220 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



July U, 190G. 



GLEANINGS. 



During the fortnight ended June 7, 233 bales of West 

 Indian cotton were imported into the United Kingdom. 

 ( West India Committee Circular.) 



Xotice is given in the Dominica OM''ial Gazette that the 

 jirice for young lime plants supplied from the Botanic Station 

 will be at the rate of 2«. Gd per 100. 



The West hidia Committee Circular, of June 13, 

 contains an illustration of the Agricultural Show held at 

 Melville Hall, Dominica, on Jlay 2 and 3 last. 



According to the annual report of the St. Lucia Agri- 

 cultural Society, ' the bee-keeping industry has gone ahead 

 greatly during 190.5. There are GOO colonies of bees in the 

 island, as against 400 in 1904.' 



The Hon. Dr. Watts, C.M.G., suggests that, as the time 

 is approaching when Castilloa seed may be expected, Agri- 

 cultural Officers in the diti'erent islands should lie prepared to 

 deal with this matter ' as its germination is very poor, if it is 

 allowed to dry even for a very short time.' 



Cassia occidentalis, belonging to the natural order 

 Legxnninosae, yielding what is known as negro coffee, is 

 a native of the Ea.st and AVest Indies. It is naturalized in 

 Mauritius and grown in other hot countries. The roasted 

 .seeds are used by the natives as a substitute for cotfee and 

 in cases of asthma. 



The ordinary varieties of bougainvilleas may readily be 

 propagated from cuttings. The handsome brick-red one, 

 unfortunately, presents more difficulties, and cuttings from it 

 rarely succeed. It is said to be capable of propagation by 

 circumposition, a somewhat tedious operation. (Hauuiian 

 Forester and Agriculturist, May 190G.) 



Board of Trade returns show that the retail prices of 

 1 H). of the kind of sugar, whether refined or unrefined, 

 most largely consumed by the working classes in London, 

 Paris, and Berlin, in 190G, are as follows : London, '2d.; 

 Paris, 3rf. ; and Berlin, '2\d. Customs duties, for the same 

 cities, are 0'4.5</., l-44f/., and VQM. per lb., respectively. 



Trial shipments of bananas (Canary Island variety) 

 were made last year by the Board of Agriculture from Bermuda 

 to the United States and England. Four crates were sold 

 at $D50 to $2'00 in New York. The bunches sent to 

 Portsmouth, England, were sold for 7s. each. The latter 

 were reported by Messrs. Pink it Sons to be of ' the right 

 kind for the best class of trade in this country.' 



The Fioyal JIail Steam Packet Company has issued an 

 attractive little pam[ihlet entitled ' West Indian Fruit and 

 Produce.' It is copiously illustrated, the illustrations show- 

 ing the principal West Indian fruits, banana plantations, etc. 



Dr. Watts mentions that he recently visited a plantation 

 in the Concord Valley, Dominica, where excellent growth 

 had been made by a small plot of Funtumia and Castilloa 

 rubber trees. The cultivation of the latter is to be steadily 

 extended. 



Owing to a good harvest and the greater demand in 

 Marseilles and the continent, the export of ground nuts 

 from Pondicherry rose from 7,026 bags in 1904 to 2.5,770 

 bags in 1905 ; that of ground nut oil from 619 barrels to 

 1,716 barrels. {Consular lieport.) 



The Government not being able to make a grant for the 

 piurpose, the Agricultural and Commercial Society of Antigua 

 has, on the initiative of his Excellency the President, decided 

 to invite subscriptions to a fund to be expended on securing 

 the representatation of the island at the Canadian exhibitions 

 in 1906. 



In the course of an interview with a repsesentative of 

 the Portof-SjMiin Gazette, Mr. A. F. Clark, Manager of the 

 AVest Indian Fruit Company, stated that he expected that 

 an estate in the Erin district would be able shortly to cut and 

 deliver about 1,000 bunches of bananas a week during the 

 season, which is likely to last about six months. 



Two reports prepared by the Hon. Francis Watts, 

 C.M.G., D.Sc, have recently been published as Nos. 34 and 

 35 of the series of Colonial Reports — Miscellaneous. These 

 are ' The Agricultural Industries of ilontserrat ' (published in 

 the West Indian Bulletin, Vol. YII, pp. 1-15) and 'The 

 Sugar Industry in Antigua and St. Kitt's-Nevis, 1881 to 

 1905,' also published in the West Indian Bulletin (Vol. YI, 

 pp. 373-86). 



A correspondent writes in the Tnqncal Agriculturist to 

 inquire if the fruits of Anona jialustris are edible. He is 

 informed that they are not considered so. This tree is 

 a native of tropical America, being quite common in the West 

 Indies, where it is known as the ' Alligator apple ' or 

 ' Monkey api)le ' tree. The only useful property possessed 

 by this tree is that it yields a very light, soft, fibrous wood, 

 which is used for making floats, razor strops, etc. 



In regard to the rubber industry of Bolivia (valued at 

 £334,006 in 1904) the British Consul reports: 'The fact 

 that so much attention is being paid to the cultivated 

 plantations in Ceylon, etc., seems to be producing a satisfac- 

 tory effect in the minds of the owners of plantations here, as 

 I hear that considerably greater care is taken in the tapping 

 of the trees. In former years it was quite a minor question 

 if a tree became useless by over-milking it.' 



The Consular Rejiort on the trade of Boston for the year 

 1905 states : 'The importation of bananas from Jamaica and 

 Costa Rica, etc., has increased greatly during the year and 

 keeps a fleet of steamers busy all the year around. The 

 United Fruit Company has two or three steamers arriving 

 every week with full cargos of bananas and tropical fruits, 

 which are disposed of as soon as they are unloaded. Railroad 

 freight cars are brought alongside the steamer and the fruit 

 is transferred direct to them from the vessel and thus they 

 are conveyed to inland towns without delay.' 



