Vol. XV I No. 384. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



matter are negligible, while crude fibre averages 7 per 

 cent. 



'The energy equivalent of the material ranks well 

 with other carbohydrate foods, and it possesses a fuel 

 value equal to one-half that of soft coal. 



'Sheep ate vegetable-ivory meal readily when it 

 was mixed with other grains, and digested it very 

 thoroughly: 'A4 per cent, of the dry matter and 92 per 

 cent, of the nitrogen-free e.<tract were digested. 



'All the carbohydrates appeared to have been 

 hydrolyzed and absorbed m the digestive tract. 



'Cows ate the material when mixed with other 

 feed, without eviilence of digestive disturbances. They 

 refused to eat it fed by itself. 



'When fed as an addition to a basal ration, the 

 increase in milk was sufficient to indicate its positive 

 value as a productive feed. 



'Though the methods of feeding necessarily 

 followed were not such that exact relative values could 

 be shown, it seems certain that vegetable-ivory meal 

 does not fully equal corn meal for milk production.' 



It is satisfactory to note that these experiments 

 point to the possibility of a large quantity of waste 

 material being brought into economic use as 

 a supplementarj' feeding stuff for live stock. 



Home Practice in Agriculture. 



The following sumniar\- of a paper which appears 

 in Bulletin No. -IS-'i, United States J^epartment of 

 Agriculture, on the subject of school credit for home 

 practice in agriculture, should be profitable to those 

 engaged in the conduct of school gardens and agri- 

 cultural instruction in the West Indies: — 



(1) The home farm may be the logical laboratory 

 for practical work connected with rural school agricul- 

 ture. Home work carried on for this purpose may 

 properly be given school credit just as home stud\' of 

 arithmetic gains credit. 



(2) The relative importance of a project from the 

 .school point of view depends upon its relation to school 

 study; the amount of education involved: the improve- 

 ment of the pupil in skill, method, or knowledge: the 

 results or relative success measured partly by crops or 

 profits: and the I'eports, essays, exhibits and other 

 evidence given at school. 



(3) The weight given should recognize, besides 

 the educational factors, the period covered by the 

 project: the hours of labour involved and the relative 

 difficulty: the evidence of good management: the 

 emergencies met and pests combated; and the success 

 of adults in the same line of work during the same 

 season. 



(4) The rank should depend on evidences of 

 honest endeavour and thoughtful application of 

 instructions. 



(.5) Both weight and rank should be based upon 

 the usual method of ranking and crediting school 

 subjects. Manual practice should not receive too much 

 or too little relative recognition. 



(6) Until local records are compiled and analyzed 

 from boys' and girls' projects, it will be best to use the 

 most available records of man labour, modified as to 



relative difticulty, number of new operations involved,. 

 and other factors. The.se estimates ma\- be gradually- 

 modified as experience is gained. The educational 

 feature should always be kept in mind. 



New Apparatus for Testing the Weight of Grain. 



The United States Department of Agriculture has 

 issued as Bulletin Ao. .'f7 !, an illustrated account of an 

 improved apparatus for determining the test weight of 

 grain with a standard method of making the test. 

 When grain is sold by grade, as most of that which gets 

 into commerce is at one time or another before it is 

 finally consumed, the price is almost invariably found 

 to be parallel with the grade, that is, the highest 

 grades command the highest prices, while the lowest 

 grades command the lowest prices. In these grades 

 a minimum test weight per bushel is usually specified. 

 Such conditions indicate the importance of the weight 

 per bushel test for grain. There are various methods of 

 making the test weight per bushel of grain but these 

 are not sufficiently standardized to prove really satis- 

 factory. The special device described in this Bulletin, 

 is an apparatus which consists in the main of two 

 parts: the stand, with hopper and overfiow pan; and 

 the kettle, with a special beam. 



Reference should be made for details to the 

 illustrations in the Bulletin, one of which gives the> 

 front view of the apparatus showing the hopper to 

 the left and the filled test kettle balanci<ig the special 

 beam. Another illustrates the side view, showing the 

 beam swung to the right, and the hopper and test kettlft 

 in place ready for filling the kettle. 



Pig-Raising. 



In the last issue we published notes to show that very 

 little is being done in Cuba to increase local pig pro- 

 duction to take the place of the £2,000,000 worth of 

 pork products imported annually. Yet in Cuba, as ia 

 many of the British West Indian islands, there is an 

 abundance of suitable food material available, and 

 plenty of room for the maintenance of these animals in 

 herds. The fact was recorded that some enterprising 

 capitalists in the United States however, have realized 

 the possibilities before pork production in Cuba, and 

 have a project on foot for starting a hog ranch and 

 packing house on 20,000 acres of land about sixty 

 miles from Habana. 



Referring to an editorial in a recent number of the 

 Agricidtural Xe-tvs on the shortage of pigs. Tropical 

 Life for October again recommends the keeping of 

 pigs on coco-nut estates, one advantage being the 

 manure produced by the animals which would be 

 partly fed on concentrated foodstuffs like coco-nut cake. 

 The pigs would need be penned, and some kind of 

 quarantine station would be necessaiy for isolating 

 infected animals in the event of disease breaking out. 

 Efforts should be made to secure the best bred animals 

 possible, for, as / ropiccd Life, points out, all field 

 produce realizes a much higher price per ton when fed 

 to the well-bred stock than when consumed by the, 

 second and third-rate animals. 



