268 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



August 25, 1906. 



GLEANINGS. 



According to the Consular Report, 1,889 tons of castor 

 oil seeds were exported from Pernanibuco, Brazil, during 190-5. 



His Majesty the King has been pleased to accept from 

 the West Indian Produce Association a packet of tea from 

 the estate of the Hon. H. E. Cox, Custos of St. Ann, .Jamaica. 



Ripe-rot {Gloeosjwrhim mumrum) injured 50 per cent, 

 of the banana crop in Hawaii, especially in fruit not 

 properly packed ; estimated loss, §30,000. (Yearbook of the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1905.) 



Mr. R. D. Anstead, B.A., Agricultural Superintendent, 

 has been appointed to be, provisionally and temporarily, the 

 Agricultural Authority in Grenada under the 'Plant Protection 

 Ordinance, 1906.' 



The preference granted by Canada to West Indian 

 sugar is having good results. Not a pound of Trinidad 

 sugar found its way to the United States last crop. (Inter- 

 national Sugar Journal.) 



The world's average productionof raw silk is 42,332,0001b. 

 Of this amount Cliina and Jafian are responsible for 

 2-5,336,000 It). Italy is the largest producer in Europe. 

 (Atlas of the Worlds Commerce.) 



Attention has been drawn to an error in an article on 

 the cocoa-nut industry in the Philippines [Agrindtural News, 

 Vol. V, p. 201). Through a miscalculation, the average 

 yield of copra from 1,000 nuts, in the Tayabas province, 

 was given as 138 lb. The figures should have been 620 If). 



The arrivals of cacao this year (1906) at New York, up 

 to July 22, totalled 285,811 bags, as compared with 275,145 

 bags at the same date last year, 257,387 bags in 1904, and 

 214,058 bags in 1903. (Messrs. Gillespie Bros. A- Co.'s 

 Market Report, -July 27, 1906.) 



The number of crates of onions exported from Antigua 

 during the last five vears has been as follows : 1901, 1,300 ; 

 1902, 546; 1903, 550; 1904, 4,524; 1905, 1,078. The 

 value of the exports has been: 1903, £101; 1904, £860; 

 1905, £233. 



According to the Consular Report on Surinam, the prices 

 of balata continued low during 1905, and the amount 

 collected was only 244 tons, against 260 and 370 tons in the 

 two previous years. The value of the year's export of balata 

 was £34,630. 



Mr. Agar, writing to the West India Committee from 

 Dominica, on -July 3, reported that the first shipment of 

 citrate of lime on a commercial scale was being made. ' There 

 was no doubt that, should the exjieriment be .successful, the 

 manufacture of citrate of lime instead of concentrated lime 

 juice would rajndly develop.' 



The British West Indies have, to a large extent, 

 recovered the position they held in the banana trade, the 

 imports from that quarter having been more than double 

 those of 1904, and exceeding one-third of the total imported 

 into the United States. (Consular Report on the New York 

 district for 1905.) 



In an experiment with Tenerife onion seed at the 

 Experiment Station in the Bahamas, 852 fc. of dried and 

 cleaned onions were reaped from j\y acre. Yaluing the crop 

 at the ordinary selling pi ice of '2d. per lb., the yield was 

 worth £7 2s. The Board of Agriculture has authorized the 

 l)urchase of 60 III. of seed for distribution. 



According to the Rangoon Gazette, the kernels of the 

 common wild almond (TerviinaUa Catap2>a) yield, by cold 

 expression, 50 per cent, of oil. This is said to be ' agreeable 

 to the taste, has hardly any colour, and is at least as 

 nutritious as the .so-called " salad " oils, that are sold in the 

 shops and devoured with so much avidity and relish in India.' 



The shipments of produce from Barbados, up to August 

 10, amounted to 43,030 tons of sugar and 58,371 puncheons 

 of molasses; at the same time last year 31,539 tons of sugar 

 and 37,874 puncheons of molasses. The sugar crop is now 

 closed, (ilessrs. James A. Lynch A Co.'s Market Report, 

 August 13, 1906.) 



The imiiortation of cacao into New York continues to 

 increase, but the total value has not risen in proportion to 

 the increase in quantity. The importation from the West 

 Indies shows an increase : that from the United Kingdom 

 remains about the same, while larger quantities have been 

 imported from the rest of Europe. (Consular Report on the 

 New York district for 1905.) 



At the request of the Secretary of the Jamaica Agri- 

 cultural Society, a quantity of the small ti.sh, known in 

 Barbados as ' millions,' were sent to Jamaica by the Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture. They are re[iorted to have 

 arrived safely. These fish are intended for the tanks at the 

 Titchfield Hotel, Port Antonio, where it is hoped they will 

 assist in reducing the numbers of mosquitos. 



The great improvement in cane sugar machinery, even 

 in the last five years, has considerably reduced the cost of 

 manufacture, but still greater imjirovements are possible in 

 the cultivation of the cane by irrigation, the use of steam 

 ploughs, and the selection of canes to suit the soil and 

 condition of the ground : and these improvements are steadily 

 being introduced. (International Sugar Jov.rnal.) 



A recent publication of the Board of Agriculture gives 

 the number of bunches of bananas imported into the L^nited 

 Kingdom from the British West Indies in 1905 as 1,218,922. 

 During the same period 4,518,990 bunches were imported 

 from foreign countries (chiefiy the Canary Islands and Costa 

 Rica). The only other West Indian fruit imports enumerated 

 are : lemons, 2,088 cwt.; oranges, 103,257 cwt. Lemons and 

 oranges were imported from foreign countries to the extent 

 of 834,844 cwt., and 4,963,625 cwt., respectively. 



