316 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



October 6, 1917. 



GLEANINGS. 



The Annual Report of the Board of Agticuhure, 

 Bahamas, 1916-1 7, states that the cultivation of the sisal 

 plant, and the production of the fibre have increased rapidly, 

 high prices having been the attraction. Many people have 

 planted all the slips they could lay their hands on, and are 

 cultivating many acres of it. This industry Ins been 

 a boon to the people in this war time. 



The issue of JValure for -July 12, 1917, contains a note 

 concerning wood-borina ship worms. By far the most des- 

 tructive of these is the lnollu^c Teredo. The rate at which 

 wood exposed to its attack is destroyed is remarkable. 

 Sound pitch pine piles driven in certain harbours on the 

 Texas coast were destroyed in twenty nine days. Creosoting 

 wood as a deterrent against its ravages in no wise confers 

 protection, while it may rei df r cargoes of foodstuffs uneatable 

 owing to the fumes from the wood. Copper sheathing and 

 copper paint are the only possible agents to defeat such 

 ravages. 



The West India Commiiiee Circular, August 8, 1917, 

 states that in answer to a question in the House of t 'ommons, 

 Mr. Roberts, the President of the Board of Trade stated that 

 the total quantity of cane sugar produced throughout the 

 world in the sugar season of 1911-12 may be estimated at 

 about 9.000,000 tons, to which India coniributed about 

 2,450,000 tons and Cuba 1,896,000 tons. The total quantity 

 of beet sugar pioduced in the same period was approximately 

 6,800,000 tons. In the sugar season of 1 91.5-16 the total 

 quantity of sugar produced may be put at about 16,.500,000 

 tons, 01 which about .5,900,000 tons consisted of beet sugar. 



There are about 794,000 acres under coco nuts in the 

 Madras Presidency, principally on the West Coast, the 

 annual production in Southern India, including the native 

 states aniounliog to about 1,000,000,000 nuts. In normal 

 times coconut products valued at about £1,497,000 are 

 exportid yearly from .Madras ports alone, and there is also 

 a krge local consumption. The Government of Madras has 

 sanctioned lecently the propo;als of the Director i f Agricul- 

 'ture to establish experimental I arms for the investigation of 

 problems connected with coco-nut cultivation. (Bulletin of 

 the Imperial Institute, Vol. XYI, No. .'{.) 



Glycerine was formerly evolved from fnts during their 

 saponification in the manuf icture of soap It is s lid of late 

 to have been costing about 90c. per lb as so made. It is 

 now asserted by the chemists that it can be made from sugar 

 at about one quarter of the cost of its manufacture from fats, 

 and that this has been demonstrated in Washington in the 

 laboratory of the Department of Internal Revenue. No 

 other known article is of more value than sugar foi- its 

 nutrient qualities, but we may now find that sugar by its 

 conversion into glycerine and thence into nitroglycerine niay 

 become one of the most deadly agent;; known. (The Loids- 

 lana Planter, July 21, 1917.) 



The Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation has bought two more 

 Luce Cane Harvesters, which are to be delivered shortly at 

 Central Mercedes. The four harvestt rs that this company 

 already owns are to be shipped to Mercedes at once, where 

 an engineer of the Luce Harvester Company will make his 

 headquarters and add the latest adjustments to all the 

 machines, thus preparing them for use for harvesting cane 

 durinjj the coming crop. An attachment which will cut the 

 cane in three pieces will be added, which will fdciliiate 

 handling of the cane, and feeding it to the mills, and it is 

 possible that a trailer attached to the harvester will be 

 added, the cane to fall from the harvester directly into the 

 trailer, carried to the headland, and loaded into carts. (The 

 Louisiana Planter, August Is, 1917.) 



The value of the white velvet bean {Stizolnbium 

 Deeringianurn) as a stock food was advocated in a paper read 

 by the Ac;ing Chemical Assistant, Mr. R. E. Kelsick, a a 

 meeting of the St. Kitis Agricultural and Commercial Society 

 on July 9. This plant was used in the island chiefly as a green 

 dressing, but the reader contended that the large yield per 

 acre (about 2,000 lb. of sl.elled beans), the cheap cost of 

 I reduction, and the readiness with which the beans were 

 eaten by stock suggested that they could profitably be used 

 as a stock food, especially in view of the present high price 

 of such foods as corn and oil meal. An analysis of the 

 food value of the beans compared favourably with those 

 of linseed meal, cotton-seed meal, and maize. The beans 

 crushed and mixed with molasses, might well be employed 

 either as a substitute for, or as an addition to, these meals in 

 the ratiuris of estate animals. 



The papaw o" recent years has sprung into prominence 

 in QueenslanH. This plant like some of its tropical compan- 

 ions, the binana to wit, is gradually becoming acclimatized, 

 and is slowly but surely creeping^ away from the equatorial 

 zone. Among the earliesc growers of ihe papaw in Queens- 

 land this plant was looked upon as purely tropical in habit 

 an') home, and iis cultivati'in outside the tropics was attended 

 with ^reat difliculty, the mortality ainf)ng the pknts during 

 the winter months reaching as high as 98 per cent, in 

 the soul hern part of the State Year by 3'ear the constitution 

 of the plant ha< continued gaining in vigour, until to day 

 the papaw will endure a frreze of from 3 to 5 degrees of frost, 

 without permanent damage. Having got thus far in the 

 n'atter of acclimatiiiinv the papaw, the next object to aim 

 at is the selection of varieties that possess (|ualilies of 

 special merit. (The Australian Sugar Journal, July -5 1917.) 



The Board of Tride Journal, August 23, 1917, states 

 that ihe cultivation of cotton is being taken up with increased 

 vigour by Queensland farmers, and a large amount of law 

 C'tton h:is beea received by the Sta'e Department of Agri- 

 culture for ginning. In the year ended June 30. 1916, the 

 quanti y of cotton ginned was 20,485 \h., including 6,800 tb. 

 from New Guinea. L'p to June 21, 1917, however, the 

 Dep.rtnient had received 34 805 lb., from Queensland 

 growers alone, and supplies were siill coming in. In 

 order to foster the cotton-growing industry, the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture purchases all raw cotton grown 

 in the State, gins it, and then sells it on behalf of the 

 growers. Growers are guaranteed l|cZ. per lb. and, in 

 addition, they receive any profit remaining after ginning 

 expenses have been paid. Last year, it is said, the growers 

 received a fraction under 2id. per lb. 



