396 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Decembek 9, 1911. 



GLEANINGS. 



His Majesty the King has communicated his inten- 

 tion of opening the forthcoming Royal International Hortic- 

 ultural Exhibition. This is to be held on JUay 22, 1912. 

 and promises already to meet with much success. 



The broom corn crop, l)0th on the European Continent 

 and in the United State.s, is short. For this reason, broom 

 corn was selling during last month, in the latter country, for 

 f 200 per ton, which is about twice the normal price of the 

 product. 



The American Consul-CJeneral at Havana mentions that 

 the total sugar crop of Cuba, up to September 30, 1911, was 

 stated to be 1,400,397 tons. Of this (juantity 1,403,870 tons 

 was exported, 50,184 tons consumed in the island, and the 

 remainder was being kept in stock. 



It is reported by H.'M. Commercial Attache at ^'oko- 

 liama, in a communication dated September 12, that it is 

 stated in the Japanese press that very serious damage has 

 been done to the sugar crop and sugar factories in Formosa, 

 by recent storms, so that the former has probably been de- 

 creased by 15 to 30 per cent. 



Cotton-growini; was introduced into the Beirut (Syria) 

 district in 1910. So far, the production has been purely 

 experimental, the total output in 1910 being about 44,800 DJ. 

 The outcome of this experiment, however, has been so suc- 

 cessful, that, reinforced by the necessity for landowners to 

 change the nature of their crops, on account of emigration, it 

 promises a considerable growth. (The Te.rtih Mercury, Sei>- 

 tember 23, 1911, p. 254.) 



The L'tvisiana Planter for November 11, 1911, contains 

 an article which shows that the increase in the area of sugar 

 cultivation in Java, in 1911, was about 13,000 acres In the 

 same year the production of raw sugar reached 1,455,000 long 

 tons. The planting that is taking place for the crop of 1912 

 indicates t'lat the area will further increase to the extent of 

 about 10,000 acres, and it seems probable that the production 

 ■will be brought up to 1,500,000 long tons of .sugar. 



The Journal of tin Jiai/al Society of Arfx for November 

 3, 1911, draws attention to Chinese tea seed oil. This is 

 not obtained from the tea tree {Caimllia Thea) but from the 

 seed of C. Sasaii'/na. The latter plant, whose leaves cannot 

 be used as tea, is found wherever the china wood oil tree 

 {Ali-uriles Fordii) grows. The oil is used by the Chinese for 

 cooking, and is sold locally for 31s. to 33.'.-. per pieul (133.1 lb). 

 In 1909, the value of the exports of this oil, from Hankow, 

 to foreign countries ^.nd Chinese ports was £6,500; in 1910, 

 it was £17,300. 



In the India-Rublier Journal for October 28, 1911, it is 

 pointed out that the official figures have shown a steady 

 increase in the importation of rubber goods into India. The 

 values of the imports for the years mentioned were as 

 follows; 1905 6, £51,927; 1906-7, £66,986; 1907-S, £75,545- 

 1908-9, £77,055; 1909-10, £76,552. During 1909-10, the 

 share of the United Kingdom in this trade was £63,470. 



The International Sufjar Journal, for October 1911 

 abstracts a note contained in the Mauritius Bulletin for 

 1911, p. 75, in which it is stated that 40 per cent, formol, in 

 the proportion of 1 part to 10,000, has been used with 

 excellent results for preserving cane juice, in the case of stop- 

 page of the factory; no trace of alteration had taken place, 

 even after a period of forty eight hours. It is advised that 

 for the preservation of scums and 'liottoms', the proportion of 

 the antiseptic should be 1 part in 4,500, and that thorough 

 mixing should take place. 



The Experiment Station Record, Vol. XXV, p 514 crives 

 ■A short abstract of a paper i;i which the author refers to the 

 observation by geologists, to the etlect that more water is 

 evaporated annually from the soil than that which falls as 

 rain, and attempts to explain that the deficiency is made up 

 by the absorption by the soil of water vapour in the air. In 

 illustration of the principle, a number of instances are given 

 (Canary Islands and Estremadura) where almost no rain falls 

 and vegetation is apparently maintained by water from this 

 source. 



According to the Board of Trade Journal for October 

 12, 1911, exces.sively dry weather in June and July has caused 

 a partial failure of the cotton crop in Turkey, which will only 

 reach three quarters of the amount of the previous year 

 instead of one and-a-half times as much, as was expected at 

 first. The quality of the Egyptian and American varieties 

 will be better than usual, on account of the higher tempera- 

 ture that has been experienced. The standard of the cotton 

 crop in Turkey, as a whole, is not improving, because of the 

 alisence of irrigation, and the mixing of the seed at the fac- 

 tories. 



Attention is drawn to a u.--e for the pseudobulbs of 

 orchids, in the luir Bulletin 1911, p. 351. This is for making 

 tobacco pipes, and the species employed is Sclit,nJ'm\ikia 

 Thorasoniana, which is used in this way in Grand Cayman. 

 This plant is known to the natives as the wild banana; its 

 I)seudobulbs are about 9 inches long, and make useful pipe 

 bowls. Attention is also drawn to another species which 

 grows in Honduras, named S. tjtieinus. The pseudobulbs of 

 this are liotween 1 and 2 feet long, and are employed by the 

 native children as trumpets; this gives rise to the nanio Cow- 

 horn Orchid, liy which it is commonly known. 



Legislation against the love vine or dodder (C'uscuta sp.), 

 in Grenada and Barbados at the present time, makes interest- 

 ing the information given in the Journal d'A;/riculture Prat- 

 ique, Xo. 42, p. 497, that this can beilestroyed, when growing 

 on alfalfa, by the heavy application of sodium nitrate, in 

 such quantities as 880 lb. per acre. The investig-ations that 

 have l)een described indicate further that sodium nitrate is 

 preferable to ferrous sulphate and other poisonous substances, 

 for the purpo.se; and that alfalfa and other leguminous forage 

 plants are benefited by its use, notwithstanding their ability 

 to utilize the nitrogen in the air by mean* of their root nodules. 



