Vol, V. No. 121. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



38r 



A strong spirit of encouragement and hope has been 

 produced amongst the growers by the policy which has 

 placed all the producers upon a uniform basis in respect of 

 the price paid for cane, and other terms and privileges. The 

 rendering of financial assistance, at a low rate of interest, and 

 to all growers alike, providing satisfactory security was in 

 sight, has proved a timely and practical aid. Although the 

 older and settled growers have been rendered very largely 

 independent, and able to finance themselves, by the recent 

 more favourable years, the mills are still furnishing aid to 

 new settlers where it is required and warranted. The 

 mills are also, distributing new varieties of cane amongst 

 the suppliers. 



In regard to manufacture, the following e.xtract is 

 of interest : — 



Concerning these mills, each one considered in its 

 entirety, not one of them is a modern mill, compared with the 

 mode of construction and with the co-efRcients of power and 

 results of the modern mills of the day. These mills have 

 neither the crushing, boiling, or crystallizing co-efficients of 

 the most recent types of mill construction. With a use of 

 30 per cent, to 40 per cent, of maceration it is difficult to 

 reach a higher average extraction than 90 per cent, by the 

 roller power now in use at the mills under discussion, while 

 the great modern mills of Java, Cuba, and Hawaii reach an 

 average extraction of 95 per cent, to 97 per cent., with 

 a maceration equivalent that allows of the whole steaming 

 power to be obtained from the bagasse as fuel, and without 

 the use of either coal or wood. It must be understood, 

 however, that while the want of balance between the stations 

 in these mills is due to the construction at the time, the 

 relatively low standard of efficiency of the mills as types, and 

 of each one as a whole, was not a fault at the time they were 

 constructed. When they were built and equipped they were 

 modern plants ; but that is a dozen years ago, and their day 

 has gone by, being surpassed by mills of a greatly increased 

 power and efficiency. At this time, there is not a modern 

 mill in Queensland, when the comparison is drawn between 

 the best that exist in this country and the more recent types 

 and equipments in some other countries. 



The Comptroller is endeavouring to establish a uniform 

 system of management, and, as far as the conditions will 

 allow, a uniform method of conducting and recording the 

 practical operations of the several mills. To this end, in the 

 first place, control chemists are engaged at each mill, each 

 chemist acting under uniform instructions in respect of 

 methods of analysis, and forms of calculating and presenting 

 re.sults. In addition to the chemists located at the respective 

 mills, the supervising chemist is engaged under special 

 instructions, in periodically visiting the several mills in order 

 to oversee the work of the local chemists, and also to report 

 to the Comptroller regularly upon the actual results of the 

 jiiill operations as indicated by the technical control. 



Hawaii. 



Tlie following note on the general condition of the 

 sugar industry in Hawaii is extracted fron the U. S. 

 Monthly Consular Reports for November: — ■ 



Sugar being the money crop of the islands, the cane is 

 cultivated on a large scale and is a very important industry, 

 covering about 200,000 acres. In the use of improved 

 methods in this industry and in yield of cane per acre and 

 yield of sugar per ton, Hawaii probably leads the world. 

 Steam ploughs are used in the fields, private steam railways 

 on the plantations carry the cane from the field to the 

 mill, where the latest steam and electrical machinery is used, 



and then it is shipped on tlie plantation railway to the 

 plantation wharf to be carried to Honolulu or Hilo for 

 shipment east. Vast irrigation works and costly pumping 

 stations have been installed. Some of the mills cost over- 

 a million dollars each, and the companies, of which there are- 

 over sixty in the islands, are capitalized at from a few 



sand to five millions. 

 thouThe quantity and value of the .sugar exported for the 

 last ten years are as follows : — 



WATER FOR BEES. 



Mr. R. Beuhne, the President of the Victorian- 

 Apiarists' Association, writing in the Journal of 

 Agriculture of Victoria, says : — 



Few bee keepers are aware of what amount of water is- 

 required by a colony of bees during the summer months, and 

 how important it is that a permanent supply should be 

 available within a reasonably short distance of an apiary. 

 As a general rule, bees are left to themselves to get their 

 supply of water wherever they can. There is usually 

 a natural watercourse, dam, or waterhole, somewhere in the 

 neighbourhood, and if permanent and within a few hundred 

 yards of the apiary, such sources answer well enough. When,, 

 however, water is not permanently available within \ mile,_ 

 it is greatly to the advantage of the apiarist to provide 

 an artificial supply as near the apiary as is convenient. - 

 Where many bees arc kept, and the water supply is limited,, 

 they become a nuisance to stock, and sometimes a source of 

 ill feeling between neighbours in consequence. Bees are also 

 very annoying about the apiarist's own home, round water- 

 taps, tanks, and the drinking dishes of poultry, when the- 

 weather is hot, and any other supply of water is rather far^ 

 from the apiary. 



An iron water-pipe, laid underground (18 inches deep)- 

 so as to keep it cool in summer, conducts the water to the 

 drinking troughs, which are at a distance of about 100 feet 

 from the building, and the same distance from the nearest 

 hives. This distance is necessary, otherwise the bees, when 

 flying to and from the water, interfere with work in the- 

 apiary, and also cause confusion at swarming time. There- 

 are two drinking troughs ; they are placed on a stand at 

 a height of 3 feet from the ground, in order to prevent 

 poultry going to them, and to keep drifting leaves and other 

 material out as much as possible. It is better to have two 

 or even three of such troughs instead of a large one of the 

 same surface area as the two or three combined. If only one 

 large trough is used the bees are too much concentrated, and 

 a good deal of fighting and stinging takes place occasionally^ 



