Vol. V. No. 119. 



THE AGRICULTUKAL NEWS. 



359 



disappear with the planting of seed from plants grown undei' 

 local conditions. 



The Overseer has examined the Caravonica variety as 

 grown in the North, and neither he nor Mr. Jones, who has 

 also been comparing this variety witli otlier well-known sorts, 

 can detect any superiority. To all intents it is one of the 

 Egyptian type. 



JAMAICA ORANGES. 



The following note on the Jamaica orange industry 

 is extracted from the CoUector-Generars Annual 

 Report for the year 190.5-6 : — 



It has often been said that the .Jamaica orange is tlie 

 finest in the world. This may be true or may not be, but the 

 fact remains that Jamaica is capable of supplying oranges 

 that need fear no competition. There i.s, however, a ' but ' 

 that bars the entrance into the enjoyment of the privilege 

 that should be ours, and this barrier can only be removed by 

 the people interested in the industry. So much has been said 

 and written publicly on the question of picking immature 

 fruit and bad packing, that I refrain from adding to the 

 literature on the question. There is a great possibility in the 

 industry ; it is an asset of great value to the people, but is 

 subject to keen competition, and can only come to a full 

 development by being most jealously safeguarded, and by the 

 adoption of the most intelligent methods in marketing. The 

 markets to which we sent our oranges during the last three 

 years are as under : — 



EXPOETS OF .JAMAICA OEAXUES. 



USE OF VOLCANIC SAND IN EASTERN 



CANARIES. 



The following is an abstract of an article by 

 Professor Dr. K. Sapper in the Trv'penpflanzer, for 

 May 1906, on agriculture in the eastern Canaries. 

 This account of the use of volcanic sand as a means of 

 conserving soil moisture is of particular interest in the 

 West Indies : — • 



In the two eastern Canarj- Islands, Fuerteventura and 

 Lanzarote, agriculturists have to contend with violent winds 

 and great lack of rain. This is not so much the case in the 

 middle and especially the western Canaries. In the larg' ,■ 

 islands of these two latter groups Palma, Tenerife, and Gra.i 

 Canaria, artificial irrigation can be practised. In Lanzarote, 

 on the other hand, there may be perfectly rainless years, and 

 there are very few perpetual .springs. Nearly all the water 

 in that island is stored up in cisterns from the rain. In dry 

 years, the people in the drier south of the island have 



to buy their water from those of the more rainy north, 

 and water is even brought in sailing vessels from Gran 

 Canaria. 



When there is a sufBcient rainfall, the land, though 

 stony, yields good crops, and is carefully tilled with shallow 

 ploughs, drawn by camels. But the harvest is very uncertain, 

 and only where the land is covered with a layer of volcanic 

 sand, which prevents the true soil from drying up or being 

 overheated, is a certain harvest to be expected, when there is 

 a lack or total absence of rain. In many places the layer of 

 ash is so deep that most crops cannot be raised. But just 

 these places have been found specially suitable for grapes, fig 

 trees, pear trees, and others. For each plant a pit is made in the 

 ash, reaching to the true soil, in which the plant is set as 

 usual. 



On the interior plateaux of Lanzarote the eruptions of 

 1730-6 covered large extents with ashes, 1, 2, or more 

 yards in depth. 



Since the sides of the pits must have a very gentle slope 

 (from the loose nature of the ash), the pits have to be far 

 apart. So in an acre only very few plants can be set out. 

 But experience has shown that the plants, especially the 

 grapes, compensate by very heavy bearing for the lo.ss 

 occasioned by the wide planting. 



When long ditches are dug and a row of plants is set out 

 in them, they have to be protected by cross walls of loose 

 stone between each plant, but these plants do not succeed so 

 well, being nearer each other. If the ash is less than 3 feet 

 thick, a semi-circular wall of stone must be built on the 

 windward side of each vine. 



A shallow layer of ash is not suitable for grape vines 

 in the eastern Canaries, but is right for cochineal cactus, 

 tomatos, onions, maize, peas, etc. In the western Canaries 

 such soils are best for grapes, and black ash seems better 

 than grey. The people of Lanzarote carry volcanic ash and 

 spread it over their fields to a depth of 4 inches; such a field 

 is called in Lanzarote ' arenar.' The soil is stamped hard 

 first. In planting in such a field a hole is made with an iron 

 point about | inch deep in the true soil, the seed of maize, 

 peas, onions, etc., put in and covered over with the ash again. 

 To manure such fields the ash is carefully removed from 

 a small place at a time, the manure spread on the .soil and the 

 sandy ash replaced. If through carelessness the ash becomes 

 mixed with soil, the field is no better than one without ash. 

 Those fields which are not sanded are sown with wheat or 

 barley, crops which can grow with a minimum of moisture. 

 They are not ploughed deeper than 3 inches, except in the 

 gullies. 



In northern Lanzarote camels can be seen everywhere 

 carrying loads of volcanic ash for ' sanding.' A ' sanded' field 

 costs about forty times as much per acre to purchase as an 

 ' unsanded ' one. The use of ' sanding ' means the certainty of 

 a crop. As cochineal has lately risen in price, many of the 

 lately ' sanded ' fields of Lanzarote are used to grow the 

 Opuntia on which the cochineal feeds. 



The covering of volcanic ash not only prevents evapora- 

 tion from the soil, while letting the rain through, but also 

 entirely prevents excessive heating. For instance, while the 

 temperature of the surface of the ash in sunshine, 1 1 inches 

 deep, was 44' C, at 8 inches deep between a.sh and .soil, 30^° C, 

 and 3 inches under the soil, 29" C, the ' unsanded ' soil near 

 by at 1 inch deepj was at 36i° C. Perhaps in other regions with 

 poor rainfall it might be possible by .spreading ordinar}' sand, 

 if volcanic ash is not procurable, to obtain assured crops in dry 

 years. 



