Vol. X. No. 244. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



281 



The Effects of Compression on the Growth of 

 Stems. 



In recent years, interest has been 'taken in the 

 effect of stresses, in various directions, on the manner 

 in which plants grow. With reference to such work, 

 an investigation is described in the Botanical Gazette 

 for 1910, \K '257, in which experiments were made with 

 woody and herbaceous plants for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining the effect of causing compression, along the 

 length, of upright stems. It might be thought that 

 such compression would result in an increase in the 

 strength of the stem and in the tissues mainly respon- 

 sible for that strength, owing to the stimulus that may 

 be caused by the stress. There was, however, no 

 indication that this is the case, as far as the woody 

 stems are concerned; while in the young herbaceous 

 stems the increase of strength during growth was actu- 

 ally smaller than the normal. 



It was found that there was no effect in the 

 direction of causing differences in the shape of any of 

 the elements of the stem, except where the compression 

 was very large, and out of all proportion to the strength 

 of these elements. 



The Trade and Commerce of British Guiana, 

 1910 11. 



During this period the total trad<' of this Colony 

 with the United Kingdom was 487.5 per cent, of the 

 whole trade; that with Canada was ne.xt, with 201(j per 

 cent. The proportion of commerce with parts within 

 the British Empire was 48 per cent. Among foreign 

 countries, the United States had the largest trade with 

 the Colony, the amount being 191G per cent, of the 

 whole. 



According to the Annual Repart of the Vump- 

 troller of Customs, of British Cuiana, for 1910-11, 

 from which these figures are taken, the import trade 

 with the United Kingdom increased by 2 per cent., 

 namely to $4,001,095, the increase being chiefly diie to 

 larger importations of milk and machinery, and linens, 

 cottons and wollens. 



The returns for the trade with Canada show that 

 the Dominion enjoys 823 per cent, of the whole import 

 trade of the Colony, the actual amount being S689, 178. 

 The import trade with Canada is increasing, chiefly on 

 account of larger receipts of flour and potatoes. As 

 regards exports to the Dominion, these were So89,.300 

 less ill value than in 1909-10, sugar being responsible 

 for the decrease, as the exportation fell by 5,7'6o tons. 



There was also a decrease in the value of the 

 exports to the United Kingdom; it was lif802,2.58 less 

 than that 'or the jirevious year, the decrease being in 

 gold, cacao, diamonds, cattle food, citrate of lime, rum 

 and sugar. As regards balat;i, copra, hides, kola nuts, 

 crabwood, lumber and greenheart limber, there were 

 increases. The value of the exports to the United 

 States suffered an increase, being greater by $287,-52.5 

 than that for 1909-10, cocoa-nuts, citrate of lime. 



The Use of Calcium Cyanamide as a Manure. 



Recent experiments with this manure appear to 

 indicate that care should be exercised in its application 

 to crops and trees in cases where little or no information 

 exists at present in regard to its possible effect on their 

 growth. The Bulletin of the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Intelligence and Plant Diseases of the International 

 Institute of Agriculture, for November 1910, p. 87, 

 gives an account of trials that were made with calcium 

 cyanamide on young and old olive trees, the quantities 

 employed being from about 1 lb. to (Ji lb. per tree. The 

 manure was employed in two ways, namely, by scatter- 

 ing it on the surface of the soil to an extent correspond- 

 ing to the spread of the branches, and by burying it in 

 a furrow around the trees at a distance of 16 to 20 

 inches. In the result, the plants which had received 

 more than 1 tb. of the manure showed early signs of 

 withering; this commenced in the leaves at the top, and 

 continued until the trees were leafless, weakening the 

 plants to such an extent that no fruit was borne in the 

 following year. 



It would appear that the quantities of calcium 

 cyanamide that were applied were excessive, particu- 

 larly in relation to the kind of soil in which the trees 

 were growing; this was a poor, sandy soil, containing 

 little humus. 



crabwood, luivber, sugar and 

 responsible. 



timber being chiefly 



The Use of Non-proteid Bodies by Animals. 



It has long been the custom to state in a general 

 way that the only nitrogenous food bodies that are of 

 use to animals, in building up their tissues and produc- 

 ing energy, are those of a proteid nature. For some 

 time, also, work has been undertaken by various investi- 

 gators for the purpose of determining the value of 

 nitrogen compounds that are not of a proteid nature in 

 the nutrition of animals. A review of such work, in 

 which the experiments were made with ruminant 

 animals, is given in the Annual Reports on the Progress 

 if Chemistry, for 1910, issued by the Chemical Society. 



The method of investigation adopted was to feed 

 lambs in such a way that theii- requirements in regard 

 to nitrogen were supplied by asparagine and ammonium 

 acetate — bodies which are of a proteid nature in no 

 respect. It was shown, as a result, that these substances 

 I'ould be changed by the bacteria of the intestines into 

 protein, in such a way that they can take the place of 

 part of the protein required for maintenance. It was 

 not demonstrated, however, that there was any produc- 

 tion of Hfash from these non-proteins, but that they are 

 capable of increasing the formation of flesh, when fed 

 with protein, by taking the place of a proportion of the 

 latter that would be used for maintenance. 



The results are supported by other experiments, 

 made with milch cows, which have shown moreover, 

 that proteids formed by bacterial action from non-pro- 

 teid bodies may be utilized for the production of inilk. 



The general effect of such wurk has thus been 

 to show that proteids may be formed in the intestines 

 from non-proteid bodies, and that they are capable 

 of assisting in maintenance and milk formation. 



