112 BACON. 



advantages. It- gives quick results, the first returns coming in about six 

 months after planting, and on the virgin soils of the Philippines it 

 grows luxuriantly without any cultivation or care. I am strongly in- 

 clined to recommend it as a catch crop to help pay plantation expenses 

 until the slower growing staple crops are ready to be harvested. 



It is almost impossible to obtain from the literature any idea as to the yield 

 of oil per hectare. On this point I note the following statements. About 300 

 kilos lemon grass yield 1 kilo oil.^" Under normal conditions an annual yield of 

 8,000 ounces oil per acre can be reckoned upon. The grass is cut twice a year." 

 496 pounds fresh lemon grass yield 1 pound of crude oil (0.2 per cent). The 

 annul yield per acre amounts to about 20 pounds of crude oil. The grass is cut 

 three to four times per year.-' The average yield per acre is 49 quarts of lemon 

 grass oil."" One acre yields 100 quarts of oil (lemon gi-ass oil).^ From thoroughly 

 dried leaves, which had lost 70 per cent of their original weight, 8 to 8.5 per cent 

 of oil was obtained, while leaves distilled immediately after the harvest yielded 

 in the rainy season 2 per cent and in the dry season 5.5 per cent oil.'' 



Perhaps, considering the many possible variations of soil, climatic 

 conditions, etc., these wide differences of oil yield are not remarkable. 

 It must also be remembered that there are many varieties of lemon grass. 

 We have never been able to obtain Philippine lemon grass in flower and 

 hence can give no data as to the variety or varieties growing wild on these 

 Islands. In fact, no accurate botanical determinations of the grass have 

 been made for the same reason and it is assigned to Andropogon citratus 

 DC. solely from the character of the oil obtained from the grass. ^- We 

 obtained one shipment from Benguet which we worked up directly, but, 

 in view of all these facts it was considered necessary to plant experimental 

 plots of lemon grass. One lot was grown from grass obtained in Manila, 

 at the Singalong experiment station of the Bureau of Agriculture on 

 ground which has at various times had abundant applications of fertil- 

 izers, and another from Lamao plants was grown at the Government 

 agricultural farm at Lamao, Bataan, on unfertilized virgin soil. The 

 results obtained from these plots of grass were as follows : 



Lamao. — Planted February 14, 1908. First cutting July 29, 1908. Obtained 

 432 kilos grass, from 57 square meters of ground, distilled two days after cutting, 

 the yield was 900 grams of oil (0.2 per cent) of the following properties: Specific 



gravity, ??5!=0.894; N-*^°=1.4857; A-*'° = -|-8.1 ; citral = 79 per cent; Shimmel's 

 test passes the oil. 



"Journ. agr. trop. (1905), 5, 42. 



=• Kew Bull. ( 1906) , No. 8,364. 



^Bull. Imp. Inst., London (1907), 5, 300. 



'^Trop. Agr. (1904), 24, 35. 



»7&td., (1905), 25, 672. 



'^ Bull. Cliambre Agr. Cochinchine (1908), 11, 218. 



^ The very confused botany of the oil-producing grasses has only recently been 

 cleared up by the excellent monograph of Otto Stapf. Keio Bull. (1906), No. 8, 

 297. 



