Vol. V. No. 102. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AXl) MORALS. 

 By E. J. Wortley. The Educational Supply Company, 16, 

 King Street, Kingston, Jamaica. 



Iilr. E. J. Wortley, the Assistant Island Cheuiist of 

 Jamaica, is to be congratulated on this manual. It is 

 published in pamphlet form, and is intended to supplement, 

 not to supersede, other books now in use by teachers and 

 scholars on the subject of agriculture in the tropics. The 

 book is written for the guidance of pui)ils of elementary 

 schools, and to inculcate upon labourers and peasant 

 proprietors those habits which tend towards thrift, industry, 

 and intelligence. Its teaching is simple, direct, and 

 forcible. Essential details are prominent. Its arrangement 

 is orderly, and its mode of instruction intensely practical. 

 •Special attention is paid to those forms of agricultural abuses 

 which are usually the outcome of laziness, or thoughtlessness, 

 or lack of knowledge. 



The book deals witli the raising of a crop from the 

 preparation of the soil to the reai)ing of the harvest, 

 containing notes on the picking, the curing, and tlie sale and 

 export of fruit. It also gives timely advice on tiie care and 

 management of animals. 



At the end, comes a page ai Agricnlliuul Don'fx, a series 

 of short, pithy, practical bits of advice. Tliese, according to 

 the author's suggestions, might be transferred to a chart, and, 

 if approved by the ]5oard of Agriculture and Education 

 Department, might be hung up in all public elementary 

 schools. 



INQUIRY FOR WEST INDIAN PRODUCTS. 



A firia in Liverpool, ;it'fcer a vi.sit to the Colonial 

 E.~ihibition in that city, writes as follows with regard to 

 We.st Indian products : — 



AVe ha\e been for many years directly interested in the 

 A\"est Indian products, particularly cotton seed, and what is 

 known as feeding stuffs. At present, we ai-e getting large 

 supplies of cotton seed from Porto llico and other islands, 

 and, as we think it likely that, owing to the great increase 

 in the growth of cotton, there may be supplies of seed for 

 disposal, we should esteem it a favour if you could put us ia 

 touch with the most likely houses in the various islands, witli 

 whom we might correspond. 



"^Vo will either buy right out, "or give them instructioas 

 to buy in unlimited Cjuantities at certain limits to be fixecl 

 from time to time, or act as consignment agents on their 

 account at this side. We are also buying cocoa-nut oil meal, 

 and any other material that would be useful for feeding 

 cattle, such as peas, beans, etc., and we shall be pleased toi 

 hear from you respecting the possibility of business in these 

 articles. 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE 

 OF COMMERCIAL RESEARCH IN THE TROPICS. 

 Liverpool Univerdty, Vol. I, No. I. Price '2i. 



This is an excellent publication of an excellent society, 

 to which reference has been made in another column. 



The present issue, opening with deiiartmental organiza- 

 tion, gives the names as well as the duties of those responsi- 

 ble for its several departments of statistics, economic botany, 

 economic zoology, and economic chemistry. The next 

 division is that of laboratory reports, and under this are 

 given the results of the investigations carried out under the 

 departments of economic botany, zoologj', and chemistry. 



The journal also contains articles by various contributors, 

 iimong them being a communication on the 'Osmotic Strength 

 of Cell Sap in Plants growing under different conditions,' 

 a note on 'Vascular Tissue,' a paper 'On the occurrence of 

 a Poisonous Alkaloid in " West African Poxwood " ' ; and 

 a brief description of the economic products of the Solomon 

 Islands. 



At the end, comes an interesting section styled Mu.seum 

 Reports, wherein are described specimens and samples of all 

 kinds of products derived from the vegetable kingdom, 

 which have been contributed to the Museum of Economic 

 Botany. 



The journal is well printed, carefully arranged, and 

 very instructive. 



COFFEE IN BRAZIL. 



The Hauxdlati Forester and Agrimdturist for 

 January last, contains the following interesting facts 

 about the cultivation of coffee in Brazil: — 



The state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, has 1,908,000 acres 

 planted in coffee, and 4,.5S5,000 acres of land suitable for 

 coffee cultivation. There are .54-5,000,000 bearing trees, 

 and 140,000,000 trees that will come into bearing within 

 three years. The trees are worth .-5312,000,000. The 

 average yield per 1,000 trees is 2,300 lb. Four hundred 

 and twenty thousand labourers are employed during the 

 picking season. 



The methods in use are entirely unlike the Hawaiiaa 

 practice in coffee growing. The picking is deferred until the 

 whole crop of cherries has ripened. The laliourers then strip 

 the cherry off the branches, allowing fruit, leaves, and twigs 

 to fall on the ground. When the trees have been stripped, 

 the fruit, with dirt, sticks, and stones is raked into heaps, 

 shovelled into wagon.s, or cars on portable track, and trans- 

 ported to a river, stream, or flume, to be washed in sluice- 

 boxes. These deliver the cherry free from sticks, stones, 

 dirt, and rubbish. The cherry is then transported to huge, 

 open-air, drying floors of cement or clay. The sun-dried 

 cherry is run through hulling machinery, graded, and 

 polished, and, when bagged, is ready for market. 



Labour during the picking season connuands high prices, 

 and there is always a shortage at that time. The Sao 

 Paulo method is well adapted to the needs of the small 

 individual planter, who can market his coffee to the large 

 planters and mill owners in the dried cherry. Practically, 

 the only investment of capital, other than his own labour 

 that is recj^uired, is the comparatively small cost of a drying 

 floor. 



This simplification of methods is responsible for the 

 enormous over-development of the coft'oe industry of Brazil. 

 Hundreds of th'jusands of European immigrants, German, 

 Italian, and Portugese have poiu-ed into this salubrious, rick 

 and well-watered region. Extraordinary inducements have 

 been ottered in the way of lands, prepaid ocean-transportation,, 

 loans to settlers, and, in si>me instances, guararitees of at le^st 

 $400 wages per annum. Road and railroad development 

 has kept pace with the settlement of the land. 



