I 22 
[May, 1902.] 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
Vol. VIII. ■ No. 89. 
3,131, 029 fcs. to France and 2,509,030 fcs. to Germany, while 524,229 fcs. 
were paid to the bondholders in Greece. To the amortization of the various 
foreign loans, 864,931 fcs. were applied. 
According to the report of the American Iron and Steel Association, the 
total output of Bessemer Steel ingots in the United States in T901 was 
8,713,302 gross tons. This total is by far the highest in the history of 
American steel manufacture, being over two million tons ahead of that for 
the preceding year, and over one million tons greater than the figure reported 
for 1899. The production of Bessemer steel rails was the largest ever 
reached, amounting to 2,836,273 tons, of which over 2,200,000 tons 
consisted of rails weighing less than 85 lb. but more than 45 lb. per yard. 
The largest production of Bessemer steel rails in Great Britain was in 1882, 
when 1,235,785 tons were turned out — less than half America’s output for 
last year. 
Our usual table of exchanges follows : — 
25th Feb. 
27 th Mar. 
28th April 
Paris, cheques 
, t 
25k 1 5^0. 
25b 17-0-c. 
25k iSc. 
Berlin, sight 
• t 
20m. 48pf. 
20m. 46pf. 
20m. 4Sjpf. 
Vienna, sight 
• , 
2qkr. oo|-h. 
24kr. 01 Mi. 
24kr. oi-fh. 
Amsterdam, sight 
• * 
I2fl. I4! 
1 2 fl. 15 
i2fl. 13I 
Madrid, sight 
• 
34ps. 
34 ps. 87 
- — - 
Lisbon, sight 
. * 
4 ° § d* 
4 1 |-d. 
■ — - 
St. Petersburg, 3 months 
941*. 05 
94 r * 05 
— 
Bombay, T.T. 
• P 
IS. 4 ygd. 
is. 4d. 
is. 3§fd. 
Calcutta, T.T. 
, . 
is. 4-jQd. 
is. 4d. 
is. 3]-|d. 
Hong Kong, T.T. 
. * 
is. 9&d. 
is. 9§d. 
IS. 8y" F d. 
Shanghai, T.T. . 
. 
2s. 5§d. 
2s. 5d, 
2S. 3p. 
AGRICULTURAL RETROSPECT. 
United Kingdom. — Until the middle of the month the weather of 
April was harsh and unseasonable, holding vegetation almost at a standstill. 
l H or the fruit trees this was no disadvantage while frosts were occurring 
every night, but the check to the green fodder crops was unwelcome and 
expensive to owners of live-stock, and especially to fiockmasters. For the , 
cultivation of the soil, however, the weather was highly favourable. The 
month dosed with genial spring weather, refreshing rains having induced a 
notable rapidity of growth of crops and pastures. With regard to the re- 
imposition ol the old duties on corn, the Times considers that it has occurred 
too late to exercise any influence upon the home acreages of our cereal 
crops. At any other date, however, it is doubtful if farmers would have 
been induced by so trivial an impost to increase the area of wheat, barley, 
or oats. The duty of 3d. per cwt. on imported grain is equivalent to 
i2’9d. per quarter in the case of wheat, beans and maize, io*7d. per 
quarter on barley, and S'qd. per quarter on oats. These values are for the 
Imperial quarter, that is 4S0 lb. of wheat, 400 lb. of barley, and 312 lb. 
ol oats. The official weekly average prices of British corn are always 
quoted per Imperial quarter, and, as these prices vary sometimes in one 
week to a greater extent than the respective amounts representing the duty 
per quarter, it is hardly likely that corn-growing in this country will receive 
any stimulus. In replying to a question, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
remarked that the British farmer can easily feed his stock with home-grown 
grain if he prefers it. Maize, or Indian corn, has been grown on a small 
scale in certain parts of England for several years, but lately British farmers 
seem to have given it an increased amount of attention, and the Board of 
Agriculture have now published a leaflet upon the subject. When grown 
as a green crop for fodder, maize does not demand a better climate than 
many districts ol England are able to offer, while as regards soil requirements 
and expenses of cultivation it compares favourably with most of our fodder 
crops. In our southern and south-eastern counties, where a low rainfall, and 
frequently recurring periods of drought, make the growth of roots rather 
uncertain, maize offers the opportunity of securing a large bulk of succulent 
material, which may, to a considerable extent, replace the common fodder 
crops. The seed may be sown from the middle of May to the middle of 
June, but the earlier sowings are liable to injury from frost. The seed is 
planted to a depth of 2^ inches to 3 inches in rows not less than 16 inches 
apart. The quantity of seed used varies between i| and 2 J bushels per acre. 
When the young plants appear above ground horse- and hand-hoeing must 
be attended to, as in the case of other drilled crops ; but when once 
fairly established, maize, being a rank-growing plant, reaching as it does a 
height ol 5 feet or 6 feet, will largely suppress weeds by smothering them. As 
legards its employment, green maize is found to be very useful for scattering 
on bare pastures in August and September, where it is readily eaten by all 
kinds of stock, not excluding pigs. In America, and to some extent in this 
country, the main value ol the crop is due to the opportunity it provides, 
through the agency of ensilage, of securing a supply of nutritious succulent 
material for use in the winter and spring months. The quality of the silage 
that maize produces is excelled by that of no other crop. If maize be 
utilized in this way it should stand till it is as mature as it is likely to 
become in this country, though it must be got off the fields before the 
occurrence of autumn frosts. A good sample of maize silage is of a 
greenish-brown colour, and emits an aroma almost indistinguishable from that 
of strong tobacco. It is much relished by stock, and seems to have a feeding 
value not inferior to that of mangel. 
An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occurred at the end of March 
near Canterbury, afcer the country had been free from the disease for nearly 
a year. This was a serious misfortune to fiockmasters in a wide area round 
the infected district, owing to the severe regulations which are necessarily 
imposed with a view to the prompt suppression of the disease. In the 
Journal of the Board of Agriculture for March there is a useful article on 
a The Purchase of Artificial Manures.” The various manures and their 
constituents are explained, and buyers are instructed in the valuation of 
different qualities, numerous examples being given. A buyer may sometimes 
be led into purchasing a manure through its nitrogen being expressed as 
sulphate of ammonia, or the content of potash may be made to look more 
attractive by being stated as sulphate of potash, though in an invoice 
the potash must be stated as such. The rules for approximately converting 
some of the terms by which the valuable constituents of various manures, 
as described by vendors, are given as follows : To convert nitrogen into 
terms of ammonia, multiply by 1*2 ; nitrogen into terms of sulphate of 
ammonia, multiply by 47 ; phosphoric acid into terms of phosphates, 
multiply by 2 - 2 ; potash into terms of sulphate of potash, multiply by 1 *85 ; 
potash into terms of muriate of potash, multiply by 1-58. 
Colonies. — The development of cold storage systems is having a 
stimulating effect upon the exportation of certain classes of agricultural 
produce from Canada. Improved cold storage on ocean liners has increased 
the export of butter from the port of Montreal alone, during the past three 
years, by upwards of 100 per cent, in quantity, with an increase in profit 
owing to the superiority of the quality of the product now landed in Britain, 
as compared with that under the older and less perfect cold storage system. 
Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the necessity for owners of creameries 
to provide cold storage accommodation at them, to protect the butter in cold 
storage from the day after it is made ; and the Canadian Minister of 
Agriculture has induced the Dominion Government to grant a bonus of 
50 dollars for every creamery at which the owner will provide and keep in use 
a refrigerator-room according to specified plans and regulations. This bonus 
system, commenced in 1897, has been taken advantage of by the owners of 
about 500 creameries ; and to the owners or lessees of creameries who have 
not hitherto obtained the bonus of 50 dollars the Dominion Government will 
grant a bonus of that amount per creamery if and when its owner provides 
and keeps in use a refrigerator-room according to the plans and regulations 
during the current year, and the further bonuses of 25 dollars each for 1903 
and 1904 if and when the refrigerator-room has been kept in use according to 
the regulations during these two seasons. Thus the owner of a creamery 
who provides the necessary refrigerator-room and keeps it in use during the 
three years may receive altogether a bonus of 1 00 dollars. The cold storage 
system devised and directed by the Dominion Department of Agriculture has 
done much to expand Canadian commerce in food products. It has taken 
into account the various interests of the producers, the collecting buyers, the 
carriers or transportation companies, the distributing merchants, and the 
consumers. By preventing losses by deterioration in quality it has increased 
the profits of the dealers and augmented the wealth of the country. Cold 
storage in every phase has been tried and found effective ; but as at first the 
volume of trade might not have been sufficient to induce business men to 
put up cold storage warehouses for the accommodation of products intended 
for export, a grant was offered to those who would provide cold storage 
buildings at central points, such grant being in the nature of a guarantee that 
the earnings from the cold storage business at these points would yield at 
least 5 per cent, on the cost of buildings and plant. The rates to be 
charged were, of course, to be satisfactory to the Department of Agriculture, 
and the grants from the Canadian Government were not to be called upon 
except to make up any deficiency between the net earnings and the sum of 
5 per cent, on the cost as mentioned. Advantage was taken of this offer at 
Quebec only. That capital put into cold storage warehouses will prove a 
sound remunerative financial investment is not now open to doubt, for this 
system has passed far beyond the experimental stage, and outside the realm 
of probable failure. 
The annual report of the Planters’ Association of Ceylon gives the 
following particulars regarding some of the minor agricultural products of the 
island. The cacao crop of 1901 was the largest on record, namely, 47,471 cwt., 
and as a careful examination of the increase of acreage does not lead to 
the conclusion that this is to any appreciable extent caused by new land 
coming into bearing, it may be taken that the increase is due largely to 
the recovery of estates from the attacks of canker and other pests, and 
that, agriculturally, cacao is in a sounder position than it has been for some 
years. The area under cardamoms has been largely increased both in 
Ceylon and in India during the last two years. The exports from Ceylon 
in 1901 were the heaviest on record, 559,704 lb., compared with 537,455 lb. 
in 1900. In consequence of this increase of supply, prices have fallen 
considerably, and it is feared that if the production is much further increased 
the market will fall below remunerative prices. The exports of the products 
of the cocoanut palm — oil, copra, poonac (oilcake), desiccated cocoanut — ■ 
show that there was no diminution in production, the quantity of desiccated 
cocoanut being the largest ever exported. Rubber cultivation is receiving 
more attention, planting is steadily increasing both in the low country and 
at moderate elevations. The yield and quality of Para rubber grown in 
the Kalutara district has been very satisfactory, some of it realising 4s. 2^-d. 
a pound. Steps are being taken to import the seeds and plants of the 
best varieties of Castilloa into the island. 
Foreign Countries. — According to the Buenos Ayres Standard, a 
communication from our Board of Agriculture has been received by the 
Argentine Government, expressing belief in the freedom of Argentina 
from foot-and-mouth disease, and intimating that British ports will be opened 
to Argentine live stock in September or October, if no fresh outbreak of 
the disease occurs in the meantime, on condition that the law of the Republic 
is made to conform to that of the United Kingdom, excluding stock, 
carcasses, fodder, and certain other goods from all countries in which foot- 
and-mouth disease is believed to exist. 
