Vol. V. No. 121. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



389 



SISAL HEMP AT MONTSERRAT. 



The accompanyiiis; illustration {i\g. 27) shtiws the 

 plot of sisal hemp at the Montserrat Botanic Station. 

 The history of this experiment plot, as given in the 

 last Annual Report, is as follows : — 



Area of plot, ^ area. Planted from bulbils in Septetaber 

 1902, 6 feet apart each way. 



Catch crops of onions, etc., were grown between the 

 rows for two years, so that the cost of cultivation of sisal 

 alone is not shown. 



First reaping, December 1904. Yield of green leaves, 

 5,053 tt). 



Second reaping, September 1 905. Yield of green leaves, 

 -5,950 lb. 



Fig. 27. Sisal Hemp at Montsere.^t Botanic Station, 



The fibrewas extracted from 66 lb. of leaves by maceration, 

 and weighed 2J B). This works out at Zi25 BJ., or approxi- 

 mately 2 cwt. from the plot, and at the rate of 12 cwt. per acre. 



The yield compares favourably with that obtained in 

 Yucatan and the Bahamas. It is reported that by this 

 method of extracting the fibre a minimum proportion is 

 obtained. 



PACKING PALM SEEDS. 



Palm seeds are frequently sent long distances between 

 different places in the tropics and also to hot-houses in the 

 temperate zones. Those that have a pulpy fruit do not travel 

 well if sent with the pulp on, for rotting of the pulp in 

 a close box has often affected the embryo as well. The best 

 general method seems to be to remove all pulp and to pack 

 the stones or seeds in powdered charcoal, which has been 

 washed and allowed to become moderately but not quite dry. 



MULCHING IN DRY WEATHER. 



Watering is not the only method by which plants 

 may be carried over a period of drought. A good and 

 cheap way is to stir the surface soil with rake, hoe, or 

 cultivator to a depth of 1 inch or 2 inches. This is 

 called a dust mulch. 



It prevents the sun from drying up the unstirred soil 

 underneath. It must be repeated after rain, as soon as the 

 surface is dry. One famous potato grower of the United 

 States claimed that by constantly stirring the first inch or 

 two of soil he could cai-ry his potato fields from planting to 

 crop without an additional drop of rain. Another method is 

 to spread sand, stone.s, dry grass, dead leaves, dead weeds, 

 cane trash, megasse, pen manure, or other vegetable sub- 

 stances on the .surface of the field or bed. 



Reference may be made to the excellent 

 results obtained at Dominica by mulching cacao 

 with grass and leaves, as reported in the West 

 Indian Bulletin, Vol. VII, p. 204. In a cane 

 field, the trash, whether on the surface or slightly 

 buried, forms an excellent mulch. If weeds and 

 grass taken from a garden are piled up till dead 

 and spread around plants and trees that need 

 watering, the trouble of watering will be lessened, 

 and, in many cases perhaps, the plant saved. 

 In islands where water is scarce, a layer of stones, 

 4 inches deep, forms a very good mulch, especially 

 in places exposed to high winds. Those who 

 have never tried a mulch in their gardens will 

 find it difficult to realize what a large amount of 

 water is saved to the plant by this method. 



King states in his book, The Soil, that he 

 found in America that 6'24 tons of water a day 

 were evaporated from 1 acre of unstirred soil, while 

 when the surface was raked or harrowed to 4 inch 

 deep, only 4'52 tons were evaporated. A mulch 

 of dry clay loam, -i inch deep, spread on the surface, 

 saved nearly 4 tons of water per acre per day. 

 Mr. T. Burns, B.Sc, of the School of Agri- 

 culture, Ghizeh, Egypt, made a series of experi- 

 ments, lasting over nearly a year, on the effects 

 of raking the soil, 2 inches and 4 inches deep. 

 These experiments are reported in the Yearbook 

 of the Khedivial Agricultural Society, for 1905. 

 The moisture was determined in the first foot of 

 soil and the plots were irrigated at the beginning 

 of every month. 



' During the hot months of ilay, .June, July, 

 and August the plot, which was kept broken to a depth of 

 2 inches, retained as much moisture, four weeks after watering, 

 as the unraked plot did two to two and a half weeks after that 

 operation. Three and four weeks after watering, the raked 

 plots were found to contain 2 to 2i per cent, more moisture 

 than the unraked plot, which corresponds with between 27 

 and 36 tons more water per acre in the layer considered. 

 'Thus we .see that regular raking increases the period 

 which may be allowed to elapse before irrigation. Another 

 point to be noted is that, whereas in winter it made little 

 difference whether the land was raked to 2 or 4 inches deep — 

 what advantage there was being with the deeper raking — in 

 the hot summer months the shallower raking proved the better. 

 The deeper raking during this period resulted in an increased 

 loss of water which was not compensated for by extra 

 moisture preserved in the rest of the 12-inch layer tested. 

 Raking during summer is a very necessary operation ; but it 

 should be as. light as possible.' 



