220 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



July 14. 1917. 



GLEANINGS. 



By a Proclamation publislied in the Leetvard Islands 

 Caiette for May 16, 1917, the benefits of the Preferential 

 Tariff accorded to the Dominion of Canada are extended to 

 goods imported into the Presidency of Antigua from Barbados. 



In Bulletin No. 330 of the United States it is stated 

 that winnowed rice is covered with hard siliceous hull. The 

 hulled grain is covered with a litht-brown bran coating which 

 consists of seven layers. During the process of milling six 

 of these layers and a portion of the seventh are removed. 



The cacao industry in the Gold Coast continues to enjoy 

 great prosperity according to the West India Committee 

 Circular, of May 31, 1917, for the exports of last year 

 which are valued at £3,S40,567 seem likely to be exceeded. 

 In the first two months of the present year cacao valued at 

 ^934,018 were shipped 



The Government Cotton Ginnery ot St. Vincent is offer- 

 ing in the St. Vincent Gazette, for sale at 5c. per ft., 

 selected and disinfected cotton .seed of excellent germination. 

 The cotton from which the seed was obtained was specially 

 bred up from a single plant by the Agricultural Department 

 It is of good, 'ordinary grade', very even and fine. 



The Philippine Islands exported 338,000 tons of sugar 

 in 1916, while in 191.5 and 1914 the quantities exported 

 ■were 208,000 and 235,000 tons, respectively. The exports 

 to the United States in the past year ran to 137,000, while 

 in 1915, as appears from the Louisiana Planter of April 14, 

 1917, It was only i-(7,000 tons. 



Continued attention is being given by scientists to the 

 question of the rnle played by vitamines, the infinitesimal 

 something in natural fond which appears to be essential to 

 satisfactory food assimilation. A recent number of Comptes 

 Bendus of the Bacteriological Society contains the results of 

 experiments on feeding, which are of great importance. 



It is gratifying, writes the Field of May 26, 1917, to 

 perceive the increased recognition of indebtedness for the rapid 

 completion of spring work to the assistance rendered by oil 

 tractors. The steam and oil tractors have quickly won their 

 ■way into favour, sheer necessity having gained for them 

 opportunities and prominence that otherwise it might Lave 

 taken years to win. 



According to the Agricultural Netvs of Durban, of 

 February 15, 1917, more than 20,000 acres of good and 

 fertile land in (Queensland are infested with the prickly pear, 

 which, however, might be utilized in connexion with the 

 manufacture of potash. It is stated that the ashes from 5 

 acres of burnt prickly pear contained A-ton of 80 per cent, 

 potassium carbonate per acre. 



A Bill was introduced, it is reported in the Sentry of 

 June 15, 1917, in the Legislative Council of St. Vincent on 

 -June 11, 1917, to authorize under the provisions of Ordinance 

 5 of 1916, additional duties on the following products: Sea 

 Island seed-cotton, 2d. per cwt.; ifarie Galante seed cotton, 

 \hd. per cwt.: Sea Island cotton 2s. per cwt.; Marie Galante, 

 Is. per cwt.; arrowroot, id. per cwt.; sugar, 3s. 6rf. per cwt.; 

 molasse.s, Is. Qd. per cwt.; syrup. Is. 6d. per cwt. 



Experiments have been made in Denmark with the sub- 

 stitution of cacao-cake for ground nuts and soya as the fond for 

 cows. The general result, according to the Mo)ithly Bulletin, 

 has been that less milk is afforded The cause of this is attri- 

 buted to poisoning with theobromine, of which the cake used 

 contained 15 per cent. Cases of poisoning had been recorded 

 with cattle, fowls and pigs after the use of cacio-cake, and, 

 on account of these, Professor Hawsen experimented with 

 fowls, rabbits and mice, and came to the above conclusion. 



The correspondent of the We't India Committee Circular 

 in the Turks and Caicos Islands writes on March 30 that, over 

 11,000 ft), of raw cotton, as stated in the West India Com- 

 mittee Circular of May 16, 1917, were received by the 

 Government of Turks Islands from the Caicos Islands during 

 February and March. The industry has now passed the 

 experimental stage, and it is hoped that in a year or two 

 cotton will take a prominent place among the exports of the 

 Dependency. 



The value of imports of cotton manufacture into India 

 for the year 191.5-lfi was £29,000,000, four millions less than 

 in the previous year, the share of the United Kingdom in 

 this trade being over 91 per cent. The trade is naturally 

 influenced to a large degree by conditions of the Lancashire 

 market, the shortage in transport and high freights, together 

 with other increased charges in the cost of production, result- 

 ing, as is stated by the Chamher of Commerce Journal, in 

 prices for manufactures being much dearer than in normal 

 times. 



In reviewing the report of the Department of Science 

 and Agriculture in British Guiana, the Louisiana Planter of 

 April 28, 1917, observes that while careful intensive experi- 

 mentation has been going on for j'ears in British territories 

 in the Far East, we are inclined to look for the highest degree 

 of progress, particularly in the cane industry, in the reports 

 that come from the West Indies, and in these British Guiana 

 stands prominent in ouropiniop, based upon the fact that two 

 of the best .seedling canes that are now popular in Louisiana 

 came from British Guiana, viz. D.74 and D.95. 



In a reply to a despatch from the Governor of Barbados 

 with reference to the importation of cane syrup into the 

 United Kingdom the Secretary of State writes, as appears 

 in the Barbados OjHcial Gazette o{ June 21, 1917, that the 

 admission of cane syrup into the United Kingdom was referred 

 to the Minister of Food from whom an answer was received 

 explaining that the supply of sugar to the United Kingdom 

 was limited not by a shortage of sugar but by a shortage of 

 tonnage, and that cane syrup from the point of view both of 

 the tonnage required and of the nutriment involved compared 

 unfavourably with sugar. 



