11 



to dwarf and tassel out when but a few inches high, while on the other 

 hand it must be admitted that from Panay Province we have reports of 

 good growth, good crop, and good quality. Ehubarb and celery have both 

 made a creditable and satisfactory start, but at the time of this writing it 

 is premature to forecast their final outcome. 



OIL-YIELDING SEEDS. 



Of these sesamum, rape, peanuts, and sunflower have all had prelimi- 

 nary trials during a dry season and without irrigation. 



The first and last of these have given unqualified and excellent returns. 

 Eape early in the season succumbed to heat, and was especially subject to 

 the devastation of aphis. Of peanuts we have but scanty and contradic- 

 tory reports. The seeds imported by the Bureau of the most select sort 

 grown in Virginia in size, appearance, and productiveness seem to offer no 

 improvement on the kind in general cultivation. 



In Batangas Province peanuts are primarily grown for the pony forage 

 that the ripened vines afford. The ground nuts themselves, of excellent 

 quality, are secured for food, but seem to be a secondary consideration. 

 Peanut culture in most tropical countries, as we well know, is for the 

 purpose of oil making. In the Philippines this industry is as yet 

 unknown. 



Sunflower under truly adverse circumstances has developed a fine 

 growth and a large seed yield. Its further exploitation is to be 

 recommended. 



The success that has followed our trials with Sesamum indicum calls 

 for a somewhat extended notice. So far as I recall, the small order Peda- 

 lince, to which this plant belongs, is of exclusive tropical Asiatic or 

 Malaysian origin, and its excellent behavior here was in a measure to have 

 been anticipated. In fact the black-seeded variety is reported by Blume 1 

 as indigenous to Java, and the same kind has been more or less grown as 

 a minor product for many years in these Islands. But the white-seeded 

 and by far the most useful variety I have not encountered, and the pre- 

 sumption is strong that the present instance is its initial introduction into 

 this Archipelago. Through circumstances altogether unavoidable our 

 plantings in January were made a full month or more too late in the 

 season and with soil conditions far from being of the best. Notwith- 

 standing this, growth and final crop returns were of the best. Our obser- 

 vations also go to show comparative freedom from the many insect pests, 

 unending warfare with which makes the cultivators life no sinecure. 



From several creditable sources I am also assured of the absolute 

 immunity of this plant from the ravages of the locust that in frequent 

 years devastates the fields of every living green thing. Whenever positive 

 verification of this is forthcoming it should place the culture of this plant 

 on a plane of the highest commercial rating. 



J Bijdragen, p. 778. 



