252 



THE AGEICULTUKAL NEWS. 



August 11, 1917. 



In the editorial of a recent issue of the Philippine 

 Agricultural Review it is stated that, on an average, 10 per 

 cent, of every crop is a total loss due to the ravages of insect 

 pests. A large pare of this damage is so constant and is 

 produced b)' insects so inconspicuous that the planter rarely 

 knows of its existence, or, at any rate, is contented to regard 

 it as a perfectly normal factor of crop production. The 

 necessity of the application of practical entomology is obvious. 



GLEANINGS. 



In an Act of the General Legislative Council of the 

 Leeward Islands which was passed on February 1-t, 1917, 

 to consolidate and amend the law relating to weights and 

 measures, the standard measure of capacity of a barrel used in 

 buying or selling limes was fixed at 26 Imperial gallons. 



From a statement, reported in The Board of Trade 

 Journal, Vol. XCVII, p. 673, the average price of 

 British wheat per quarter of 8 bushels Imperial measure 

 (a bushel of wheat.— 60 Imperial tt).) was 78s. 2d. for 

 the week ended June 16,1917, whereas for the corres- 

 ponding period in 1914 the average price was only 34s. \d. 



Tuberculosis among hogs in the United States appears to 

 be increasing to a .serious extent. The tuberculous cattle are 

 the main source of the disease which, according to Farmer's 

 Bulltlin, No. 781, is most commonly conveyed by feeding 

 hogs on unpasteurized milk, or by allowing them to feed on 

 the undigested grain in the droppings of diseased cattle. 



Fifty-one margarine factories in Denmark produced in 

 1916, according to The Board of Trade Journal of 

 May 31, 1917, 57,000,000 kilos, of margarine. The fat used 

 by these factories is now mainly of vegetable origin. In 1916, 

 44,000,000 kilos, of coco nut and other vegetable oils were 

 employed as against only 10,000,000 kilos, in 1909 (kilo- 

 gramme = 2'2046ft). 



In the Agricvltund Journal of India, Vol. .\II, p. 266, 

 it is reported th;it Majcr Leather, V.D., F.I.C., Imperial 

 Agricultural Chemist, has retired after twenty-five years 

 service with the Government of India. During the course of 

 his service in India, Major Leather not only did much valuable 

 chemical investigation but was also very successful in the 

 training of Indian assistants. 



At a recent general meeting of the Agricultural Society 

 of Trinidad the proceedings of which are reported in the Port- 

 oJ-Spain Gazette of .July 11, 1917, a resolution was passsed 

 to ask the Government, in view of the siicces.s which has 

 attended the Government Cooperative Lime Factory in 

 St. Lucia, and of the rapidly extending cultivation of limes 

 in the colony, to assist in the formation uf a similar establish- 

 ment for Trinidad and Tobago. 



In measuring gran a quart of corn meal, according to 

 Farmer's Bulletin 222, weighs 15 ft), and 1 R. mea.*- 

 ures 07 quarters. .V bushel of corn contains approximately 

 * cubic feet. To fiiid the capacity of a bin, find the number 

 of cubic feet and multiply by I or multiply by 8 and divide 

 by 10. Two bushels of ears are ordinarily reijuired to make 

 one bu.shel of corn, therefore to find the capacity of a crib, 

 find the number of cubic feet, multiply by 4 and divide by 10. 



In a recent communication Mr. W. N. Sands states that 

 in St. Vincent, preliminary operations were undertaken 

 during May in all districts of the island for planting up lands 

 in staple products and food crops. The weather was too dry, 

 however, to allow of much planting to be done. Indications 

 pointed to the fact that far larger areas of land would be put 

 under cultivation than for some years past. The limiting 

 factor, however, to the extension of tlie area under food crops 

 is at present the labour. 



In the Journal ot the Jamaica Agricultural Society of 

 April 1917, attention is called to the importance of the rice 

 industry for the development of which suitable lands are 

 available in Jamaica. After experiments in feeding horses, 

 cows, pigs and poultry on rice bran, this by-product of the 

 industry has become popular as a stock food. What is 

 known as 'dry land' rice, or rice grown on the same kind of 

 land as corn is grown, without irrigation, has been grown on 

 a small scale, and the cultivation is increasing. 



In the Barbados OjficialGazette E.i-tra ■rdinari/, Vol. HI, 

 No. 59 a, p. 1,289, the following maximum retail prices for 

 sweet potatoes have been fixed under Act No. 12 of 1914, 

 namely: (a), sweet potatoes not yet dug but s'i'l in I'le 

 ground: not more than such a sum per hole as will make the 

 price of the potato contained in the hole to be not more than 

 1 \ c. per ft), when the potatoes shall have been dug and 

 weighed; and (b) sweet potatoes which have been dug out of 

 the ground: not more that 2c. per tb. 



In the Review of Applied Entomology, for April 1917, 

 .spraying walls, floors and all crevices with a pitch or tar 

 solution at intervals of two days for a period of ten days is 

 recommended as a control measure against cockroaches. 

 Powdered borax both as a solution and in powdered form is 

 effective. Strong solutions of creo?ote or creolin, or some 

 commercial contact insecticides have also proved successful. 

 Carbon bisulphide fumigation may be used in the strength 

 of 12 It), per 1,000 cubic feet of space. 



The I'nited States Bureau of Standards has completed 

 a very careful determination of the freezing point of mercury, 

 using platinum resistance thermometers to measure the 

 temperature. The result of this work, according to the 

 Ji.urnalof the Ro>,,il Society of Arts, Vol. LXV, No. 3,369, 

 p. 542, gives - 3887 C ( - 37-97' F.) for this point. A knowl- 

 edge of the freezing point of mercury is of great impor- 

 tance to thermometer makers, as it marks the lower limit to 

 which a mercurial thermometer can be used, and furnishes 

 a method for calibrating or printing the scale belew 0° C, 

 (32= F.). 



