256 



•Notes on Agriculture Abroad. [June, 



the nearest cheese factory or creamery. Members provide themselves 

 with scales, sampling dipper, and one sample bottle for each cow. The 

 Dairy Branch of the Department of Agriculture has so far provided 

 all blank record forms free, together with preservative tablets and sul- 

 phuric acid for testing. In addition to this the Department has paid the 

 local makers at the factories for testing each sample every month. 



Many members have taken the next step in systematic testing, and are 

 now weighing each milking daily, and recording the weights and kinds 

 of feed consumed. The Department also supplies a small booklet for 

 keeping an account with each cow in the herd. 



It is stated that compensation for the time and labour involved in 

 testing and recording is probably soon obtained by the saving of time, 

 labour, and food in the case of animals which are discovered to be not 

 worth their keep. Good herds are built up by the retention of heifers 

 from the best dams and the elimination of worthless animals. Cows 

 are said to be selling for higher prices in consequence of the evidence of 

 their value as milk producers, which is shown by their records. 



Increase in the Productivity of the Sugar Beet in Germany. — The last 

 forty years have witnessed a remarkable increase in the productivity 

 of the sugar beet in Germany. As will be seen from the following 

 figures, the amount of sugar eventually obtained per acre at the present 

 time is more than double what it was in 1871 :■ — 





Yield of 



Percentage 



Net amount of 





roots 



of sugar 



sugar obtained 



Period. 



per acre. 



extracted. 



per acre. 





Cwt. 





Cwt. 



1871-1876 ... 



196 



8-58 



168 



1876-1881 ... 



222 



878 



I96 



i88i-»886 ... 



248 



10-37 



257 



1886-189 1 ... 



- 238 



12*27 



292 



1891-1896 ... 



235 



I2-32 



28-9 



1896-1901 ... 



24I 



I3-3I 



31-9 



1901-1906 ... 



236 



14-42 



33 '9 



1906-1911 ... 



239 



15-55 



37*1 



The yield of roots per acre in 1910-11 was 261 cwt. 



Much of this result is due to the improved technical processes now 

 in use in the factories for the extraction of the sugar, but the achieve- 

 ment must also be ascribed in part to improvements in the varieties of 

 sugar beet. Compared with the root of four decades ago, the sugar 

 beet of to-day is more prolific, has a higher sugar content, is much 

 more resistant to the attacks of disease (both of root and leaves), and 

 to climatic changes, and is much more susceptible to the influence of 

 good manuring. The farmer has also contributed much to the success 

 in that he has learnt, partly from his own experience, and partly from 

 the results obtained by scientists, the value of better methods of cultiva- 

 tion. (Fuhling's Landw. Zeitung, April 1st, 191 1.) 



Opening for Trees and Arboricultural Materials in Uruguay.— The 

 Board have received through the Foreign Office a copy of a memor- 

 andum from H.M. Vice-Consul at Montevideo, in which it is stated 

 that the newly-appointed Uruguayan Minister of Industries, Dr. Eduardo 

 Acevedo, is anxious to foster the agricultural development of the 

 country in the direction of tree plant* ng. With this object he intends to 

 organise a competition at which twenty prizes of the total value of 

 about ^40,000 will be given for plantations of woods and artificial 

 parks. He has brought in a Bill which will probably be sanctioned, 



