348 



THE AGRICULTUKAL NEWS. 



October 28, 1911. 



GLEANINGS. 



It is reported from China that the soy bean crop in 

 several districts north of the Yangtse is expected to be 

 excellent, in spite of the extensive Hoods that have been 

 experienced over part of the area. 



In regard to rubber production in French Indo-China, it 

 is stated that the total shipment of rubber and gutta per- 

 cha from Haiphong, during 1910, was 132'1 tons, as against 

 24'2 tons in 1909. This rubber is all obtained from 



Ficnselastira. 



It is reported by the United States Vice-Consul-fieneral 

 in Abyssinia that the cultivation of cotton is fairly general 

 in that country, but that it is chiefly carried out on lands 

 3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level. No large areas of the 

 plant exist; the seed is sown in fields having a small acreage, 

 and after the first crop has been obtained the plants are cut 

 down and allowed to spring again for a second crop. 



Information has been received from the Secretary of 

 State for the Colonies to the effect that arrangements have 

 been made by His Majesty's Stationery Office with Mr. T. 

 Fisher Unwin, of 1 Adelphi Terrace, London, W.C., under 

 which Mr. Unwin will act as sole wholesale agent for the 

 sale of British Official Publications outside the United King- 

 dom, with depots at New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Welling- 

 ton, Cape Town, Calcutta, Tokio, and Leipzig, and with power 

 to open other depots subject to the approval of the Stationery 

 Office. 



An estimate of the cotton crop of Eastern Bengal and 

 Assam for 1911-12, being the first forecast for the season, has 

 been received from the Director of Agriculture. The .sowings 

 of cotton have been generally a little earlier than usual, and 

 the estimates for the area sown is 101,300 acres, as compared 

 with 99,000 acres, which was the revised estimate for the 

 previous year. The crop is in good condition generallj', 

 although some damage has been done in two of the districts 

 by excessive rain. 



A note in the Textile Mercurij for July 22, 191 1, states 

 that sisal fibre is beginning to be exiiorted from Portuguese 

 Fast Africa A decorticating |)lant has been erected at 

 (^)uiliniane, and 60 tons of fibre was shipped at the end of last 

 year. H.M. Acting Consular Agent for the Colony expects 

 that, daring the year, the e.xportof fine fibre will reach 200 or 

 300 tons. It is stated that an exceptionally heavy yield of 

 fibre, per plant, is being obtained, and that there are large 

 areas suitable for growing the crop. 



In the E.rj'd-Diwnt Station Record of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture for June 1911,p. 629, a short 

 abstract is given of a recent review of different theories 

 concerning the pan played by latex in plants in which it is 

 tdund. Investigations are al.so described with a number of 

 plants which produce latex. By growing seedlings of such 

 plants in light and in darkness, and giving attention to the 

 tact that latex contains a number of food bodies, such as 

 sugars, starch, fats, and proteid substances, the author con- 

 siders that latex poases-seis important functions in regard 

 tfi the nutrition of plants containing it, and that it is not 

 to be considered as a waste product • 



In the recent rains experienced in St. Alncent, the 

 ground provision crops of the peasantrj' in mountainous 

 places were badly damaged. Harm was also done to the cot- 

 ton cultivation on several estates, through the same cause. 

 Small pickings of early planted cotton were made in St. Yin- 

 cent during last month. The report of the Government 

 Veterinary Surgeon for September 1911 shows that the 

 deaths among stock were eighty-one, in three of which the 

 cause was not ascertained; there was no suspicion, however, 

 of the presence of anthrax. 



It is stated in Diplomatic and Consular Reports, No. 

 4763 Annual Series, which deals with the foreign trade of 

 the Port of Santos, Brazil, for 1910, that the exports of coffee 

 in that year were 6,834,712 bags of 132 lb., as compared with 

 13,4.53,104 bags in the previous year. As the export limit for 

 the crop was 10 million bags, excluding coffee from Minas, 

 estimated at some 500,000 bags, that is to say, a total of 

 about 10, .500, 000 bags, there was no need to place the pro- 

 duct quickly on the market, as had been the case in the 

 former year. By the end of the period under review the 

 price of coffee had ri.sen 80 per cent. Interesting matters 

 concerning the production of coffee in Brazil are given in the 

 Report. 



According to the .Jamaica Oar.ettc for July 13, 1911, 

 four prizes, one of £2, one of £1 \Qs. and two of 15«. 

 each are offered for the best elementary school gardens 

 in each of the inspectors' districts visited by them during 

 the calendar year 1911. In gauging the merits of 

 the gardens, consideration will be given chiefly to the 

 success of cultivation, to the usefulness of the garden for 

 the illustration of the instruction that is required by 

 the Flementary Science Code, the use that has been 

 made of the garden for this purpose, and the continuity of 

 the work during the year. Consideration will be given also 

 to any observations or reports m.ade by the Instruct im- for 

 School Gardens or by the Agricultural Instructors. 



The Report on the Protp-ess of Agriculture in India for 

 1909-10 (to which reference has been made several times in 

 the Ai/ricultnral News) states that experiments conducted at 

 the Sainalkota Experiment Station have shown, under the con- 

 ditions, that where castor cake has been ap])lied as a manure, 

 the addition of superphosphate and potash, with or without 

 lime, is unremunerative. On the Bombay farms ammonium 

 sulphate has continued to give good results with sugar-cane, 

 and the Agricultiwal Dei>artnient is now definitely reconi-' 

 mending its use for that crop, having also distributed a good 

 deal of the manure to cultivators. Other experiments con-, 

 ducted at Manjari have indicated the usefulness of a mixture- 

 of satflower cake (from Cart/iainus tinctorins) and ammonium 

 sulphate, as a top dressing for sugiir cane; it has also been 

 shown that sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) is useful as 

 a green manure. 



