66 [March, 1902.] 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
Our usual table of exchanges follows : — 
30th Dec. 
29th Jan. 
25th Feb. 
Paris, cheques . 
25b 14c. 
25b I2|C. 
23b 1 3^c, 
Berlin, sight 
20m. 39|pf. 
20m. 44jpf. 
20m. 4&p. 
Vienna, sight 
23kr. 91} 
2 3^r. 93J; 
4* 
rr 
j-i 
O 
O 
Amsterdam, sight 
I2fl. ioj 
I2fl. i 3 |- 
12fl. 14-jr 
Madrid, sight 
34ps. 
33ps. 80 
34ps. 
Lisbon, sight 
39d. 
4od. 
4°fd- 
St. Petersburg, 3 months 
93 r - 6$ 
93 r - 9° 
94 r * oS 
Bombay, T.T. 
is. 4d. 
is. 4^Ud. 
is. 4-g-d. 
Calcutta, T.T. 
is. 4d. 
is. 4 X V1. 
is. 4 T Ld. 
Hong Kong, T.T. 
is. ioJ-d. 
is. lod. 
is. 9|d. 
Shanghai, T.T. . 
2 S. 64-cl. 
— 
2 S. 6|d. 
2s. 5§d. 
AGRICULTURAL RETROSPECT. 
United Kingdom. — The most notable feature of the weather during 
the present winter is the deficiency in the rainfall. Since January ist the 
rainfall is behind the average by nearly two-and-a-half inches, and springs and 
wells and other sources of water supply are accordingly running low. It 
follows, then, that farmers have the prospect of either a dry spring or, if the 
arrears ot precipitation are to be made up to any extent, of wet soils when 
tillage work should be actively proceeded with. The short period of frost 
during the middle of February did not injuriously affect the young crops, 
but neither was it sufficiently protracted to allow opportunities for carting 
manure on to the land, which is perhaps the work most in arrear at the 
present moment. The absence of severity in the weather has been propitious 
for the lambing flocks, and reports from the pens are for the most part 
favourable. 
A series of experiments on the destruction of charlock amongst com 
crops was carried out last season In various parts of Lancashire by Mr. 
Frank P. Walker, lecturer on agriculture at the Harris Institute, Preston, who 
has prepared an instructive report on the results. This yellow-flowered, 
cruciferous plant, often called wild mustard, is known in Scotland as skellocks, 
in Ireland as preshaugh, and amongst its other local names are ketlock, 
kedlock, and yellow weed. The direct mischief occasioned by charlock is 
that, by its rapid growth, it quickly overshadows the young growing corn ; in 
a dry season it seizes the soil moisture which the corn crop needs, and it 
produces its flowers and seeds by using up the plant food which should have 
gone to nourish the corn crop. The result is a crop much lighter in grain 
and shorter in straw than it should have been, and a new crop of charlock 
seed ready to repeat and extend the mischief in the succeeding season. 
Indirectly, charlock is mischievous in that it encourages the turnip “ fly ” or 
flea beetle, providing it with food until its favourite crops, the turnip and 
swede, are ready for it ; and also that it harbours the slime fungus, which is 
the cause of the disease known as club-root, or finger-and-toe, in cabbages, 
turnips, and allied cruciferous crops. A solution of sulphate of copper (blue 
vitriol) or of sulphate of iron (green vitriol) sprayed upon young charlock 
plants will effect their destruction. Of these two agents, however, Mr. 
Walker sums up strongly in favour of sulphate of copper — it is more destructive 
in its effects upon charlock, and it is a far pleasanter material to have to 
handle. The machine used for spraying was Strawson’s No. 2 Charlock 
Destroyer, which worked most satisfactorily and produced an exceedingly fine 
spray. The cost of spraying per acre varies according to the proximity of 
water supply, the cost of material, and the expenses of labour in each 
particular district. Under favourable conditions, and using 15 lb. of sulphate 
of copper at 30s. per cwt. per acre in 50 gallons of water, the cost should be 
about 3s. 4d. to 3s. 6d. per acre. Whilst spraying with sulphate of copper 
injures and eventually kills the rough-leaved charlock, it does no harm to the 
smooth-leaved plants constituting the corn crops which are so liable to 
become infested with charlock. It is, however, a familiar and an approved 
practice to sow grass and clover seeds in a corn crop so that, when the latter 
is harvested, the young crop of grass and clover may already have made 
some amount of growth. Is spraying against charlock inimical to these grass 
and clover seeds ? This is a question of high practical importance, and the 
answer, in general terms, is in the negative. Half-a-dozen plots were specially 
set apart for experiments upon this point, and, though in some cases the 
clover and grass may receive a check, it appears to be always of a temporary 
character, the final results being strongly in favour of the practice of spraying. 
In the course of his inaugural address to the students at the Colonial 
College, Hollesley Bay, Suffolk, Professor W. J. Malden, the new principal, 
dealt with the subject of live stock as it affects the colonies, as well as farming 
at home. He referred to the need that must arise for the colonies to adapt 
themselves to the changed conditions occasioned by the low price of wool 
since the modern glut assumed a chronic form, and since the cold storage of 
meat has passed into the domain of successful practice. It is highly desirable 
that intending colonists should understand the laws of breeding, so that in 
endeavouring to bring about what might be regarded as necessary changes in 
breed the losses which error would involve might be prevented. Students 
should learn the characteristics of the various British breeds, in order to be 
able to judge of the capabilities of such breeds in other lands and beneath 
other skies. It is a great mistake to go abroad without such knowledge, as it 
is only in England that it can be efficiently acquired. The large number of 
students in the college from distant countries shows the value which people in 
Vol. Vlir. No, 87. 
the colonies and in foreign countries place upon a thorough grounding in the 
practices of English farming, undoubtedly the most skilled farming in the 
world. 
Colonies. — Mr. W. Willcocks, C.M.G., one of the leading authorities on 
irrigation in Egypt, and the original designer of the great Nile reservoir 
at Assuan now approaching completion, proceeded some months ago to 
South Africa, at the invitation of Lord Milner, in order to study the 
question of irrigation in the Cape Colony, the Orange River, and the 
Transvaal. The report which he addressed to the High Commissioner, 
under date Johannesburg, November 6, 1901, on completion of his mission, 
has now been issued. Except in the extreme south-western corner of Cape 
Colony, agriculture has scarcely been attempted, except on the most primitive 
lines, and on the most insignificant areas. Farmers to-day trek from the high 
veld to the low veld and back again, with the seasons, just as the wandering 
Arabs of the desert have done for centuries. The reason for this want of 
development of the agricultural wealth of the country, and the consequent 
acute stage of the poor white question, lies in the fact that the rainfall of the 
three colonies, with the exception of the extreme south-west corner, is not 
only erratic and uncertain at the times most opportune for sowing, but is 
constant and heavy in autumn. Autumn again is quickly followed by a very 
severe and frosty winter without a particle of moisture in the air. When 
rain is wanted it is generally not there, when it is not wanted it is invariably 
present. For countries so situated the only possible means of development 
lie in the storage of water when it is present and not needed, and its 
utilization when it is needed. Agriculture without irrigation is generally 
impossible in the new colonies. If these countries are ever to develop their 
immense agricultural wealth, the first step must be to proclaim the countries 
themselves as arid or semi-arid regions, and legislate accordingly. In many 
countries statesmen have considered that irrigation works should be left to 
individuals and concessionaire companies. Such works, when of any magni- 
tude, have been, as a rule, conspicuous failures in the hands of companies, 
which have been impatient to realise profits and which have, in consequence, 
forced their engineers to overtax their reservoirs and canals in their early 
and undeveloped stages. With works carried out by States, the results 
have, on the contrary, been decidedly encouraging. Having served for 
12 years in the Indian Irrigation Department, and iS years in Egypt, 
Mr. Willcocks naturally considers the execution of important irrigation canals 
as the first works which an enlightened Government should carry out in an 
arid or semi-arid country. Not only do well-conceived and well-executed 
irrigation works bring in a direct benefit to the State if allowed to develop on 
slow and natural lines, but they also bring in all the indirect benefits 
which a State reaps from increased wealth of every kind. If this is the case 
in ordinary countries, much more is it the case in South Africa, where there 
are special difficulties, which can be solved by irrigation alone. In young 
countries where the extension and amelioration of the arable land provide 
outlets for the ever-increasing population, the poor white question never 
reaches the acute stage it has already reached in South Africa with its pastoral 
population. The acuteness has been aggravated in the country by the fact 
that the poor whites of European parentage consider manual labour 
degrading when carried on in competition with black labour. Fortunately, 
there is one kind of manual labour which the poor white considers as 
becoming, and that is agricultural labour. While the country is given up to 
stock-farming the poor white has but little outlet for his energies in the only 
direction in which his sentiments allow him to exercise them. If, however, 
the State were to carry out irrigation projects, employing labour-saving 
machinery and white labour, and then to take up along the canals such 
tracts as were suitable for agriculture, it would first find work for the poor 
whites and eventually settle them on the land with occupancy rights. Such 
tenants would pay a fixed rent to the landlord and a fixed water-rate to the 
Government. Mr. Willcocks suggests that part of the profits of the mines 
might be equitably and usefully invested in irrigation works for the permanent 
development of the country. He gives a detailed description of the different 
sections of the three colonies he has visited and the most suitable measures 
for providing for their irrigation, and also makes valuable suggestions with 
regard to the raising of revenue for the purposes of irrigation expenditure. 
The investigations conducted under the auspices of the Dominion Depart- 
ment of Agriculture in order to ascertain which are the varieties of the different 
farm crops best suited to the soils and climate of Canada have now been in 
progress for seven years, and commendable promptitude has been shown in 
the issue of the report for 1901, so that it may be in farmers’ hands before 
they begin their seeding operations in the approaching spring. The experi- 
ments are carried out not only at the central experimental farm, Ottawa, but 
at the provincial experimental farms situated respectively at Nappan in 
Nova Scotia, at Brandon in Manitoba, at Indian Head in the North-West 
Territories, and at Agassiz in British Columbia, these constituting with the 
central institution a chain of experimental farms stretching across the country 
from east to west. The average yields of oats per acre per annum over 
the last six or seven years have been 61 bushels at Ottawa, 63 at Agassiz, 
69 at Nappan, 84 at Brandon, and 90 at Indian Head. The 12 varieties 
of oats out of upwards of 60 tried which have produced the largest 
average annual crop at all the stations are — in descending order — Banner, 
American Beauty, Mennonite, Holstein Prolific, Bavarian, Buckbee’s Illinois, 
Golden Beauty, Columbus, Golden Giant, Early Golden Prolific, Abundance, 
American Triumph. The average yield per acre ranged from 76 bushels 
for Banner down to 70 for American Triumph, and the average over all 
the 1 2 varieties was 7 2 bushels per acre. Of two-rowed barley the average 
yield per acre per annum over six or seven years has been 37 bushels at 
Agassiz, 41 at Nappan, 43 at Ottawa, 44 at Brandon, and 55 at Indian Head. 
The six varieties which have given the best average results at all the farms 
together have been French Chevalier, Beaver, Danish Chevalier, Canadian 
Thorpe, Nepean, and Newton, the average yield per acre per annum ranging 
from 46 bushels for the first-named down to 42 bushels for the last. The 
general average yield of all six has been 43 bushels per acre per annum. 
Of six-rowed barley the average yield per acre per annum over six or 
seven years has been 37 bushels at Agassiz, 46 at Nappan, 49 at Ottawa, 
51 at Brandon, and 58 at Indian Head. The six varieties which have 
afforded the best average annual yields at all the farms together have been 
