82 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



March "24, 1911 



be soaked in cold ■water and be given an extra boiling 

 in changed water in order to be palatable." 



Since there is no difficulty attached to growing 

 these species on a field scale in the West Indian 

 islands, it seems a pity to neglect such a useful and pro- 

 lific source of rich vegetable food. 



Turning now to a consideration of the local pro- 

 duction of cereals, it would obviously be a very useful 

 thing if a really good tropical substitute for wheat 

 -could be found. Wheat, as is well known, possesses 

 certain characteristics which make it the only suitable 

 cereal for tne making of good bread. Corn meal, bean 

 meal, or sweet potato meal may be used to dilute 

 wheat tlour, but they can only be used in very limited 

 ■quantities. 



l'"or many months, since the Hour (|uestion has 

 been a topic of interest and some concern, we have 

 -endeavoured to find references to cereals other than 

 wheat used for bread making in other parts of the world. 

 It is of considerable interest to record the fact, which 

 may not generally be known, that a cultivated form of 

 the crrass known as Job's Tears (Coic Lachrijina- 

 ./r,/) i ) — a fairly common grass in the West Indies — is 

 • e.Kti'iisivelv grown as- a cereal in parts of India. 



Aeeoiilmg to Watt*. From Darjeeling and through 

 Blatan to the mountains of Upper and Eastern Assam, 

 the Khasia Garo and Naga Hills, etc.. to Burma and 

 t.he Shan States, Coi.K might be described as not only 

 < a fairlv plentiful crop but an exceedingly important 

 article of diet. Certain furms of the grain are roasted, 

 then husked and eaten whole, being either parched 

 •(as with Indian corn), or boiled as with rice. Other 

 forms are so very different that the grain may be 

 milled and ground to Hour (ata) and thereafter baked 

 into bread. It seems probable that the properties 

 that necessita'e so very different methods of treatment 

 and prepa-atidn involve a diversity chemically and 

 structurally <iuiie as great as that which exists between 

 ihe haril and I he soft wheats or the glutinous and the 

 starehv rices.' Again, in another place it is stated, the 

 plant is iif a 'very hardy nature, and thi'ives upon 

 almost any kind of soil, yielding a good amount of 

 produce, and in taste resembling wheat. 



Job's Tears is known best in the West In<lies 

 as the source of vegetable beads which are used for 

 making into curtains. These beads consist of the 

 hardened pear-shaped body at the base of each inverted 



inflorescence, which is the sheath of the bract of the 

 inflorescence. But in the case of the cultivated 

 varieties in India and China, the curious structure 

 referred to remains soft and edible. Thus we read that 

 Coix forms a good example of the results of cultivation 

 of a wild plant the seed of which is of a stony hard- 

 ness, but which is soft in the cultivated form, and the 

 kernel sweet'. 



As to the nutritive value of Coix grain, figures 

 given liy Church+ may be of interest: he found that; 

 cultivated Coix, Khasia Hills, had a nutrient ratio of 

 1: 4-i. and a nutrient value of i>0. The husked grain 

 contained about 19 per cent, of protein, which is very 

 high for a cereal. Commenting on his final results, 

 Church says that the quantity of albuminoids (protein) 

 approaches to that of some kinds of pulse, and that 

 the proportion of oil or fat is larger than that present 

 in the great majority of cereals. 



These facts have led us to suggest that the 

 cultivated forms of this plant might be grown in the 

 West Indies: at any rate a few plots under this crop all 

 the Experiment .Stations would be interesting. They 

 would furnish some idea of the yields of grain to be 

 expected, the value of the fiour produced from it for 

 bread making, and the yield of fodder that can be 

 obfcaine_d. It might be mentioned that attention is 

 being given to this crop in the i^hilippines, where it 's 

 rather regarded as likely to prove a valuable subsidiary 

 food-crop. 



Porto Rican Sugar-cane Crop. —Writing from i 

 San .hiui on I'elnu try, 14, 1'.)1T, tlie correspondent of tha f 

 Ltiuisvnia P'linler says:^ — 



'Tiie pre.seiit cine-grinding .season here has now reached 

 its height, with every cane mill grinding at full capacity 1^ 

 and the cane being harvested rapidly. The weath'T 

 has been wonderfully good ever since the comniencemeul 

 of the grinding season and not a day's work ha.s been lost 

 in the rields. Sugar men generally are e.'jtremely satisfied 

 with the progress made so far, and with the labourers still , 

 woiking contentedly the fears which rece^tl}' have been felt 

 that a general strike was imminent are fast disappearing, as no 

 further move has been made by Santiago Iglesias, who 

 threatened to bring the members of the Federation of ; 

 Labour out at the I'ominencement of February if his demand^^ 

 for a dollar minimum and an eight-hour day were not met. 



'As predioied early in the ssason, the effects of the con- 

 tinued rains for months prior to the commencement of the 

 harve.st are now being felt in the decreased tonnage of sugar 

 per acre as com[)ared with last year. There has however 

 been a decided recovery recently, and sugar men are expecting 

 that the total pnjduction will fully come up to the original 

 estimates of over .")U0,000 short tons for the season.' 



* 'The Connncivial PioihLcts of India', by SirCieorge \\'a,tt. 



+ 'Fooii Gr 



; '>f India'. Svpp^emeut, litOl. 



