470 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



1908. 



1909. 



Acres, lb. Acres, lb. 



Northern Luzon ... 593 33.874 466 34,592 



Southern Luzon ...1,032 37,556 852 70,450 



Vizcayas ...1,714 117,900 3,122 221,190 



Mindanao - 138 7,329 79 7,862 



Total 



...3,477 210,859 4,509 334,094 



The principal Coconut-producing provinces 

 are those bordering the Pacific Coatt, a not- 

 able exception being La Laguna which pro- 

 duced over 20 per cent of the total output 

 of the islands. Provinces producing over 5,000 

 tons are Tayabas, 14,920 tons, Samar, 11,700 

 tons, Leyte 6,264 tons and Bohol, 5,312 tons. 



1908. 1909. 



tons. tons. 



Northern Luzon 4,175 4,243 



Southern Luzon 56,766 57,751 



Vizcayas 35,580 35,202 



Mindanao 6,326 6,630 



102,847 



103,826 



Tea, Cardamoms, and Oinchona — we learn — 

 are not grown in the Philippines at all. 



A beginning has been made with the planting 

 of Rubber in and near Mindanao, but it is etill 

 too early to expect any results. 



DRAGON FLIES AND PARA RUBBER. 



1 was recently informed that Dragon Flies 

 had been doing damage by eating the young 

 tips of Hevca shoots. That Dragon Flies eat 

 any part of a plant is an entitely erroneous 

 idea. Their food consists of the small insects 

 of which there are so many always flying about, 

 and this is what they are after when they are 

 seen hawking about all day. They occasionally 

 settle on a twig for a rest, but when in this 

 position are not feeding. That the Hevea shoots 

 in question had been damaged is undeniable, 

 but the damage was done probably by some 

 form of aphis or blight, though this could not 

 be found, and it is more than probable that 

 the Dragon Flies were feeding on the blight. 

 The larvae of the Dragon Fly are grub-like 

 insects with largo heads and formidable jaws, 

 and are found in ponds and steams. Theso 

 grubs feed voraciously on small water insects. — 

 Rudolph D. Anstead, Planting Expert. — Plan- 

 ters' Chronicle, April 9. 



SISAL MEMP AND HURRICANES. 



That sisal hemp is almost immune to hurri- 

 canes is demonstrated by Captain Calder's 

 estate at Visari. On the exposed hills where 

 the wind was strongest on the date of the recent 

 blow, the Bisal was hardly affected. Some of 

 the shrubs which were leaning with the wind 

 were readily put upright with no damage to the 

 plant. Mr Knowles reports that at the Nasinu 

 Experimental Station the leaves were bruised 

 and torn from the fact that the leaves were too 

 long for the distance between the rows. He ad- 

 vises those intending to plant to plant ten 

 instead of eight feet apart.— Fiji limes, April 6. 



INDIAN RICE. 



The average area devoted annually to the 

 cultivation of rice in India exceeds 



SEVENTY MILLION ACRES, 



and the number of people who consume it 

 must amount to many hundred millions. 

 There must, therefore, be a very great number 

 of people directly or indirectly interested 

 in the composition of Indian rice, which 

 recently formed the subject of enquiry by Mr. 

 David Hooper, f.c.s., Curator of the Industrial 

 Section of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. The 

 results of the investigation, however, which 

 are recorded in a brochure recently issued in 

 the Vegetable Product Series of the Agricultural 

 Ledger, is considerably enhanced in the light 

 of the decision arrived at at the meeting of the 

 Far Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine, 

 held a few weeks ago at Manila, that 



BER1-EERI IS DUE TO A LACK OF PHOSPHORUS 

 IN THE RICE 



oaten by the victims to the disease There is 

 an immense variety of rices, differing in shape, 

 size, weight, colour, consistence and properties, 

 known under various names, Some are regarded 

 as more digestible than others, and some as 

 more nutritious or satisfying, while others are 

 considered fragrant, sweet, medicinal or useful 

 in the arts. No rice, however, is so lacking in 

 phosphorus as to be the possible cause of beri- 

 beri were it consumed in its natural state. It is 

 the polishing which does the mischief, for this 

 removes the skin, or pericarp, of the grain, which 

 contains sufficient phosphorus for the system. 



As a result of a series of experiments Dr. H. 

 Fraser, who represented the Government of the 

 Federated Malay States at the Manila Conference 

 found that beri-beri invariably occurs in persons 

 living on a rice diet and eating white rice which 

 has been polished. Experiments conducted in 

 the United States in 1904 proved conclusively 

 that while raw rice afforded 9'88 per cent, of 

 proteids. the brans of rice meals gave from 

 9"26 to 13'41 per cent, of proteids and from 9 to 

 14'3per cent, of fat. and that rice dust contained 

 from 8 5 to 11 per cent, of proteids and from 

 5 2 to 6 9 per cent, of fat, while polished rice as 

 usually offered for sale contained only 6 - 56 per 

 cent, of proteids. The sole object in polishing 

 rice, which practice is largely followed in most 

 European markets, is to make it attractive in 

 appearance, and it only really affects people 

 who live practically exclusively on a rice diet. 



THE BOILINCi OF RICE ALSO REDUCES ITS 

 FOOD VALUE, 



for this removes more than half the fat, over 8 

 per cent, of the albuminoids, less than 8 per 

 cent, of the carbohydrates and 17'6 per cent, of 

 the ash; so there would seem to be good ground 

 for the prevalent idea that the parched rice con- 

 tains the most nutriment. Rice grown in India 

 differs considerably in composition from that 

 grown in other countries such as America, Java, 

 Japan, Cochin-China, and there is also a great 

 variety in the composition of the various rices 

 grown in different parts of India. On the av 

 erage, however, Indian rice, according to Mr 

 Hooper, consists of water 12'8 per cent., albu- 

 minoids 7 '3, iat -6, starch 78 % fibre "4 and ash 



