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The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



the predominant voice in their management, 

 and the whole organisation will then be truly 

 co-operative. It remains only for the district 

 banks to be brought into touch with the larger 

 banking concerns of the provinces in order that 

 the flow of mobilised capital may be uninter- 

 rupted between the largest concerns and the 

 rural societies. The district banks are the 

 natural intermediaries, and we think the pro- 

 gress they have made is sufficient to justify the 

 commercial banks in looking to them as poten- 

 tial agents in a lucrative development of their 

 business, the application of a part of their 

 capital to the needs of productive agriculture." 



THE DECAY OF HUMUS. 



The burial of vegetable matter in the soil is 

 helpful in one way or another to all soils, but 

 it is not by any moans equally helpful. The 

 outcome is influenced by the soil, by the preci- 

 pitation, and by the climate. 



Soils that are very light and also those that 

 are very heavy, are specially benefited by the 

 burial of humus. The former are so helped 

 because the moisture-retaining power is in- 

 creased, and the latter because the soil particles 

 are held asunder, and the soil is thus more easily 

 penetrated by air and moisture. In light soil 

 vegetable matter prevents the moisture that 

 falls from leaching too far downward, and in 

 heavy soil it lessens the tendency in rain to run 

 away over the surface. 



The precipitation powerfully influences the 

 action of vegetable matter in the soil, particu- 

 larly in its decay. If the precipitation is 

 meagre the vegetable matter will not decay 

 quickly enough to benefit the first crop suffi- 

 ciently, but such decay will also be influenced 

 by the condition of the vegetable matter when 

 it is buried. 



When it is succulent it will, of course, decay 

 much more quickly than when it is lacking in 

 succulence. This explains why the burial of 

 stubble in a dry climate may under very dry 

 conditions injure the first crop, whereas, under 

 moist conditions, it may bo helpful. 



The effect of buried plants in the soil is also 

 much influenced by the air. In climates cool 

 and dry, vegetable matter decays but slowly. 

 In those that are moist aud warm it decays 

 much more quickly. The difference in this re- 

 spect is frequently very great, so much so that it 

 may greatly influence the degree of the benefit 

 from burying the vegetable matter in the soil. 

 — Auckland Weekly News, April 8. 



TORT OISE SHELL. 



A common error about shell is that the tor- 

 toise is killed to get its shell casing. What is 

 done is this. The tishermeu, having caught a 

 tortoise, tie him and then cover his back with 

 dry grass and leaves. They set fire to the stuff, 

 it burns slowly, and the heat causes the 13 

 plates of the shell to loosen at the joints. 

 With a knife the plates are prised off, and after- 

 wards the tortoise is set free. The base or 

 root of his shell is intact, and will grow again. 

 If tortoise wore killed to get their shells, they 

 would long since have become extinct. — 

 Exchange, 



A PARASITIC DISEASE WHICH KILLS 

 COCOA AND RUBBER TREES. 



Mr E Betche, Botanical Assistant at the Na- 

 tional Herbarium and Botanical Museum, New 

 South Wales, reports that Dr. B Funk of Apia, 

 communicated a rather interesting parasitic dis- 

 ease which causes the death of Cocoa and Rubber 

 Trees. The fungus has been determined as 

 Hijmenochaetc noxia, Henning. 



COCONUT CULTURE IN QUEENSLAND. 



Mr. A. H. Benson, the fruit expert attached 

 to the Queensland Department of Agriculture, 

 points out in an article that Queensland coastal 

 conditions for a great distance are suitable for 

 coconut culture. Commercially we understand 

 the industry has not been attempted in the 

 State, although trees are scattered along the 

 coast at different points. A fair market is 

 obtained for ripe nuts, but the manufacture of 

 copra and the utilisation of the fcoir has been 

 attempted only in a very small way. Sufficient 

 experience has been gained to show that good 

 nuts can be grown, and that good copra may be 

 produced. Indeed, no better copra was ex- 

 hibited at the Franco-British Exhibition than 

 the samples prepared by Mr. J Bobbins, of 

 Port Douglas, while the nuts compared favour- 

 ably with any at the show. Unfortunately the 

 Australian prejudice against black labour will 

 make cultivation too expensive to compote with 

 other growing countries. 



SLAVE-GROWN COCOA. 



Lisbon, March 28. — Public opinion here has 

 ripened considerably during the last ten days 

 on the subject of "slave-grown" cocoa. It is 

 now realised that even if Mr Cadbury's interfer- 

 ence is unreasonable and his conclusions mis- 

 taken, the fact that a powerful group of Eng- 

 lish manufacturers have branded Portuguese 

 cocoa far and wide as "slave-grown" cocoa is 

 bound to cause much moral and material damage 

 to the trade so long as there remains the shadow 

 of aground for that description; moral damage 

 because the abuses charged against recruiting 

 agents in the interior of Angola may bring dis- 

 credit, in the minds of the undiscriminating, 

 upon the management of the plantations of St. 

 Thome and Principe, pronounced models of 

 their kind by all who have visited them ; and 

 material, because the withdrawal of English 

 customers who are used to taking more than a 

 quarter of the cocoa produced in the islands can- 

 not but disturb the market, and ultimately de- 

 press prices, 



Conversations with two of the leading pro- 

 prietors of St. ThomO, who are now in Lisbon, 

 and with other persons concerned in the cccoa 

 trade have convinced me that the Government 

 is expected and desired to take the matter 

 seriously in hand without further delay. Captain 

 Paula Cid, a naval officer and former colonial 

 Governor, who was commissioned by Senhor 



