November, 1909,] 



436 



Scientific Agriculture. 



Yield 



Yield 



Percent- 



of 



of 



age of 



SOG{I- 



lint 



lint to 



cotton per 



per 



seed- 



hectare, 



hectare, 



cotton, 



kilos. 



kilos. 





309-36 



100-8 



32-58 



724-80 



246-4 



33-99 



725-60 



240-00 



33-07 



483-20 



160 00 



33-11 



131' on 



4.1 • 7 )(\ 



31 "dD 

 or iu 



40-64 



9-60 



23-62 



97-92 



29 60 



30-22 



Nil 







Nil 







250-72 



86-40 



34-46 



244-80 



80-00 



32-67 



532-40 



108-00 



31-55 



035 20 



224-00 



35-26 



Description of variety. 



Southern Hcpe 

 Peeler 

 Bailey 

 Moon 



Mitafiffi Egyptian 

 Jannovitch Egyptian ... 

 Abassi Egyptian 

 Sea Island (St.Ki ts),.. 

 Sea Island (Clr rinda)... 



Short Staple Upland 

 Bates ' Big Boll " 

 Bates ' Favourite 

 Champion Cluster 

 King 



As it is considered that a yield of 200 

 kilos and 170 kilos of lint per hectare of 

 short staple and long staple upland cot- 

 ton respectively is required to ensure a 

 profit in this territory, it will be 

 observed that, notwithstanding the dis- 

 advantages under which this cotton 

 was grown, these yields were exceeded 

 in three different instances. The com- 

 paratively high percentage of lint to 

 seed-cotton obtained from the long staple 

 upland varieties is specially noteworthy. 

 These varieties rarely yield more than 

 30 per cent, of lint to seed-cotton, yet 

 this percentage was exceeded in every 

 case, with one exception only. The 

 length, strength and colour of the lint 

 of the various upland varieties compared 

 very favourably with these characteris- 

 tics of the lint produced by similar 

 varieties in the Southern States of 

 America. The lint of the Egyptian 

 varieties was, however, decidedly in- 

 ferior in each instance. 



Maize. — Eleven different varieties of 

 this crop were experimented with. 

 Caterpillars and grasshoppers did a 

 good deal of damage. The former were 

 eventually checked by spraying with 

 Paris green, but this remedy was not so 

 effective with the grasshoppers. A stem- 

 borer was exceedingly troublesome. As 

 its attacks are principally confined to 

 the interior tissues of the stem, appli- 

 cations of insecticides had little effect 

 in checking its depredations. 



The plots for this crop were prepared 

 in a similar manner to those for cotton. 

 The land in each plot was kept free of 

 weeds and harrowed when necessary. 

 Vacancies in each plot were resown. 



The subjoined schedule shows the 

 yield of dry grain per hectare of each 

 variety ; l-33rd hectare was sown with 

 the Hickory King variety, and l-16th 

 hectare with each of the others. 





per hectare. 



White Bango 



1,968 kilos 



Chester County Mammoth 



1,424 „ 



Golden King 



1,376 „ 



Iowa Silver Mine 



1,040 ,, 



Hickory King 



99 i ,, 





656 



Wisconsin White Dent 



576 



Champion White Pearl 



496 ,, 



Thorobred White Flint 



241 „ 



Improved Early Horse- tooth .. 



128 „ 



Extra Early Horse-tooth 



112 ,, 



THE VALUE OF HUMUS. 



but by leaching 

 waters and by 

 as the humus 



(Prom the Philippine Agricultural 

 Review, Vol. II., No. 3, March, 



The most important fact in humus is 

 that it is the principal source of the 

 supply of nitrogeon in soils. The 

 Minnesota experiment station has found 

 that an increase of - 5 per cent, of humus 

 in soils means an increase of 245 pounds 

 of nitrogen to each acre. On the other 

 hand, if the supply of humus is allowed 

 to decrease 9"3 per cent, in four years, 

 there is an annual loss of 146 pounds of 

 nitrogen per acre over and above the 

 amount removed in the crop. This 

 shows conclusively that increasing the 

 amount of humus in the soil increases 

 the amount of the nitrogen iu the soil ; 

 and the decrease of humus means a great 

 loss of nitrogen, not only by being 

 removed in the crop 

 away in the drainage 

 escaping into the air 

 decays. 



Scientists tell us that the humus in 

 soils is never devoid of nitrogen. This is 

 especially true with the soils in arid 

 sections. The humus of soils in New 

 England, which had been farmed for 

 years but had been kept iu properly 

 rotated crops was found to have from 

 4 to 5 per cent, of nitrogen. The humus 

 of the arid soils of California was found 

 to contain as high as 16 per cent, of 

 nitrogen ; while in the semi-arid regions 

 of Kansas, Colorado, and Texas the 

 amount of nitrogen in the humus has 

 been as high as 10 to 12 per cent. 



The reason that humus contains 

 nitrogen may be better understood 

 when we know that the most of it in 

 soils comes directly from albuminoids 

 in organic matter, While it is true that 

 a little of the nitrogen may be derived 

 from the reduction of ammonium salts 

 and nitrates, the most of it in soils comes 

 from the albuminoids that at one time 

 formed a part of the plants and animals 

 that lived upon the soil. You cannot 

 deposit upon the soil an organic sub- 

 stance, whether it be from plant or 

 animal life, that does not contain 



