650 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist.'' [March ], 1904. 
A favourite cross of mine for egg-prodution was 
that of a White Leghorn and a Light Brahma cock. 
One pullet's laying record ■was kept, and was as 
follows : — 
1893— June 
. 23 
Egg?. 
,, July ... .. 
• 
5 ) 
,. August ... 
. 22 
9 f 
September 
. 3 
) f 
,, October ... .. 
. 16 
J » 
,, NoTember ,. 
. 13 
J » 
,, December... 
. 15 
» » 
1894— January ... 
. 12 
9 9 
,, Februnry ... 
. 0 
» 9 
,, March ... .. 
o 
9 9 
,, April 
. 20 
9 9 
May 
. 20 
» » 
Total for 12 months.. 
. 172 
1894— June 
. 16 
Eggs. 
July 
. 32 
9 9 
,, August ... 
. 17 
99 
,, October ... .. 
. 20 
November ., 
. 6 
9 9 
,, December.., 
. 5 
) J 
Grand Total for 18 months.. 
. 248 
f 9 
She then died. She wt? a large-bodied hen, and 
laid a large white egg of a peculiar .«hape, so there 
•was no difficulty in distingui.'-hing her eggs. The 
record was faithfully kept. In fact all eggs laid 
in my yards are entered in a book kept for that 
purpose. 
The Spanish crossed with almost any other breed 
vein gi\e a good result. In their pure stale I 
have found tl em too delicate for this country. 
If a hen will contribute 150 eggs per year in 
this Colony, she is, in my opinion, a very good 
htn. This particular hen w lis bred fiom puie-bred 
parents on both sides. The best and quickest 
results are obtained w hen both parents are pure- 
bied. But the plan I have recommended, viz., 
runnijig puie-bred crops with the ordinary heu 
and continually selecting the best layers and table 
fowls to breed from, will be the cheapest and will 
give good results. 
(To be continued.) 
^ 
GENERAL ITEMS. 
Prof. Wallace of Edinburgh, who has lately 
returned frcm the Argentine, has the following 
reference to the Dairy industry there : — Dairying 
in one of the great branches of rural industry 
in w hich we may expect developemeuts. From 
the Argentine were sent last year no less 
than 9,076,000 lbs. of butter, made by the 
bet^t modern scientific methods, and the finest 
ffiBchii,ery that can be supplied from Europe. 
I vifited one factory under the management 
of Aigentines which turns rut twenty tons 
of butter a day. I saw another centre where 
the milk of 7,000 cows was handled. A curious 
thing was that they did not at first know 
to what purpose to turn the separated milk, 
and for a time it was put down the river. 
Now it is curdled with mineral acid, and so 
called "Casein." A dry mealy substance is 
produced, which on being worked up and pressed 
is made into buttons and bone-like ornaments. 
I came across another place where a still more 
novel method of disposing of the separated 
milk was at first resorted to. As there was no 
river they dug holes in the ground and put 
the milk into them, and the result was the 
milk soured, the whey escaped into the earth, 
and the curd was left to develope into a 
very "nosy" sort of soft cheese. At last the 
pigs were admitted from day to day to con- 
sume it in the pits ! 
In India, at the end of 1901, the major or 
productive works included an area of 10,583,11/3 
acres, irrigated from 34,403 miles of canals. 
The percentage of net revenue to capital outlay 
was over 7 09, the financial success of some of 
the schemes is extraordinary, the Eastern Jumna 
for 1900-1 yielded 25-86 % ; the Godaveri Delta, 
17'64%; the Cnuvery Delta, 30-81%; the 
Bega>i Canal, 23-79 %. Including minor works 
the area inignted amounted to 19,646,291 acres, 
and many of the less important schemes pay 
over 20%, the Shapur inundation canal yielded 
28*78 %, the Sharintope anient 24-94 %, and 
the Ghar scheme 105-07 %. Apart from the 
return to Government the total value of the 
crops raised is estimated over £22,000,000, or 
nearly 98 % of the capital outlay. The effec? 
of the Kif-ma and Godavery canals is said to 
have been so great that in cue year of famine 
they produced crops valued at nearly £5,000,000, 
or four times the entire capital outlay on the 
works. 
As instances of dams or weirs for directing 
running water may be mentioned the following: 
The masonry dam at Spanish Town, Jamaica, 
across the river which sometimes rises 18 to 
20 ft. in a night ; the fampus Barrage across 
the Nile, south of the Delta ; tl e weir nearly 
2"! mile long across the Godavery where the 
floods rise 28 ft. ; the dam across the Kistua 
1,300 yards long, the floods rising 36 ft. ; but 
across the Dehree, 2^ miles long, the v. ater rising 
. 18 ft. 
The feeding ground of roots is not close to 
the trunk, but in a circle whose radius is never 
less than half the height of the tree when matured. 
Some American fruit-growers never irrigate with- 
in the shadow cast by the tree at noon. Only 
those who are ignorant of these facts will 
manure and vsrater the base of a tree. A man 
might as well try to quench his thiust by taking 
a bath as to cultivate trees by watering the 
hard wood in the trunk. Roots have to respire. 
If the soil is so compact to exclude air, or if 
saturated with water so as to keep out air the 
roots must perish. Water-logged land is one of 
the causes of unscientific cultivation, and as- 
phyxiation is a common cause of fruits dropping. 
