February 12, 1903] 



NA TURE 



355 



kinds very special gifts are necessary. On the other hand, 

 the developing of new sorts already on sale in limited quanti- 

 ties is much less difficult, and Mr. Maiden shows that handsome 

 profits may be made by those who are shrewd enough to recog- 

 nise the coming varieties. List year, for example, the kind 

 known as "Northern Star" was selling at icu. per lb. ; this 

 season the price was 5s. per lb., but it has now advanced to 

 151'. The tubers exhibited at the Smithfield show were priced 

 at 75. di. each! By growing plants from a single "eye" 

 under garden conditions, the produce may be increased a 

 hundredfold in one season. Thus Mr. Maiden produced 168 

 plants and 41S lb. of tubers from 4 lb. of "setts" planted in 

 the spring of 1902. At the present time, there are a number 

 of first-class kinds awaiting development, and it is to be hoped 

 that Mr. Maiden's remarks may induce a larger number of 

 farmers and gardeners to give attention to the subject. From 

 the public standpoint, it is much to be desired that good new 

 sorts should be rapidly multiplied and brought into the vege- 

 table market. 



A simple demonstration conveying a useful lesson to the 

 farmer has just been carried out at the new Harper-Adams 

 Agricultural College, Shropshire. Seven cwt. of an ordinary 

 compound manure (a "special turnip manure" sold at 61. i$s. 

 per ton) was applied to an acre of roots ; to a second acre, the 

 same quantity of plant food was given in the form of a mixture 

 of superphosphate and sulphate of ammonia, followed by a top- 

 dressing of nitrate of soda. The cost of the special manure 

 was 47s. per acre, of the other 27s. <)d. The result, as was 

 anticipated, was an almost equal yield of roots, and a saving 

 by using the home-mixed manure of 1/. per acre. This 

 demonstration wants repeating in every county, for there are 

 two classes who have not yet learned to assess ' ' special '.' manures 

 at their real value— manure manufacturers and farmers. 



Under the suggestive title of "A new Departure in the 

 Science of Fattening," Mr. Warington contributes a valuable 

 paper to the Agricultural Students' Gazette (Cirencester). He 

 discusses the recent work of Kellner on the feeding of farm 

 animals, with special reference to the comparative effects of 

 such fibrous fodders as hay and straw in the fattening of cattle. 

 Agricultural chemists have held that the digestible nutrients 

 in fodders of a similar character, such as oat and wheat straw, 

 must have a similar value for the fattening animal, and they 

 have argued that the comparative value must be shown by the 

 composition. Practical agriculturists, on the other hand, hold 

 that the chemical composition is not a correct index of the 

 fodder's value, and they have never attached much weight to 

 their scientific advisers' opinions of common farm fo >ds. 



The recent work of Zuntz (Berlin) and Kellner (Mockern) has 

 shown that the farmer's opinion is correct and that a chemical 

 analysis does not indicate the relative values of fodders grown 

 under different conditions. The mechanical as well as the 

 chemical composition has an important influence on the effects 

 produced by a food on the fattening animal. A hard or tough 

 straw requires more energy for its digestion than a softer one, this 

 energy becomes a first charge upon the food, and thus the 

 " efficiency " of an indigestible food is lower than that of a diges- 

 tible one of the same chemical composition. It has, of course, 

 been known that digestion involves an expenditure of energy, 

 but Zuntz and Kellner have been the first to show how great the 

 effect of this may be on the value of a fodder. 



The former worker so long ago as 1S96 wrote a paper for the 

 American Experiment Station Record in which he discussed 

 this question, pointing out that in the case of the horse the 

 nutrients assimilated from hay yielded 20 per cent, less avail- 

 able energy than the same nutrients assimilated from grain ; 

 but the importance of Zuntz's work does not seem to have been 

 appreciated in this country. Kellner's experiments are, how- 

 ever, likely to arouse widespread interest. He has compared 

 the effects produced on fattening oxen by nutrients derived from 

 various sources, and among other results he finds that to pro- 

 duce the same increase as is due to 100 lb. of starch it is 

 necessary to supply 147 lb. digestible nutrients in meadow hay, 

 157 lb. in oat straw, and no less than 374 lb. in wheat straw. The 

 figures, of course, hold good only for the particular samples of 

 hay and straw used by Kellner ; the importance of the result 

 lies in the fact that a wide variation in value has been proved. 

 Kellner's experiments may not, perhaps, affect the rations given 

 by the farmer to his cattle, but they will very greatly affect the 

 rations which he (the farmer) has hitherto been recommended 

 to use. 



NO. 1737, VOL. 67] 



The December number of the United States Experiment 

 Station Record contains a short report of the sixteenth annual 

 convention of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges 

 and Experiment Stations. Among the papers read was one 

 which emphasised the importance of breeding and selecting 

 corn for different purposes, showing how much the market 

 value might be affected by slight variations in the composition. 

 The composition of the grain of cereals is a subject to which 

 our English seed growers have hitherto given little attention. 

 Wheat, for example, has been selected for appearance, for 

 yield and for stiffness of straw, but the chemical composition 

 has been neglected, with the result that the miller and baker 

 condemn our present English wheats as inferior and unsuit- 

 able for Hour-making. We grow about one-fourth only of 

 what we consume, but so small is the proportion of home- 

 grown wheat which millers can profitably mix with imported 

 grain that the markets are often glutted with English wheat 

 which millers will not buy. A very slight alteration in the 

 chemical composition would enable millers to employ profitably 

 35 per cent, to 40 per cent, of English wheat in their mixtures, 

 instead of 25 per cent, to 30 per cent, as at present, and would 

 thus remove the possibility of glutting the market with English 

 wheat. In ten or fifteen years time, we may hope to see this 

 change in composition effected. In the meantime, it would be 

 interesting to follow the lead of the American writer, trace the 

 effect of composition on market value, and investigate the loss 

 the nation has suffered in the past decade or two and must 

 continue to suffer for years to come from this oversight on the 

 part of our seed growers. T. H. M. 



T 1 



WEST INDIAN NOTES. 



HE third number of vol. iii. of the West Indian Bulletin, 

 issued by the Imperial Agricultural Department, contains 

 a large amount of information on a variety of subjects. Mr. 

 Francis Watts deals with " Raw Sugars for Brewing Purposes," 

 Mr. P. C. Cork with " Stock Rearing in Jamaica," Mr. 

 Maxwell-Lefroy with "Scale Insects of the West Indies," &c. 

 A lengthy account, 23 pages, of the volcanic eruptions in the 

 West Indies includes a reproduction in full of a most interest- 

 ing series of observations taken by the Rev. N. B Watson, at 

 his residence, about twelve miles east of Bridgetown, Barbados, 

 from 5 a. m. , October 1 4, to 6 a. m. , October 17, covering the period 

 of the Soufriere eruption in St. Vincent on October 15-16 and 

 the dust fall in Barbados. Careful notes were taken of the 

 direction and force of the wind, temperature, clouds, aspect of 

 the sun, sky, the atmosphere, &c, and the rate at which the 

 dust fell was frequently measured, the heaviest being 38T 

 grammes per square foot, from noon to I p m. on October 16. 



The Department has also just published Nos. 19 and 20 of 

 its pamphlet series, dealing with seedling and other canes at 

 Barbados and in the Leeward Islands respectively. Of the 

 large number of varieties of seedlings experimented with, the 

 results for the past season show B. 208 to be the best all- 

 round cane, beating all its rivals in Barbados, Antigua, St. 

 Kitts and Trinidad. In Barbados, its juice was described as 

 "exceedingly rich and pure," in Antigua as "exceptionally 

 rich in sugar," and in St. Kitts as "of remarkable richness 

 and purity." Part i. of the report on the sugar-cane experi- 

 ments conducted at Antigua and St. Kitts in the season 1901-02, 

 published at the same time, contains the complete statistical 

 results for the two islands. 



The report on the Antigua Botanic Station for the year ending 

 March 31 last contains full particulars of the working of a 

 "Peasant's Garden," in which nothing is done that cannot 

 easily be accomplished by a working man having a similar 

 small piece of land. In the previous year, the experimental 

 plot was one-tenth of an acre ; it required an expenditure, for 

 labour, seeds and manure, of U. 151. $d., and the varied 

 produce, when sold, fetched 2/. i$s., leaving a profit at the 

 rate of nearly 10/. per acre. Last year the area was increased 

 to one-seventh of an acre; the expenditure was 3/. lis., and 

 the produce realised 4/. 16s. lid., showing a profit of about 

 9/. per acre. In re-afforestation experiments, about a dozen 

 varieties of trees were being tested, the best growing being 

 found to be mahogany and white cedar. It is curious that, 

 while in neighbouring islands sugar-cane seedlings have been 

 successfully raised, the several attempts made in Antigua 

 have almost invariably turned out failures, very few fertile 



