school work. It is perhaiis not too nuich to say that there 

 has been a real awakening of interest in this direction among 

 both teachers and scholars. 



School Gardens in Jamaica. 



The following is extracted from the Journitl aj 

 flip Jaiii((ic(( A<ir'tiuUaral Socicli/ for Jan\iary : — 



The Travelling Instructors and Local Instructors have 

 been visiting the variou.s school gardens in the island, and 

 reporting upon tlieni. Some of the teachers have done 

 wonders, more especially those who have been through the 

 course of instruction at Hope, and who appear to have 

 benefited greatly by their e.xperience there. Mr. W. J. 

 Thonii)Son has visited twenty-three school gardens in 

 St. Andrew, St. Thomas, and Portland, and in his report 

 says : 'I was pleased to find that the teachers I came across 

 are falling in with the idea of these school gardens. Some 

 of them take a great interest in the work and in teaching 

 the children, too, apart from the financial )iart of it. Also, 

 .some of the gardens are a long way in front of the others. 

 I find that very few of the teachers know much about the 

 use of improved implements, even a fork. We must not, 

 however, e.xpect them to become past masters in the 

 technique of garden tools in a short time ; it will be long 

 before they can use them as well as they can use a pen.' 



The tools recommended for school gardens are as 

 follows : — 



1 digging fork 1 water pot; 1 cutlass; 



(four prongs) ; 1 draw hoe ; 1 dutch hoe ; 



1 pruning saw ; 1 sjiade ; 1 garden trowel. 



Dominica Agricultural School. 



The following is the report of the examiiar 

 <Mr. L. Lewton-Brain, B.A., F.L.S.) on the recent half- 

 yearly examination of the pupiLs of the Agricultural 

 School at Dominica : — ■ 



None of the boys have been at the school for a year, and 

 twelve of them have been aduutted since the last half-yearly 

 examination. Consequently, they have all taken junior 

 papers in the pre.sent examination, and for the present year, 

 at least, all the boys had better continue with the junior 

 ■work. Out of twenty boys, twelve have obtained more than 

 50 per cent, of the total marks, and, of these, five have been 

 admitted during the last six months. 



Roudette and Cuffy have done very well in all subjects 

 and have also obtained the highest marks for the science 

 papers; Augustine and Prosper have also done fairly well. 

 These four boys also did well at the L^st examination. 

 Morancie is at the head of the new admissions. O. N. 

 Pinard has again done poorly. 



The Agricultural jiapers are among the best and they 

 are fairly uniform ; there are some very good papers in 

 Arithmetic and also some very poor ones. The Botany and 

 Geography are, on the whole, fair, though there are no very 

 good jiapers. The Chemistry papers are the weakest, very 

 few boys have obtained more than half the marks in this 

 subject. 



As nuich allowance as possible has been made for the 

 evident ditticulty some of the boys have in expressing their 

 knowledge in English. Few of them, probably, before being 

 admitted to the Agiicultural School, habitually spoke 

 anything Imt jiatnix. 



CALCIUM CYANAMIDE. 



In connexion with the subject of the fixation of 

 atmospheric nitrogen, mention has been made in the 

 Aiiraidto nd Nciva (Vol. Ill, pp. 279 and 343) of 

 calcium cyanamide. In the first issue of the Journal 

 of Aiirlraltaral tSclciica there is an account by 

 Mr. A. 1). Hall, M.A, Director of the Kothamsted 

 Exi)erimental Station, of the preparation and properties 

 of this substance, from which we take the following: — 



Calcium cyanamide represents the first attempt on 

 a commercial scale to bring atmospheric nitrogen into 

 a state of combination, to manufacture, in fact, an artificial 

 manure containing nitrogen derived from the air. The 

 startingiioint for the manufacture is the well-known 

 substance calcium carbide, which is produced by heating in 

 the electric furnace a mixture of chalk and coke or some 

 other form of carbon. The calcium carbide, now .so generally 

 employed for generating acetylene for lighting pur[)0ses, is 

 almost wholly made where cheap [lOwer to [iroduce electricity 

 can be obtained from a waterfall, and the manufacture of 

 calcium cyanamide must naturally take place alongside, so as 

 to secure a cheap supply of carbide. The remaining process 

 is simple enough. The calcium carbide is reduced to a coarse 

 powder, placed in a vessel resendjling a gas retort and brought 

 to a temiierature approaching white heat, when a current 

 of nitrogen gas is led over it until combination ceases. 

 The result is a compound containing nearly 20 per cent, 

 of nitrogen, crude calcium cj'anamide, the fornuda of whic'i 

 when pure would be represented by CaCX„. The nitrogen 

 reqiured in the manufacture is olitained from the air in the 

 simplest way by passing air throtigh a heated cylinder 

 packed with copper turnings ; the oxygen combines with the 

 copper, and the lutrogeu passes forward into a gasholder until 

 recjuired. The copper is regenerated by jiassing a current of 

 coal-gas through the heated cylinder. The resulting crude 

 calcium cyanannde is a fine black powder, which decomposes 

 rapidly when heated with water under pressure, and slowly 

 with water at onlinary temperatures, into calcium carbonate 

 and anunonia, in accordance with the equation : — • 



CaCNo + 3H„0 = CaCO;; -f 2NH3. 



The manufacture of crude calcium cyanamide has not 

 yet been taken up on a large scale. A model plant is in 

 operation in Berlin capable of turning out quantities of 

 about 1 ton per diem, and arrangements are being made 

 with other firms to develop the process commercially. 



As a manure it should be applied to the soil some little 

 time before the seed is .sown and should lie lightly ploughed 

 in, lest any loss of ammonia take place. It caimot well be 

 mixed with other manures; with superphosphates, for e.vample, 

 the reaction is somewhat intense, and the whole mass 

 becomes very hot. 



