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THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. 



October 20, 1917. 



GLEANINGS. 



The Province of Quebec is the chief producer in Canada 

 •o/ maple sugar and syrup, says the Journal ofihe Royal Society 

 oj Arts, the total annual value of those two products being 

 about £400,000. Of the total yield the United States took 

 99 per cent, of the sugar and 50 per cent, of the syrup. 



The (Queensland Agricultural Journal, .July 1917, 

 reports that Mr- C. Ross, Instructor in Fruit Culture, says 

 that in Queensland a deep rooted system for citrus and many 

 other fruit trees gives the best results, and surface roots 

 should be discouraged by continuous cultivation. Surface 

 roots are too susceptible to every climatic change. 



The great secret of canning lies in complete sterilization. 

 The micro-organisms which are present in the air and in all 

 substances, and are the causes of rotting or decomposition, 

 must first be destroyed by heat, and then completely excluded 

 by sealing, so that they cannot renew their attempts to destroy 

 the food. (Bulletin No. :'98, Department of Agriculture, 

 •Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.) 



Every year the people of Porto Kico consume over three 

 tinges as much wood as the forests of the island produce. 

 Or. at quantities of timber are cut or burned by the 

 tquatter to make a clearing which is abandoned after a few 

 years, and becomes a mere waste The charcoal burner is 

 also destroying the young growth needed to keep up the 

 foiest. (Bulletin No. AJi, United States Department of 

 Agriculture.) 



The Wealth of India, for .June 1917, says that up to 

 the present time India has found it impossible to compete 

 with the cotton exports from .Jap.'.n, even though .Japan spins 

 these goods out of Indian cotton. During recent years the 

 volume of .Japanese cotton imports into India has been 

 steadily rising, and Japan has been steadily driving Indian 

 yarn and piece goods out of the China market. It is 

 uncertain whether the increase in the import duty on cotton 

 goods will help the Indian industry to ou.st .Japanese cotton 

 from India. 



In a report of a special committee of the Board of 

 Agriculture of Trinidad are to be found valuable suggestions 

 for the encouragement of the rice industry in that island. 

 It is recomminded that the Department if Agriculture 

 should continue its trials of varieties of imported rice, 

 especially these from Piritish Guiana, India, and Louisana, 

 but that no general distribution of the .seed of such varieties 

 be made until it has I'cen shown i hat they are suited to 

 Ifical conditions, and give belter returns than those already 

 ^rown. (BidUlin of the Dejiartinent of Agriculture of 

 .Trinidad and Tohago, Vol. XVI, Part 1.) 



At a meeting of the Horticultural Club, PortofSpain, 

 Trinidad, September 13, Mr. Broadway said that he had 

 learnt that a chief difficulty in rearing roses in Trinidad was 

 too much moisture. He successfully overcame that difficulty 

 by digging trenches about 3 feet deep and as broad as he 

 wished, filling them up to 1 foot with large and small stones, 

 and the remaining 2 feet with about equal proportions of 

 soil and manure. As the result of this he succeeded in 

 growing roses which were all that could be desirad frora 

 the point of view of quantity and quality of blooms produced. 

 (The Port-of-Spain Gaiette, September 14, 1917.) 



From an article in the Field, September 1, 1917, we 

 learn that the sugar planters and sugar-mill owners in 

 Natal are having their share of the economic trials of the 

 present time. Supplies for all chemicals required for sugar- 

 making are restricted, and their prices doubled and trebled, 

 while renewals and replacements of machinery, a very import- 

 ant item in all sugar mills, are in many cases unobtainable, 

 so that a breakdown may involve a complete stoppage for 

 an indefinite period. The extent of the unexecuted orders for 

 plant is indicated by the fact that one group of millowners 

 gave evidence at an inquiry that they had orders to the 

 value of £100,000 still unfilled. 



India and the Crown Colonies concerned now have to 

 consider a scheme to provide aided colonization for East 

 Indians to British Guiana, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Fiji, to 

 replace the system of indentured labour which has been so 

 strongly objected to by Indian educated opinion. The 

 suggestion made in some quarters that the existing temporary 

 prohibition of Indian emigration should be made permanent 

 is entirely unrea.sonable. It would be unjust not only to the 

 colonies concerned, two at least of which are almost entirely 

 dependent for their prosperity upon labour supply from 

 India, but also to the thrifty peasant class of India, as well 

 as to their countrymen already settled in the colonies, and 

 therefore directly concernid in their prosperity. (The Times 

 Trade Supplement, September 1917.) 



A meeting of the United British Oilfields of Trinidad 

 Company was held in London on September 4. Mr. H. N. 

 Benjamin, who presided, gave the following statistics of the 

 production for the year: 43,826 tons had been the output, an 

 increase of some 2,000 tons over that for 191.5; while, for the 

 firtt lialf of the current year, approximately 34,000 tons had 

 been produced This increa.se was explained by the fact that 

 early in 1917 they had obtained initial production from 

 several wells, but I hey had been unable to make the increase 

 permanent. The war had shown a very considerable demand 

 for oil, and the many uses to which it was put pointed to others 

 of a more peaceful nature which would be available to theui 

 in due course. (The Mor/iing Post, September -5. 1917.) 



The London Globe dated September 6, 1917, in dealing 

 with the pine-apple industry, says that while pineapples have 

 lona been grown in the warmer parts of South Africa for 

 local consumption, nothing has yet been done in the way of 

 starting a tinned pine apple .industry on the spot. In 

 Johannesburg there is actually a considerable sale of tinned 

 pineapples imported all the way from Haw.iii. The British 

 Empire Produceis' Organization learns, however, that 

 a pineapple canning establishni'^nt is at last being set up 

 in South Africa, and this should be the forerunner of many 

 others, and of a big export trade The Straits Settlements 

 is the only tropical British possession which has as yet 

 developed a big industry in the tinned pr.jduct, exporiing 

 over .£300,000 worth annually. 



