188 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Jink 10, 1911. 



GLEANINGS. 



At a meeting ol' the Legislative Cuiincil of (iienada, on 

 March 3, 1911, the following re.solution was passed unani- 

 mously: 'That this Council is of opinion that a systematic 

 effort should be made to stamp out malaria in this Colony, 

 and that a committee should be a{)j)ointed to reiiort upon the 

 organization necessary for the pur|pose.' 



A paper in the Complex Ketnlua de la Hocii'lr de Hio- 

 logic, Paris, for 1909, p. .3G7, gives the results of investiga- 

 tions with grains heated to certain temperatures, in order to 

 find out the effect on their malting jiower. It was discovered 

 that grains still possessed this power, even when they had 

 been heated in water to a temperature of about 150" F. 



A copy of a catalogue issued by Messrs. T. A. W. Clarke, 

 Ltd., Engineers and Rubber Plantation Machinery Makers, 

 Havelock Iron AVorks, Leicester, has been received. This 

 contains particuUirs of six kinds of washing, creping and 

 sheeting machines, as well as of a macerator, for use on rub))er 

 plantations. The firm also manufactures powerful hand- 

 ])owcr lilofking pres.'-es, for employment in coiincxion with 

 rubber. 



The Exjicrimnil Slation Jii'cord, Vol. X.Vlll, p. 72-1, 

 presents an abstract giving the results of work that has been 

 performed in connexion with the direct absorption of nitrites 

 by plants. Difl'ertnt nutritive media were used in the 

 experiments, and it was found that rice and maize seedlings, 

 grown in a sterilized, nutrient medium, containing dilute 

 sodium nitrite, Averc able to ab.sorb this compound directly, 

 without suffering any injury. 



The publication has been made recently of an Ordin- 

 ance, No. 7 of 1911, Grenada, which has been drawn for the 

 purpose of amending the Cacao and Nutmegs Ordinances, 

 189(>1909, mainly in order to provide for the inclusion of 

 cotton under the provisions of the former Ordinances. The 

 new Ordinance may be cited as 'The Cocoa, Nutmegs and 

 Cotton Ordinance, 1911', and is to be construed as one with 

 the older Ordinances just mentioned. 



Ordinance No. 1 of 1911. St. Vincent, has been nuide 

 in order to provide for the collection of exiiort duties, and has 

 received the short title The Exjiort Duties Ordinance, 1911. 

 It provides foi the levying of the following amounts on the 

 products mentioned, for payment for th(' public use of the 

 Colony, arrowroot,;;)^, per cwt.; Sea Island cotton, 2s, percwt.; 

 Marie Oalante cotton, l.s. pei- cwt.; cotton seed, 3(7. jier cwt.; 

 cacao, G(^. per cwt. This Ordinance repeals tlie Ivxport Duties 

 Ordinance, 1900, and will come into force on October 1 of 

 the present year. 



According to The Hoard of Trade Journal for April 13, 

 1911, it is stated in a publication issued by the German 

 Colonial Office that increasing efforts are being made to culti- 

 vate American varieties of cotton in the Russian provinces in 

 Central Asia, but that the product is inferior to the best 

 American lint as regards length, lustre and strength. The 

 rapid development of cotton-growing in Russian territory is 

 shown by the circumstance that the area devoted to this 

 increased from 2,700 acres in 188.") to 158,919 acres in 1890, 

 and 738,846 acres in 1900. 



In a communication received from Mr. J. H. Lee, who 

 was recently engaged in cotton-planting in Antigua, and is 

 now stationed in Vfauritius on behalf of the British Cotton 

 Growing Association, an interesting statement is made in 

 regard to a use for vetivert or khus-khus grass {AndrojMgon 

 iiiuricalns) in that island. It appears that this grass is 

 usually planted all round the cane fields in Mauritius, in order 

 to prevent the spread of devil's grass {Cynodon Dactylon) 

 from the estate roads on to the cultivated land. It is also 

 used in the colony for thatching coolie huts. 



A report of H.M. Consul at Ciudad Bolivar, shows that the 

 amount of block balata shipped from Venezuela in 1910 was 

 1,880 metric tons, of the value of £451.275. This is a larger 

 quantity than the record amount for 1909. which was 1,624 

 tons. In a few years, there is likely to l)e a large decrease 

 in the amount produced, as the chief districts from which 

 lialata is obtained in Venezuela are now situated far from the 

 coast, and the supply is rapidly becoming exhausted. At the 

 present time, even, it would not pay to collect the product, 

 if the prices h.ippened to fall below Is. 9d. or 2s. per lb. 



Gardening is now taught in forty-six of the forty-nine 

 county areas in England, and in eleven of the thirteen in 

 Wales. The number of schools where this sulyect is taught, 

 and the number of scholars instructed, show a considerable 

 increase. The complete returns for 1907-8 show that grant 

 was paid for 18,134 scholars. During 1908-9 instruction 

 was given in 1,587 school courses, and grant was paid for 

 24,925 boys and 485 girls. During 1909-10 instruction was 

 given in three centres and 1,928 school courses. {Report of 

 the Board of Edticatiun, England, for the year 1909-10.) 



The IJcngal Chamber of (llommerce has published the 

 final official forecast of the rice crop in Burma for 1910-11, 

 dated February 15. The area under rice cultivation in the 

 fifteen piincipal rice-producing districts is reported as 

 7,185,853 acres — an increase of 19,274 acres as compared 

 with the actual area last season, and the produce per acre is 

 estimated at 90 per cent, of the normal. It is estimated that 

 2,580,000 tons of cargo rice, equivalent to 43,750,000 cwt. 

 of cleaned rice, will be available for export. {T/ie Board 

 «i' Tradf .lournnl, March 23, 1911.) 



The Leeward Islands Gazette for May 4, 1911, contains 

 a notification,' for general information, that by an Order made 

 by the (iovernor-in-Council im March 11. 1911, under the 

 provision of section 4 of Ordinance, No. 10 of 1899 of the 

 Legislature of Antigua, the di.sea.se known as Yaws has been 

 included in the expression 'infectious disease' within the 

 meaning of that Ordinance. It is therefore now necessary 

 for the lieail of the family to which any person sulVcring from 

 the disease belongs, or the nearest relative available of such 

 persons, to notify the case to the medical oflicer of the 

 district in which that person is situated. 



