386 



THE AGIUCULTURAL NEWS. 



December 15, 1906. 



'■raising of these cheap and nutritious foods for home 

 consumption is sound economy. Poultry can be raised 

 with a very small expenditure and will obviate the 

 outlay of money for comparatively expensive imported 

 food stuffs, which are, for the most part, of less nutritive 

 value. 



In many countries poultry raising is an industry 

 -of very considerable value. In Canada, for instance, the 

 shipping of poultry and eggs is being encouraged 

 ■with the result that the industry is steadily increasing. 

 Again, it may be mentioned that Great Britain 

 imported eggs alone, during the year 1905, of the value 

 of £6,812,436. According to the figures placed before 

 the Royal West India Commission in 1896 (p. 81 of 

 .the Report), the total value of all the exports from the 

 West Indies and British Guiana, including sugar, 

 cacao, fruit, etc., amounted to £6,102,000. These figures 

 show in a very striking manner what an enormous 

 value a comparatively small industry may attain where 

 the necessary conditions exist for its full development. 



In further reference to the subject of the great 

 possibilities attending poultry raising, it may be of 

 interest to quote as follows from the preface to a new 

 ■work on poultry — Races of Domcfitic Foidtry, by 

 Edward Brown, F. L. S., (London, Edward Arnold, 

 41 and 43, Maddox Street, W.), which is briefly 

 .reviewed elsewhere in these columns : — 



' Within the last decade there has been a great 

 awakening to the importance of poultry as a branch of 

 farm stock, and in respect to the food supply of our 

 great and growing populations. Hence they have 

 received more attention than at an}' period of human 

 history, and one of the first steps is seen in the 

 improvement of existing breeds and the introduction 

 of newer and more profitable stock. When this stage 

 is reached, productiveness in respect to eggs and fiesh 

 Ijecomes of supremo importance, and a race is judged 

 by what it will yield in either or both of these direc- 

 tions, not what its colour of plumage or fancy points 

 may be. Many of the breeds of poultry lack much in 

 respect to fixity of type, and the great majority, more 

 especially those found in Mid, Eastern, and Southern 

 Europe, cannot compare favourably in productiveness 

 ■with the best races met in Western Europe and 

 America. But they are capable of great improvement 

 in these directions, and some, at least, will doubtless, 

 ere long, when the principles of selection and breeding 

 are applied to them, be equal to, and perhaps take the 

 place occupied by, oiir more prominent breeds, when 

 the latter have lost some, at least, of their present 

 virility as a result of our intensive methods.' 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



Seedling Cane B 376 in Barbados. 



An adjourned meeting of the Barbados Agri- 

 cultural .Society was held on December 7 for the 

 purpose of discussing the results of the sugar-cane 

 experiments carried on in Barbados during the last 

 crop season, reference to which was made in the 

 AgriciUturcd Nev)s, Vol. V, pp. 369-70. 



In the course of the discussion the Hon. G. Laurie 

 Pile gave some interesting figures in regard to the 

 cultivation of B. 376 on a large scale on one of his 

 plantations : — 



Last year he put 58 acres out of 90 in this cane, the 

 remaining 32 acres representing several varieties. The cane 

 was grown under ordinary conditions in tlie various sorts of 

 soil running through the estate, and was treated in the same 

 wa}' as all the canes were treated last year. These 58 acres 

 gave an average yield of 291 tons of canes per acre — some 

 a little more, some a little less. The largest return from 

 one field was 36 tons per acre. 



With regard to the juice, it was particularly good, and 

 gave an average of 2'95 tons of sugar per acre. He wight 

 mention that this return was in a measure due to superior 

 extraction, because it happened at Brighton, where there was 

 a five-roller mill. It also pointed to the fact that what was 

 wanted in Barbados was better extraction to get more out of 

 the canes. No one could grow better canes than the planters 

 of Barbados, but they lost, by imperfect extraction, at least 

 25 per cent, to 30 per cent, of the juice. 



The mixed canes in the remaining 32 acres gave about 

 I ton less than B. 376. He might mention that he had 

 20 acres of second crop B. 376, and this cane gave him 

 a much larger yield per acre than any other cane he reaped 

 as second crop ; it gave him an average of about 2 tons of 

 sugar to the acre. Therefore, he thought B. 376 was 

 a better cane than it was believed to be merely by its cultiva- 

 tion in small experimental plots. It was a cane which 

 germinated well, it stood the weather well, and grew not 

 only a good first crop, but also a good second crop. 



Central Su^ar Mills in Queensland. 



Certain of the Queensland central sugar factories 

 are operated under the control of the Government, the 

 actual supervision being deputed to Dr. Walter Maxwell 

 as Comptroller. In his second annual report (dated 

 September 21, 1906) upon the conditions and operations 

 of these Government central sugar mills, Dr. Maxwell 

 discusses the agricultural work at the mills as follows : — 



The strongest evidence of real development that is 

 taking place in the agricultural work connected with the 

 mills is the increase in numbers of farmers who are now 

 engaged in cane production. At the five mills in the 

 possession of the Treasurer, there were, in 1903, 315 cane 

 growers, and in 1906 that number is increased to 542. 

 A still greater increase is found in the tonnage of cane 

 produced and delivered to the mills ; but that result is due- 

 in part to the more beneficent seasons as well as to tho- 

 increase in number of the producers. 



