26 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION 



PROFITS IN PEANUTS 



The extensive cultivation of the peanut 

 may be a future agricultural industry in 

 Cuba. Experiments carried out under the 

 direction of the industrial department of 

 the Cuba Railroad show conclusively that 

 the peanut can be grown on the island 

 with a good margin of profit. Some time 

 ago a number of sacks of peanuts were 

 shipped to Germany to ascertain the cost 

 of transportation and the general condi- 

 tions which the business would have to 

 meet. The peanuts were of large size and 

 grown for the manufacture of oil or for 

 a stock feed. The German firm to which 

 the peanuts were consigned answered that 

 it would sign a contract to pay $54,800 

 for every 1,000 tons of peanuts of the 

 same class. This price is lower than that 

 paid in the United States, but there the 

 quantities bought are much smaller and 

 the nut is used for roastim^ and eating. 

 The Cuba Company calculated that the 

 grower can make $20,000 clear on 1,000 

 acres. Its figures are as follows : 

 Cost of production of 1.000 tons. . .$20,000 



Freight and packing 10,000 



Commissions 4,800 



Total cost $34,800 



Net profit to grower $20,000 



SHEEP IN THE TROPICS 



Two strictly tropical breeds, both of 

 which might prove valuable, are the Bar- 

 bados and the Tunis. The former, or 

 woolless sheep, are raised in the West In- 

 dies. They are strictly a mutton animal, 

 having no wool, the body being covered 

 with coarse hair. They are hardy, produce 

 an excellent quality of mutton, and are 

 particularly adapted to the tropics. The 

 Tunis (fat-tailed or Barbary sheep) have 

 proven very successful in Africa and parts 

 of South America. They produce a clip 

 of good quality and their mutton is said 

 to compare favorably with that of other 

 breeds. 



In certain sections of tropical Australia. 

 South America and Africa, where condi- 

 tions are no more favorable than in the 

 Philippines, sheep raising is an important 

 industry. — Philippine Agricultural Review. 



Approximately, the waste of 1,000 leaves 

 gives 400 liters (liter = 1.05 quarts) of 

 juice, which in turn produces about 80 

 liters of alcohol of 40 degrees, perfectly 

 good for all uses. The improvements to 

 the ordinary still for correcting the taste 

 and color have been protected by patents. 



SOIL EXHAUSTION A MISTAKE 



Outside of the agricultural colleges, ex- 

 periment stations and a few individual 

 farmers, the general mass of farmers to- 

 day is but little advanced from the farmer 

 of thirty years ago on the question of 

 profitably using mineral fertilizers, says the 

 Milling and Engineering World. Yet the 

 mineral fertilizer industry, in spite of its 

 relative infancy, has already become of 

 gigantic proportions. 



The fact that good crops exhaust the 

 soil is pointed out by Colman's Rural 

 ]Vorld, which continues as follows : "There 

 is much stress placed on seed selection, 

 preparation of the seed bed, good cultiva- 

 tion, proper drainage, etc., all important 

 factors in producing good crops, and crop 

 rotation is given due consideration both 

 by writers on farm topics and by progress- 

 ive farmers, but few stop to consider that 

 these are all helping to exhaust the soil 

 by making heavy drafts on the plant food 

 in it, and each in its way, though a great 

 help to the farmer, yet surely helps in his 

 undoing if he does not do his part, which 

 is neither more nor less than to faithfully 

 put back into the soil each season some of 

 the plant food which has been removed 

 by the growing crops." 



It is generally understood that all 

 manures or fertilizers are valuable for the 

 nitrogen, potash or phosphoric acid they 

 contain. Though other substances are 

 needed for plant growth, they are almost 

 always present in the soil in sufficient 

 quantities. Lime might be an exception, 

 although its use is largely to improve the 

 mechanical condition of the soil and cure 

 it of sourness. Lime also aids in rotting 

 the vegetable matter. Other agricultural 

 experts have no hesitancy, however, in say- 

 ing that there is no way to tell, without ex- 

 periment, what food constituents a soil lacks. 

 In order to ascertain with certainty what 

 food elements are lacking, the surest way 

 is for the farmer to do some experimenting 

 on his own soil and crops, applying differ- 

 ent kinds of fertilizing materials in differ- 

 ent combinations. For example, using 

 potash compounds in one place, phosphoric 

 compounds in another, nitrogenous mate- 

 rials in another, etc., and leaving portions 

 of the field without fertilizer of any kind, 

 so that the result may be easily seen in 

 the contrast of the yield. 



It is a well known fact that different 

 crops need different quantities of nitrogen, 

 potash and phosphoric acid compounds. 

 In making fertilizer mixtures, it was first 

 proposed to make the ingredients cor- 

 respond to the analysis of the plant. This 



