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THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



July 8, I9n. 



GLEANINGS. 



According to a report received from the Agricultural 

 Instructor, Tortola, there has been a record sale of cotton 

 seed during the past month, and the sowing of this is in full 

 progress. It is also stated that there are indications of a good 

 lime crop, and that sugar-canes are making favourable growth. 



The report of the Government Veterinary Surgeon of 

 St. Vincent, for May 1911, shows that there were no deaths 

 from anthrax among the stock in the island during that month, 

 nor was there any suspicion of the presence of the disease 

 in the case of five deaths, the causes of which were not 

 ascertained. 



The official returns of the Government of Ceylon show 

 that the amount of rubber exported during February 1911 

 •was 5,768 tons, as compared with 2,.307 tons in the same 

 month, in 1910. The exports for the eight months ended 

 Fel)ruary 1911 were 32,113 tons; for the similar period in 

 1910 they were U, 133 tons. 



A report from the Agricultural .Superintendent, 

 St. Vincent, states that peasant growers have bought a large 

 • juantity of selected and disinfected cotton seed from the 

 (Jentral Cotton Ginnery, and that as far as this class of 

 grower is concerned, at any rate, there will not be any 

 decrease in the area of cotton planted in the island. 



At a meeting of the Legislative Council of Grenada, 

 held on March 3, 1911, it was resolved unanimously that 

 assistance should be given by the Government to the Home 

 Industries .Vssociation, which is a society for assisting the 

 women in the island, of all classes, who are in poor circum- 

 stances. In consequence of this, a Grant-in-aid to the amount 

 of £.50 was included in the estimates, for the Home Indu.s- 

 tries As.sociation of Grenada. (See the Grenada Government 

 Oaxette, Miiy 1, 1911.) 



T/ii Baard of Trade Journal lov ilay 18, 1911, shows 

 that the experimental cultivation of Para rubber is to be 

 greatly extended in the equitorial regions of the Congo State, 

 especially where the rainfall is abundant, and for the purpose 

 consideraljle quantities of seeds of Uevea hrasiliensis have 

 been imported from Ceylon. In the same State, satisfac- 

 tory results are being obtained with Ceara and West African 

 rubber; although in the latter case repeated tapping has been 

 found to cause a gradual decrease in the yield. 



A circular has been received from Alexander Heyne, 

 Naturalist and Bookseller, Berlin-Wilmersdorff, Landhaus- 

 strasse 26a, Germany, requesting collections of insects of every 

 description, particularly butterflies, moths and beetles, and in 

 addition such animals as scorpions and millipedes. It is 

 stated that the best prices will be given for collections that 

 are in good condition. 



The E.rpcriment Station. /Record of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, Vol. XXIII, p. 7i\, presents 

 a note on a paper describing work in which trap crops were 

 used for controlling eel worms on land employed for growing 

 sugar-beet. The trap ])lants were rape and turniiis, and they 

 ■were effective in bringing about a marked decrease in injury 

 from eel worm to the main crop. 



Supplement No. 3 (1910) of the Annales du Jardin 

 Jiofaviijtic de linilnnzorg contains an account of an investigation 

 in tapping with V-.shaped incisions and double herring bone 

 cuts, for the jiurpuso of determining if the latex varies in its 

 composition at dill'erent periods of the ye.ar. The results 

 indicate that the amount of solid matter in the latex 

 decreases with the advance in the tapping period. On the 

 other hand, the mineral and the nitrogenous matter increase. 



It is stated by the Agricultur.il Superintendent of 

 St. Kitts that the area planted in cotton in that island, for 

 the present season, will not decrease, but that there is 

 rather a tendency for an inerea.se to tsike place. He further 

 states that the following average yields of lint have been 

 obtained by some of ihe e.st:ites dining the past season, on 

 the areas mentioned: 318 lb. of lint over 60 acres. 300 lb. 

 over the same area, 321 %. over 39 acres and 27.5 lb. over 50 

 acres. One estate disposed of all its cotton at 1«. 8(/. per tt). 



The St. Vincent Arrowroot Growers" and Exporters' 

 Association (see Agricultural News, Vol. IX, p. 285) is 

 advertising for samples of arrowroot, from the island, to be 

 sent to enquirers in Canada, the United States and Europe. 

 The samples are to be accompanied by the stated prices of 

 grocery and best manufacturing quality arrowroot; they must 

 each weigh not more than i-ft)., should contain the name and 

 address of the grower or exporter, and should also .show on 

 the outside of the package the owner's name and shipping 

 mark, and the grade. 



An abstract of a paper in the Bulletin of the Bureau of 

 Ji/riculfural Intelligence and of Plant Diseases, of the 

 International Institute of Agriculture, for December 1910, 

 p. 206, describes work in which it was .shown that, in the 

 case of green leaves, the amount of light required to com- 

 mence the building up of plant food bodies in the leaf is 

 greatest where chlorophyll (leaf green) is present in the least 

 amount. Further, the rate of building up of such bodies 

 increa.ses with the amount of chlorophyll, up to a certain 

 maximum, and then decreases. 



The Cairo Scientific Journal, No. 37, p. 241, contains 

 an article which records that the blocking of the current of 

 the White Nile. and the overflow of the Blue Nile, have caused 

 large numbers of mosquitoes to be carried to Khartoum in 

 steamers. Most of the mosquitoes were the yellow fever 

 mosquito {S'cgomyia fasciala): the filarial mosquito (Culex 

 fatigaJis) was also common, and Pi/retophorus costalis was 

 found. It is suggested that the .sudden incidence of these 

 mosquitoes accounted for an outbreak in Khartoum of 

 blue tongue or horse sickness, as this disease was prevalent 

 at the time up the Blue Nile. (From the Experiment Station 

 Record, Vol. XXIII, p. 663.) 



