264 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



August 19, 1911. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



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^i]ricu!turat |]eii!i 



Vol. X. SATURDAY. AUGUST 19, 1911. No. 243. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial of this issue gives an account of the 

 International Agricultural Institute. Its object is to 

 indicate in a broad manner the purposes for which this 

 Institute has been formed. 



Under the heading Sugar Industry, on page 259, 

 an interesting note is given, which describes shortly 

 a new method that is being employed for filtering cane 

 juices. 



Pages 202 and 2(j3 contain an account of a recent 

 meeting of the British Cotton Growing Association. 



Nature Teaching and Hygiene in Elementary 

 Schools, British Guiana. 



The report of the Inspector of Schools, British 

 (Jnianii, fur the year 1910-11, shows that Nature 

 Knowledge is an <'Ptional class subject in the element- 

 ary schools of the Colony, which is taught to pupils of 

 any age. For assistance in teaching, Blackie's Tropical 

 Readers and Nature Teaching are employed, but are 

 intended only to be used by the teacher, and to indicate 

 in a general way the subjects that must receive atten- 

 tion. Up to the present, the teaching is not quite 

 satisfactory, partly on account of the fact that teachers 

 have not entirely grasped its object, and because of 

 difficulties in holding the examinations. In reporting 

 on the subject, the Inspector of Schools draws attention 

 to the fact that Nature Teaching in schools should 

 have as close a relation as possible to the work that 

 most of the pupils will take up in after life. 



In regard to school g;irdens, the difficulties are 

 mentioned of conducting a lair examination at different 

 times of the year, :ind oi obtaining a proper judgement 

 as to the efficiency of the work. Some doubt is thrown 

 upon the supposed usefulness of keeping notes ofscjiool 

 garden work. It is interesting that, in some of the 

 Indian Mission Schools, industrial work is taken up 

 instead of school gardening: in three cases instruction 

 is given to the boys in basket-making, in the making 

 of fans and sieve.s, and the preparation of the raw 

 material for hammock ropes: while the girls learn 

 cotton-spinning, and the making of hammocks and 

 hamtnock ropes. 



Hygiene is obligatory, and the teacher is 

 allowed a wide range of subjects, although it is 

 intended that he should m ike the teaching as prac- 

 tical as possible. The report, states that there has been 

 a large diffusion of knowledge on the subject during 

 past years, but that little of the teaching is being 

 applied in practice — a circumstance that does not by 

 means apply to British Guiana alone. 



A test for the existence of tuberculosis in animals, 

 that has been devised comparatively recently, is de- 

 scribed on the latter of the above-mentioned pages. 



The subject of peculiar methods of jiollination, 

 which has received treatment in the last two issues of 

 the Agricidtar(d Ncics, is continued under the heading 

 Insect Notes, on page 2C(). On this occasion, a descrip- 

 tion is given of the manner of pollination of the 

 Smyrna fig. 



Page 267 contains particulars of the awards at the 

 International Rubber I'^xhibition, to exhibits from the 

 West Indies and British Guiana. 



The Fungus Notes will be found on page 270. 

 In this issue, they have for their subject The Bracket 

 Fungi. 



The Fibre of Calotropis spp. 



The Journal d' Agriculture Tropiccde for Juno 

 1911, p. 190, points out that there h;vs been 

 uncertainty for some time concerning the true nature 

 of the fibre which has been wrongly called 'Colon 

 Akund'. It draws attention to the fact that this 

 tibre is obtained from plants of Calotropis spp., which do 

 not belong to the family in which cotton is placed. 

 Nevertheless, it is being imported, together with silk 

 cotton or kapok (from Eriodendron anfractuosum), 

 especially in Germany, in connexion with the attempt 

 to incorporate fibres other than cotton in cotton tex- 

 tiles, in order to reduce the European dependence on 

 American supplies of cotton. 



The use of the fibre of Calotropis for making tex- 

 tiles is not new, for samjiles of it, spun with cotton, and 

 .-done, were shown at the; London MKhibition of 1<S(J2. 

 It was designated under its Indian name ' JIudar '; its 

 Javanese name is kapok, and it has been thus confused 

 with the other fibre just mentioned. It is obtained 



