115 



"Allow me to express my appreciation of your editorial in the 

 last Forester concerning the 1914 Rubber and Tropical Products 

 Exposition. I heartily agYee with your views concerning the 

 wisdom of the Territory doing something to help the smaller ag- 

 ricultural enterprises in making a creditable exhibit. It would 

 seem that, with the present hard outlook for sugar, it behooves 

 us, besides complaining of our hardships in this line, to make 

 even more strenuous efforts than ever before to establish our 

 minor industries, and to consider the possibilities that might lie 

 in substituting some of these other crops for sugar on the poorer 

 sugar plantations, which must inevitably give up raising sugar, 

 if the worst we fear should come. 



"I presume, in view of the hard times anticipated, and the ex- 

 pense of the Panama Exposition, we can hardly expect the present 

 legislature to adopt your suggestion, but you have given them 

 the opportunity, anyway, and your part is done." 



An article reproduced elsewhere from Tropical Life for April, 

 on the subject of coconut estates and army remounts, under the 

 department head, of "Economic Zoology," contains matter that 

 might be worthy of study in Hawaii. 



Interesting matter on dry farming in the tropics, contained in 

 a book review, appears in this number. 



THE VARIATION IN THE QUALITY OF RICE. 



By C. K. McClelland. 



Before taking up directly the factors causing variation in the 

 quality of rice it may be well to review some of the experimental 

 work relating to the influence of various factors upon the quality 

 of grains in general. Primarily by a difference in quality, we 

 mean a dift'erence in the chemical composition. In some grains 

 a difference in composition may be easily detected by the eye. In 

 corn, for example, the practiced eye can tell the variations in the 

 content of oil, carbohydrates, or protein. In wheat, the differ- 

 ences are not so strongly marked, but it is easy to distinguish be- 

 tween the hard, glutenous wheats and the soft, starchy ones. 

 More experimental work has been done upon wheat than upon 

 other grains and the results show that various conditions of en- 

 vironments are the main factors causing variation. 



It has been found that : 



1. There is a dift"erence in varieties in their composition. How- 



ever, the composition of the seed does not always deter- 

 mine that of the product, since other factors may overrule 

 the varietal. 



2. The application of fertilizing ingredients to the soil slightly 



increases the per cent, of those ingredients in the crop. 



