168 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



May 27, 1911. 



EDITORIAL. NOTICES. 



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 Barbados. 



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 will be found on page 3 of the cover. 



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I' 



^gritiiltiirjit||nuj) 



Vol. X. SATURDAY, MAY 27. 19n. 



No. 23'? 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Oontents of Present Issue. 



The editorial deals with Mycology in Relation to 

 Administration. It shows the gradual growth of interest 

 that has taken place in regard to practical work in con- 

 nexion with the prevention of plant diseases, and indi- 

 cates the most expedient ways in which such work may 

 be undertaken. 



On page l(Jo there is presented a short article on 

 dr3' farming in India. 



The same page contains an interesting note on 

 legislation in South Africa against noxious weeds. 



Attention is drawn to a review of the Annual 

 Report of the British Cotton Growing Association, 

 1910, on pages 1(J6 and l(i7. 



The Insect Notes appear on page 17(). They 

 contain two articles, dealing respectively with Econo- 

 mic Entomology at the Imperial College of Science 

 and Technology, and with experiments that have been 

 made recently in the United States with the moth 

 borer of the sugar-cane. 



Two short articles, containing information of 

 present interest, are given under the heading Rubber 

 Notes, on page 171. 



The Fungus Notes, on ])age 174, deal with arrow- 

 root diseases, as considered in a memorandum to the 

 Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture from the My- 

 cologist, after a recent visit of the latter officer to 

 St. Vincent. 



Calcium Cyanamide and Nitrate of Lime. 



In the last volume <<( the Agricultural News, and 

 on page .57 of the current one, notes have been given 

 on trials with calcium cyanamide and nitrate of lime, 

 undertaken for the purpose of comparing their respec- 

 tive manurial values, and of finding the relation between 

 these and the similar values of nitrate of soda and sul- 

 phate of ammonia. Notes on further work of the same 

 kind are given in the LJ.rperimcnt Station Record 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Vol. XXII, No. 8. The first investigations mentioned 

 showed that there was little to choose between nitrate 

 of lime and sodium nitrate, in (juantities containing 

 ecjual amounts of nitrogen, for beets, Irish ])otatocs, 

 rye, oats and barley; if any differonce was found, it was 

 slightly in favour of the sodium nitrate. 



The second paper deals, among other matters, with 

 the use of calcium cyanamide. nitrate of lime and nitrate 

 of soda as manures for sugnr beet. It was shown that, 

 when these were ap)ilied so as to give about 27 Ih. of 

 nitrogen per acre, the first and the last manures yielded 

 very nearly the same results, while the returns with 

 nitrate of lime were slightlv better. 



Sterilizat'on of Tobacco Seed Beds. 



Investigations into the sterilizing of the soil in 

 beds for raising tobacco from seed have been conducted 

 recently, at the experiment stations of the Tobacco and 

 Cotton Division of the Transvaal Dep.irtinent of Agri- 

 culture. An account of the work in the Agricultural 

 Journal of the Union of South Africa, Vol. 1, p. 77, 

 shows that the observations were made on plots con- 

 taining soil treated in four dititercnt ways, a con- 

 trol plot being provided in each case. The meth- 

 ods of sterilization emiiloyed were by burning wood 

 or other waste material on the top of the soil, heatino- 

 the soil in suitable receptacles, passing steam through 

 the seed bed. or by jjouring boiling water on the soiTin 

 the bed: in the last case two applications were madi' at 

 an interval of three or four days. 



The account of the experiment indicates that the 

 first method of sterilization gave the best results, while 

 this was followed iraiuediately by the second, which was 

 almost as effective. The steaming process came third; 

 that in which hot water was used proved to be 

 virtually u.seless. The particular forms of sterilization 

 to which the trials had reference were the destruction 

 of weed seeds, and of eel worms. 



A general review of the results shows that the 

 plants in the .soil treated according to the first method 

 usually made the best growth: this method and the 

 second, namely, heating the soil in a suitable vessel, 

 seemed to be most effective in regard to the destruction 

 of eel worms. 



In the interpretation of the results, howe\er, no 

 attention is given to the possible effects arising from 

 the partial sterilization of the soil in relation to its 

 microbial contents (see Agricultural News, Vol. IX, 

 pp. 17,33 and 3(19); the superiority of the growth in 

 the plots sterilized by heating in the first way described, 



