THE AGIUCULTUKAL NEWS. 



March 10, 1917. 



GLEANINGS. 



It appears from the London ChamUr nf Cninmer'e 

 Jotirnal that there are great possibilities for the cultivation 

 of sis-il in Egypt. Those interested in this question, and in 

 the development of sisal plantations, should communicate 

 wilL tljf Ministry of Finance, Cairo. 



It is somewhat surprising to learn that in Porto Rico 

 there is an ai-tnal det:re 'se in t'le acreage of cane now under 

 proHr.cti'in. The Lonisidv a Planter for December 30, 1916, 

 .states !hat -rinding began very early for the present crop. 

 It is "'Iried thai excessive rainfall injured seed cane. 



What is believed to be the largest Hevea rubber tree 

 is described in the India Ruhhtr World for January I. The 

 tree, which is situated ncir the river Acre, in Brazil, is 127 

 feet in oirciiniference fi«^ the ba.=e, and has a record of yielding 

 for I'iO d.vi an average nf -22 lb. of rubber a day. 



Many li'^es of research, says Science for October 6, 1916, 

 are in da ly progress in our laboratories, whose object is the 

 discovery oi accelerants' for ceiiain chemical reactions. It 

 is asked whetlic it should not be found possible to discover 

 speC'fic 'acetic ants' which would increase the rate at which 

 pota.-h ciiulci lie rendered available for the use of the plant 

 in the si'il. 



Reference is made in the lalernational 5«;/ar Journal 

 to the severe drought that has been e.^perienced during the- 

 past year in the Argentine. This has not only reduced the 

 sugar output but has made the grain crop almost a total 

 failure. The Argentine Government has just issued a decree, 

 which permits of the importation of 7.3,000 ions of sugar,. 

 •5.5,000 tons of which will be refined. Usually the Argentine 

 can manage to e.xport considerable quantities of sugar. 



Accordi fi to a special article in Science for October 6, 

 1916, experiments with discs of Opuntia have shown that both 

 youn" Hud old plant tis.sues take up more water when neutral 

 or nlkalino Acidity, therefore, in addition to retarding 

 enzymatic action, presumably including respiration, would 

 operate to !e.ssen growth by its effects in decreasing 

 imbibition by plant tissues. 



It is sta ed in the Louisiana Planter for January 20, 

 1917, hat ih ; outlook for the sugar crop in Panay and Xegros, 

 of the Phili| pines, is not good. Since planting time of 

 last year up '.o D cember there had been only about twenty 

 consecutive davs of sunshine. It r.ained almost continuously, 

 and many ] ianrer.s were oblii;eil to replant their fields 

 sever.al time.'' 



A^".f rdi'j: to the Wea.Uli of India for November 191(!, 

 •T Fi-euc.>i jo ii-na' oihims that in the French Army exhausted 

 orange ncei is e'n^iloyed as an aperient. The peel is boiled 

 for an nuuv. Ih ■ liquid is u.std for preparing flavouring 

 mixture.-., ard the refuse is dried and given freely. It not 



of the intestinal canal, but 



Spirochaetes- -elongated, spiral micro-organisms — occur 

 very commonly in the intestinal canal of man and animals, 

 supposedly as harmless saprophytes. In a paper in the 

 Annuls of Tropical Jledicine and Parasitologi/, however, 

 it is suggested that they may be capable of pathological 

 activity, either by spreading into the blood vessels and 

 producing a generalized infection, or by invading the cells 

 of the intestinal walls, or even by mechanical irritation. 



A suggestive address is published in Science for October 

 6, 1916, on the analysis of living matter through its reactions 

 to poisons. It, is claimed that we must attempt to classify 

 living tissues in groups not determined bj' their morphological 

 or even functional characters, but by their ability to react to 

 chemical agents. The reaction of tissue to alkaloids is 

 especially interesting, and the correlations should enable one 

 to detect the presence of certain poisons by the reactioi.s of 

 the tissues, as well as the tissues by their reactions to poisons. 



The death is announced, in Nature fur January 25, of 

 Dr. Henri Emile Sauvage, founder, and until recently, 

 director, of the Station Aquicole, Boulogne-sur-Mer. Dr. 

 Sauvage studied fishes, both recent and fossil, from every 

 point of view, and published a long series of memoirs and 

 papers bearing both on zoology and geology, and on several 

 economic qnestions connected with these sciences. He made 

 many contributions tn knowledge of the fishes of West 

 Africa, Indo-China, and Madagascar. 



Mr. A. O. Thnr.-iton of St. Kitts has done much to 

 remove once and for all the impression that has prevailed in 

 certain official quarters of the United States, that the West 

 Indies are not provided with efficient milling plants for 

 grinding sugar cane. In the Louisiana Flanlcr for .January 6, 

 two photographs c^f the St. Kitts Central and its shipping 

 wharves are published, together with a letter and other infor- 

 mation sent by Mr. Thurston to show that even a small 

 inland like St. Kitts can easily stand comparison in regard 

 to equipment with anything on the same scile in Cuba or 

 America. 



only sf dins i.j .aunjlate the action 

 stimtn.-U : i>K well the flow of bile. 



Reference is made in the London Chainher of Commerce 

 Journal for .January 1917 to Brazilian Piteira fibre. 

 Commenting on this commodity, Mr. Lyster H. Dewey, 

 Botanist in charge of fibre investigations, ['nited .States 

 Department of Agriculture, says: "There would probably be 

 little diflicnliy in finding a market for piteira fibre in the 

 United Slates at the present time if it can be produced in 

 commercial quantities, ,ind of a uniform quality equal to the 

 >ample submitted. In order to obtain the best market v^lue, 

 the fibre should be cleaned direeth' from tlie freshly cut green 

 leaves and not from wai(ir.^oaked leaves. It is very doubtful, 

 however, whether this fibre, which is finer and softer than 

 henequen from Yucatan, would command a price equal to hen- 

 eqnen fibre, especially for the first shipments .Manufacturers 

 could not afford to piy more for this filire than for heneipien 

 until they h.ad le<rncd by actual experience how it could be 

 worked n]i to best advantage. 



