436 



NATURE 



[December i6, 1915 



furnished by carved wooden spoons and stay-busks. 

 These were wrought in the intervals of leisure, not 

 for sale, but as offerings from men to their women- 

 folk. Nor were they meant for use, but as pledges 

 of affection, and hence the symbol of affection, the 

 heart, appears in most of them. Specimens of such 

 carvings, many of real beauty, add much to the value 

 of this most helpful essay, which is unsigned. 



The Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society has 

 just published a valuable memoir on the Blattidae, 

 written by Dr, R, Hanitsch, the director of the Raffles 

 Museum, at Singapore. In the main a compilation, 

 embracing the descriptions of Malayan cockroaches 

 scattered throughout numerous publications, yet much 

 original work is contained in these pages. Dr. 

 Hanitsch, indeed, describes herein nine species new 

 to science. Furthermore, he has made a careful 

 analysis of the geographical distribution of this group. 

 This enables him to show, in the first place, that of 

 184 known species 131 are peculiar to the Malayan 

 region, and in the second that the geographical dis-. 

 tribution of the Blattidae discounts the view that the 

 Philippines should be included in the Indo-Malayan 

 sub-region. Seven coloured plates add materially to 

 the value of this most useful contribution. 



Miss Maud D. Haviland, in the December number 

 of British Birds, records her notes made on the grey 

 plover, at Golchika, on the Yenisei, during 1914, 

 These notes chiefly concern the breeding habits of 

 this bird, and form a valuable contribution towards our 

 knowledge of this phase in its life-history. But she 

 also makes some pertinent remarks on the spring 

 migration of this species which are worthy of careful 

 attention. In the same number Mr, H. F. Witherby 

 continues his notes on the moults of the British 

 passeres and the sequences of their plumages. In this 

 he deals with the finches, which have but one annual 

 moult, in the autumn. The snow-finch, however, he 

 remarks, in the spring moults the throat feathers, 

 while some of the nearly allied buntings, at this 

 season, moult parts of the head, throat, and breast 

 feathers. The "juveniles" among the finches in their 

 first autumn usually moult only the body plumage and 

 some of the wing coverts and inner secondaries. But 

 the house-sparrow, tree-sparrow, and the snow-finch, 

 the corn-bunting, and the East Siberian meadow- 

 bunting have a complete moult in the autumn. 



We have received another useful pamphlet (No, 79) 

 issued by the Imperial Department of Agriculture for 

 the West Indies, deaUng with " Diseases of Lime 

 Trees in Forest Districts," by Mr, Nowefl, mycologist 

 to the department. The black-root disease, which may 

 be caused either by Rosellinia pepo or R. htmodes, is 

 somewhat common in Dominica, and is fully described 

 in the paper. As it appears hopeless to try to cure 

 infected trees, special attention is directed to methods 

 of prevention of attack. Two other imperfectly known 

 diseases, known as "red-root disease" and "pink 

 disease," are also described; the former is known only 

 from Dominica. 



The annual rep>ort of the Agricultural Department, 

 Dominica, for the year 1914-15, is an interesting 

 NO. 2407, VOL. 96] 



record of steady and well-marked progress. The 

 budding of limes on hardy stocks receives attention in 

 connection with the prevalence of root disease in 

 certain districts. It is of interest to notice that though 

 the yield of limes in the year under review was rather 

 smaller than in 1913, the value of the crop was 

 44,369^. more. The high price is due to abnormal 

 conditions, and it is stated that owing to Army and 

 Navy requirements the output of raw lime juice was 

 relatively large. The shipment of coconuts showed 

 an increase, and the progress of the coconut industry 

 is very satisfactory. 



The half-yearly meetings of the Agricultural Educa- 

 tion Association were held in London during Smith- 

 field week, under the chairmanship of Prof. Somer- 

 ville. A paper by Dr. T. Milburn, of Lancashire, 

 upon the subject of " Food Production During the 

 Present Emergency," with special reference to war 

 agricultural committees, was discussed, and some 

 valuable suggestions were made in connection with 

 the question of increasing home-grown produce. At 

 the Agricialture Committee meeting, a discussion on 

 the " Training of Women for Farm Work " was opened 

 by Mr. P. Hedworth Foulkes, Harper-Adams Agricul- 

 tural College, Newport, Salop, who pointed out the 

 lack of facilities for training women in practical agri- 

 culture at the present time, and advocated that a mini- 

 mum course of one month should be provided in such 

 subjects as milking, general dairy work, poultry- 

 keeping, care of stock, feeding and management, and 

 field work of the lighter t5'pe. In the chemistry sec- 

 tion Prof. Crowther, Leeds University, introduced the 

 subject of the work of the agricultural chemist in 

 relation to the war, and gave a summary of experi- 

 mental work with palm nut cake, dried yeast, fish 

 meal, etc., as regards their general suitability and 

 value as feeding stuffs. Mr. Gimingham, of the Re- 

 search Institute, Bristol, indicated the work that had 

 been done with regard to the feeding value of pressed 

 apple pomace and the possibility of the better utilisa- 

 tion of this waste product. 



One effect of the present shortage of agricultural 

 labour has been to stimulate interest in all kinds of 

 labour-saving machinery designed for use on the 

 farm. In the current number of the Journal of the 

 Board of Agriculture there is an interesting account 

 of the demonstrations of motor ploughs and tractors 

 recently carried out by some of the county councils and 

 agricultural associations. The machines tested ranged 

 from 8 to 4o,h.p., and from 158Z. to 600Z. in price. 

 Petrol is the fuel used by the majority of the motors, 

 but one or two run on paraffin, while the large steam 

 tractors are fired with coal or coke. Both the light 

 motor ploughs, combining both plough and motor, and 

 the heavier tractors, hauling a detachable multi-furrow 

 plough, will do good work under favourable soil 

 conditions, but the former are more suitable when 

 ploughing can be spread over several months, while 

 the tractors are favoured where large areas have to 

 be ploughed quickly, and where much haulage and 

 threshing have to be done. These machines have 

 hitherto only been manufactured in small quantities 

 in this country, and their price is much higher than 



