THE CUBA REVIEW. 



25 



AGRICULTURAL MATTERS. 



Corn in the Philippines. 



Three years ago, while teaching 

 agriculture at the Philippine Normal 

 School, several experiments with corn 

 were made. A field was thoroughly 

 plowed and harrowed and divided off 

 into six plats of equal size. The entire 

 six plats were planted with ordinary 

 yellow seed corn. The soil in one plat 

 was not cultivated. The surface soil 

 there became hard and the grass and 

 weeds were allowed to grow between 

 the rows of corn. In another plat the 



Rows Uncultivated and One Meter Apart. Yield 

 10^4 Pounds. 



soil between the rows was hoed several 

 times during the growing season. The 

 grass and weeds there were all killed 

 and the surface soil was made soft and 

 fine. This plat produced 99 pounds of 

 corn, while the plat that was not hoed 

 produced only 10^ pounds of corn. The 

 boys with the hoe gained 881 pounds of 

 corn. I have seen many fields of corn 

 near Calivo and Malinao that were not 

 cultivated. The weeds and grass were 

 allowed to grow between the rows and 

 the surface soil was allowed to become 



Rows 



One-half Meter Apart, but 

 Harvest 69J4 Pounds. 



Cultu ated. 



hard. Those farmers harvested a lo^ 

 pound crop of corn, while with proper 

 cultivation the harvest might have been 

 99 pounds. The schoolboys learned from 

 this experience that it pays to cultivate 

 corn. Do not believe this because I say 

 it is true, but try the experiment, if you 

 are interested, and you will learn the 

 truth — for plants are always truthful. 



In another plat where the corn was 

 planted in rows one-half meter apart the 

 yield was 69I pounds and in another 

 plat where the rows were i meter apart 

 the yield was 99 pounds. Twenty-four 

 and one-half pounds of corn were gained 

 by having the rows a proper distance 



Cultivated Rows, One Meter Apart. Harvest 

 99 Pounds. 



apart. A small crop of corn is secured 

 if the plants are too close together. I 

 have never tried the experiment with 

 cocoanuts, but I believe that if they 

 are planted too close together they, too, 

 will produce a small crop. Cocoanut 

 trees in Capiz Province are often planted 

 2, 4, or 6 meters apart. It is said by 

 men of experience that these trees pro- 

 duce the largest number of nuts if 

 planted 9 or 10 meters apart. — Philippine 

 Agricultural Review. 



Managing Cuban Bees. 



Fifteen hundred colonies of bees dis- 

 tributed among four or five apiaries are 

 about all that one man can manage with 

 the help obtainable in Cuba. The honey- 

 flow in this immediate vicinity is over 

 by the last week in December, and at 

 this time it is necessary to leave enough 

 honey in the lower story to last the 

 bees until the ist or iSth of March, 

 when the new honey-fiow begins. Dur- 

 ing this interval there is very little to do 

 except to melt up combs from the oc- 

 casional queenless colonies or colonies 

 containing drone-layers. — Gleanings in 

 Bee Culture. 



Some New Root Crops for the South. 



The Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington is continually discovering 

 and testing new crops. It has just is- 

 sued a bulletin dealing with the "Yan- 

 tias, taros, and dasheens as promising 

 root crops for the South." These are 

 tropical plants which are easily grown 

 and are valuable because the lands are 

 too wet for other root crops except rice. 

 These plants comprise ralad plants, 

 tubers which are excellent for table use 

 and also for stock feed, roots which are 

 valuable sources oi starch and from 

 which alcohol can be made, and have 

 formed the staple food of the native 

 Hawaiians, and are important food crops 

 in Japan, China, the ]\Ialay Archipelago, 

 Porto Rico, and many other hot coun- 

 tries. 



