392 



NATURE 



[February 22, 1900 



having tried everything between 5^ in. cranks with a 54 in. 

 wheel, and my present machine with 10^ in. cranks and 108 in. 

 gear, I can now travel greater distances and climb steeper hills 

 with less effort on a 42 lbs. bicycle than when riding a 28 lbs. 

 machine fitted with 6^ in. cranks and 66 in. gear. I intend to 

 try 1 1 in. cranks and 120 in. gear, but this necessitates my getting 

 a longer and heavier machine, and it is probable that I shall 

 lose as much as I gain. 



The extraordinary ankle-play developed by long-crank men 

 improves their walking ; and, after a long hard ride, the 

 difference between their swinging elastic step and the muscle- 

 bound hobble of the short- crank riders is very striking. 



Instead of Crompton foot-plates I have just fixed a flanged 

 clip to each pedal, so that the inner edges of the soles of my 

 shoes can be pushed under the clips ; and they are almost as 

 comfortable and efficient as the " Otto " straps of years ago. 



VVm. H. Mas'sey. 



Twyford, Berkshire, February 17. 



Indian Corn. 



In the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," vol. xv. p. 309, it is 

 stated that no mention was ever made of maize by Eastern 

 travellers in Africa or Asia prior to the i6th century A D. 

 Slight doubts about this statement have occurred to my mind 

 lately, while I was reading the Hakluyt Society's "India in 

 the Fifteenth Century." There, in the English translation by 

 the late Count Wielhorsky of the " Travels " of Athanacius 

 Nikitin, the Russian, whose Eastern travels took place about 

 1470 -1 474, when the work was written by himself, we read con- 

 cerning the Indians : "They live on Indian corn, carrots with 

 oil, and different herbs" (p. 17). Has this mention of the 

 cereal any weight to countenance the theories which seek to 

 assert that maize was known in the East before the discovery 

 of the Western Continent ? Or, does what is meant or trans- 

 lated by the word Indian corn here differ materially from 

 Zea Mays ? 



Apropos of these queries, I may mention that A. de CandoUe 

 is in error in his post-dating the introduction of maize into 

 Japan on the sole ground that Kaempfer (who was there during 

 1690-92) does not mention it.^ According to a native work 

 (Kikuoka, " Kindai Sejidan," 1733, 'it). 2, § 4), maize was 

 introduced into the islands about the beginning of the period of 

 Tensho (1573-91). After Sweet Sorghum (Sorghum sacchar- 

 atttm), of earlier introduction with the name Morokoshi-Kibi 

 {i.e. Chinese-Millet), maize was called T6-Morokoshi {i.e. 

 Chinese Chinese- Millet) in the eastern provinces, where, of 

 course, its propagation followed that in the western parts. In 

 the dialect of the latter, where the people were more directly 

 concerned with its introduction, maize was named Natnban- 

 Kibi, or Millet of the Nambans (Spaniards and Portuguese), 

 who were entirely excluded from the empire since 1639, which 

 thus would stand as latest possible date of the introduction. 



KUMAGUSU MiNAKATA. 



I Crescent Place, South Kensington, S.W. 



The Production of Electrolytic Copper. 



In a note on the production of electrolytic copper, on p. 371 

 of Nature of February 15, it is stated that *' Mr. S. Cowper- 

 Coles has hit upon a new plan, in which the copper is deposited 

 on a vertical mandril, which is caused to rotate at a very rapid 

 rate. ... As a consequence, a smooth and dense deposit has 

 been obtained with current densities approaching 200 amperes 

 per square foot." In reference to this I should like to point 

 out that the idea of rotating the kathode with a view to obtain- 

 ing greater rates of disposition is an old one. We have had in 

 use at the Owens College for the last seven years a copper de- 

 positing tank in which the kathode consists of a vertical mandril 

 9 inches long and 3 inches diameter kept in rapid rotation, and 

 capable of receiving a good copper deposit with a current of 100 

 amperes. The arrangement was devised by Mr. Henry Wilde, 

 F.R.S., to illustrate the working of his patent, No. 4515, of 

 1875, and differs little from that used by Mr. Cowper-Coles. 

 The mandril is driven from above, so thai a stuffing-box in the 

 bottom of the tank is unnecessary. Charles H. Lees. 



The Owens College, Manchester, February 19. 



NO. 



1 "Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 392. 

 582, VOL. 61] 



THE WEST INDIAN AGRICULTURAL 

 CONFERENCE. 

 '■PHE second West Indian Agricultural Conference was 

 A opened on January 6 in the hall of the House of 

 Assembly, Barbados, under the presidency of Dr. D. 

 Morris, C.M.G., Imperial Commissioner of .Agriculture 

 for the West Indies. There were forty representatives 

 present, including the heads of all the Botanical, Chemical 

 and Educational Departments, as well as the represent- 

 atives of the principal Agricultural Societies in the West 

 Indies. Some of these gentlemen had journeyed for the 

 best part of a week to take part in the two days' labour 

 that awaited them. 



The representatives were received in the hall of the 

 House of Assembly at 10.30 a.m. by his Excellency Sir 

 James Shaw Hay, the Governor, who opened the confer- 

 ence with . a short address of congratulation to the 

 Department of Agriculture, and of welcome to the visitors 

 from other Colonies. 



The President then delivered his address, which 

 summarised the work done by the Imperial Department 

 during the preceding year, and alluded to some of the 

 problems which were expected to be discussed at the 

 conference : the best seedling canes and their record, 

 Imperial aid for co-operative central factories, reducing 

 cost of cultivation, subsidiary industries which have done 

 so much for Jamaica, Trinidad and Grenada, agricultural 

 education and treatment of diseased plants, were subjects 

 that came under review. 



Prof. J. B. Harrison (British Guiana) then read a paper, 

 " Notes on Sugar Cane Experiments," the joint produc- 

 tion of Mr. G. S. Jenman and himself, followed by one, 

 entitled " Past and Future Work in Sugar Cane Manurial 

 Experiments,'' by Prof. d'Albuquerque (Barbados). Both 

 papers covered somewhat the same ground, and were 

 followed by a long discussion. It was generally agreed 

 that nitrogen is the constituent of cane manures which 

 chiefly governs the yield ; but the experiments upon the 

 use of phosphatic manures have been contradictory in 

 different places. The application of potash and lime to 

 cane fields gives profitable results in soils where these 

 constituents of plant food are deficient. A discussion of 

 considerable length took place upon the best and most 

 economical way to conserve and utilise the nitrogen and 

 mineral constituents of plant food in farmyard manure ; 

 and the desirability of extended trial of leguminous green 

 dressing was urged upon West Indian planters. 



Prof. d'Albuquerque, in the next paper, explained " A 

 Method of using Control Plots in Experimental Field 

 Cultivation." The method, which is only applicable where 

 small plots of, say, one-thirtieth of an acre are used, 

 partly consists in weighing the crops from a number of 

 small no-manure (control) plots not far apart, and calcu- 

 lating the no-manure yield of the intervening plots on the 

 assumption that in a uniform field the change of fertility 

 is continuous from one control plot to the near next one. 

 The other part of the method depends upon the manipu- 

 lation of the figures obtained from the manured plots in 

 relation to the calculated no-manure yields, and the inter- 

 pretation of results. 



The same author in the next paper, " The Possibility 

 of Improving the Sugar Cane {a) by Artificial Cross- 

 fertilisation, (<^) by Chemical Selection of 'Seed Cane,'"' 

 under the first head argued that crossing different varie- 

 ties would lead to the production of canes possessing 

 desirable characters derived from both parents, and 

 detailed some methods by which systematic experiments 

 should be carried out. The second part of the paper 

 dealt with the feasibility of increasing the sugar pro- 

 ductiveness of a given variety of sugar-cane by pro- 

 pagating it with tops cut from canes richer than the 

 average of the variety ; the practical difficulty is to find 

 a sure test of an inherently rich cane, as opposed to a 

 cane rich because it is riper or more favourably situated. 



