136 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



April 29, 1911. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



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 Barbados. 



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^jricultunil |]riufj 



Vol. X. SATURDAY. APRIL 29, 1911. No. 2.35. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial of the present number gives informa- 

 tion concerning the Canadian National E.fhibition of 

 this year, which is to be held at Toronto. 



On pages 132 and 133 there appears an article 

 which ])resents the latest information in connexion with 

 the intercalary cultivation of Cofea rohusta on rubber 

 estates. 



An article entitled The Cotton Market and Cotton- 

 Planting appears on p. 134. Its purpose is to give 

 information which will .serve as a guide in arriving at 

 a decision in regard to cotton-planting for the coming 

 Season. 



A short note on page 13.5 presents facts of interest 

 taken from recent reports on forestry in Southern 

 Nigeria. 



The Disinfection of Manure. 



The K.riifnin.eat Station Record of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, for December 1910, 

 p. f>'2o, contains an abstract of a paper dealing with 

 methods for the destruction of the organisms, occurring 

 in manure, that produce some of the diseases of animals. 

 The means employed are thoroughly to moisten the 

 manure, carefully to mix it with litter in the proportion 

 of about 2 : 3, to cover it with materials that are poor 

 conductors of heat, and to pack it fairly loosely. This 

 procedure, under the conditions of a temperate climate, 

 has proved successful in destroying almost all such 

 organisms, with a reduction in the activity of even 

 the more resistant forms. 



It is evident that the adoption of such a method 

 of keeping manure would go far toward killing the 

 spores of fungi and the seeds of weeds that it is likely 

 to contain, and thus to lessen the chances that exist 

 for the continual reintroduction of these into areas 

 where valuable and useful plants are growing, fhe 

 matter seems to be of sufficient importance to the agri- 

 culturist to warrant the making of definite experiments 

 in connexion with it. These would of course have refer- 

 ence also to another subject, nameh' the effect of 

 various methods of mixing and packing manure on the 

 prevention of loss of the constituents that are of value 

 to growing plants. 



The Insect Notes, on page 138, give an account of 

 experiments that have been made for the purpose of 

 investigating the damage done by cotton stainers. 

 They also contain a note on cocoa-nut pests. 



An article on page 139 gives information concern- 

 ing work that has been conducted recently in connexion 

 ■with the identity of the Bengal bean an<l r«late<l 

 plants. 



The Fungus Notes will be found on page 142. 

 They contain the former of two articles dealing with 

 the diseases of pine-apples. 



The Preservation of Herbarium Specimens. 



The Report of the Department of Agriculture, 

 Victoria, for 1907-10, contains that of the Government 

 Botanist, which deals, among other things, with the 

 results of experience at the National Herbarium, 

 Melbourne, in the matter of the preservation of herb- 

 arium specimens from the attacks of insects. 



The most successful method of preservation has 

 been found to be the use of camphor, in tightly fitting 

 cupboards; this is stated to be more effective than 

 periodical exposure to the vapour of carbon bisulphide. 

 The objection to the latter insecticide is that- it does 

 not 2'enetrate large ])arcels of plants sufficiently 

 thoroughly to destroy all the giubs in them during 

 the maximum time, namely three days, that they may 

 be exposed in the poison chamber: such parcels simply 

 reinfect others when they are returned to the herb- 

 arium. The cost of the methods is about the same as 

 regards material, but circumstances in fa\our of the 

 use of camphor are the smaller amount of time and 

 labour that are involved by its employment. 



It is pointed out that specimens will last all the 

 longer if they are handled as little as possible. A use- 

 ful precaution that has been employed, whenever 

 reference has been made to the specimens, is to poison 

 any that show signs of insect infestation, with an alco- 

 holic solution of mercuric chloride similar to that which 

 has been recommended by this Department for use in 

 connexion with the jirescrvation of books in the tropics. 

 The importance of such a precaution, in a hercariuni 

 containing large numbers of type specimens, is easily 

 understood. 



