i 5 o [June, 1902.] 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
Vol. VIII. No. 90. 
22 millions, an increase of 3! millions. So far as the United Kingdom is 
concerned, the imports fell off by over two millions, and the exports increased 
by ^2 2,000. The United States obtained the largest share of the total 
trade — about iif millions sterling, China followed with over seven millions, 
Great Britain with 6§> Hong Kong and British India with nearly 5-i millions 
each, Germany with ^3,427,000, and France with ^3,167,000. But if the 
trade with the whole British Empire be considered, it easily tops the list with 
nearly 18 millions, supplying about half the total imports and taking nearly a 
third of the total exports. 
Our usual table of exchanges follows : — 
27th Mar. 
28th April. 
28th May. 
Paris, cheques . 
25b 1 7 |c. 
25b 1 8c. 
25b 21c. 
Berlin, sight 
20m, qhpf. 
20m. 48Jpf. 
20m. 49pf. 
Vienna, sight 
2qkr. oi-|h. 
24kr. oifh. 
24kr. 3I1. 
Amsterdam, sight 
I2fl. 15 
i2fl. 13J 
I2fl. 14^ 
Madrid, sight 
34 ps. 87 
— 
34 PS- 65 
Lisbon, sight 
4 1 Id. 
- — - 
4ijfd. 
St. Petersburg, 3 months 
94 r - 05 
■ — - 
94r. 20 
Bombay, T.T. 
is. 4d, 
is. 3 §-jd. 
is. 3jd. 
Calcutta, T.T. 
is. 4d. 
IS. 3yfd. 
is. 3^d. 
Hong Kong, T.T. 
is. gjd. 
IS. SfVd. 
is. 8 ,{d. 
Shanghai, T.T. . 
2s. 5d. 
2s. 3§d. 
2s. 3§d. 
♦ 
AGRICULTURAL RETROSPECT. 
United Kingdom. — Cold weather in the early part of May brought 
plant-growth practically to a standstill, a severe frost one morning in the 
middle of the month doing serious harm to both farm and garden crops. 
Milder weather brought the most serviceable rains we have had this season, 
which speedily effected an improvement in the appearance of the country, and 
the month closed with summer sunshine and warmth. 
The Board of Agriculture, in exercise of the powers conferred on them 
by Section 4 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, have made the 
following regulation : — “ Where the proportion of water in a sample of butter 
exceeds 16 per cent, it shall be presumed, for the purposes of the Sale of 
Food and Drugs Acts, 1875 t0 J S99, until the contrary is proved, that the 
butter is not genuine by reason of the excessive amount of water therein.” 
The regulation extends to Great Britain, and came into force on the 15th May. 
Mr. Hanbury, in reply to a question from Sir E. Strachey, stated that he was 
aware of the prejudice done to the makers of genuine butter both in this 
country and the colonies by the sale, as milk-blended butter, of an article 
artificially loaded with 25 per cent, of water. The introduction of an authorised 
standard of butter would, it was hoped, if standards in such cases were to be 
of any real value, have the effect of preventing such an article being so sold ; 
but should that not prove to be the case, further steps ought, he thought, to 
be taken without delay to remedy the injustice done to both British and 
colonial farmers. 
At the Cork Exhibition, which was opened on the 1st of last month, a 
large space in the Industrial Hall and a considerable part of the grounds have 
been reserved for the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction 
for Ireland, which has subscribed ^4,000 to the general purposes of the 
exhibition, and is spending a further sum of ^7,000 or ^8,000 on its own 
particular share in the enterprise. During its two years of existence the 
department has done most of its teaching by means of leaflets and lectures. 
The Cork Exhibition has furnished it with an excellent machinery for 
supplying a number of useful object-lessons in industries subsidiary to 
agriculture, in agricultural processes, such as dairying, horticulture and 
forestry, and in technical instruction. The department's object is to give an 
exhibition of ideas rather than of products, and it hopes, by means of a series 
of tours conducted by agricultural and industrial experts, to give workers 
from all parts of the country a sort of University extension ” course in 
industry, agriculture, and technical science. The outdoor agricultural exhibits 
show a working dairy and model farm and school garden, and there are 
exhibits of the processes of fruit and vegetable drying. This division is 
intended to illustrate some of the features of intensive culture suitable to 
Irish conditions. There can be no doubt that, if Mr. Horace Plunkett’s 
scheme proves to be as admirable in execution as it is in conception, the 
Cork Exhibition will give a notable stimulus to the development of Irish 
industries. 
Colonies. — The annual report for 1901 of the work of the official 
experimental farms of the Dominion of Canada testifies to the useful 
character of the work upon which Dr. Saunders, the director, and his 
colleagues are engaged. In the work of the central farm, at Ottawa, seed 
selection has occupied a prominent place, as it is highly important that 
farmers in a new country should have some guide as to what are the best 
varieties to grow, and thus save the years of labour which would be 
involved in their having to find this out for themselves. As many as 107 
varieties of oats were under trial in the test plots at Ottawa, last year, 
whilst 15 varieties have been discarded after trials extending over several 
seasons had shown them to be not worth the notice of cultivators. Two- 
rowed barley, six-rowed barley, fall wheat, spring wheat, peas, maize, turnips, 
mangels, sugar-beets, carrots, potatoes, and beans have been similarly dealt 
with, inferior varieties of seed being gradually eliminated and new varieties 
given a fair trial of some years’ duration. The effects of ploughing-in green 
clover to act as a fertilizer — conveying into the soil the nitrogen which the 
clover plant is capable of obtaining from the atmosphere — were increases 
of 40 per cent, in the case of maize subsequently grown, and of 8 per cent, 
in the case of potatoes. In connection with the horticultural work at Ottawa 
a seeding apple orchard was begun last season, and 494 trees were planted, 
most of them grown from seed of apples ripened at the station. It is 
hoped that from these seedlings a productive, hardy, late-keeping dessert 
apple of good quality will be obtained, as such a variety is much needed 
in Canada. Many new varieties of apples were obtained from different 
sources, some being root-grafted and others top-grafted. The American 
plums that have been . procured are proving very useful, and there is now a 
large collection of named varieties growing in the orchard. A few sorts of 
great promise have already been obtained. New plantations have been made 
containing 111 varieties of currants, 218 varieties of strawberries, and 
63 varieties of raspberries. A list has been drawn up of the best vegetables 
for farmers, embodying the results of five or six years’ experiments. Trial 
crops of tobacco have ripened and cured well. The results of long-continued 
efforts to foster the cultivation of the awnless brome grass, Bromus inermis — 
not a native of England, but cultivated in this country under the name of 
Hungarian forage grass — in the more or less arid districts of the West, are 
regarded as most gratifying. Thousands of acres of valuable hay and 
grazing land are now being cultivated, where, but for this grass, there 
would be nothing but exhausted prairie. A study of the milking records of 
the dairy cows at Ottawa serves but to confirm conclusions already well 
established, such as that the percentage of butter-fat in milk, from morning 
or evening milking, is influenced by the comparative length of interval 
between the times of milking, that the richer milk is found to be produced 
after the shorter interval, and that where intervals between milking are 
equal, no appreciable difference appears to exist in either the quantity 01- 
quality of the milk drawn in the morning or in the evening. 
From the estimate of the Government Statist it appears that the 
wheat crop of 1 901-2 in Victoria has turned out even worse than was 
expected. The area harvested for grain is put at 1,753,164 acres, or 
264,157 acres less than in the preceding year; and the yield, at barely 
seven bushels per acre, is reckoned to amount to only 12,113,712 bushels, 
or 5,860, t86 less than the crop of 1900-1. 
Foreign Countries. — In France the weather recently experienced 
has been the worst so far this season. The day temperatures have been 
abnormally low and night frosts have been common. All crops have suffered, 
but wheat and rye more so than oats. The wheats in many districts have 
turned yellow and are attacked by mildew. Rotation grasses are backward, 
and the prospects of the hay crop are not encouraging. Sugar-beets are 
satisfactory, except some of the later-sown crops. The Minister of Agricul- 
ture of the Argentine Republic, in a statement communicated to the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, says that foot-and-mouth disease has been non- 
existent in Argentina for many months. In the course of the last six months 
630,000 cattle and one million sheep have been brought into Buenos Ayres 
for the consumption of the population without a single case of disease 
having been detected. During the same period Argentina exported to South 
Africa and Brazil more than 120,000 cattle and 28,000 sheep without the 
occurrence of any epizootic disease. The refrigerating establishments 
prepared in the same six months about 500,000 cattle and 2,500,000 
sheep, which were all minutely inspected and found to be healthy. The 
Government declares that in the event of foot-and-mouth disease breaking out 
it would be the first to notify the fact by prohibiting the exportation of 
live-stock, being anxious to uphold the reputation of the principal source 
of Argentina’s wealth. It is calculated that the farmers have more than 
five million young cattle ready for exportation. 
Mr. Consul-General C. S. Smith, in his annual report on the agriculture 
of the Odessa district, states that the harvest prospects for 1901, which were 
excellent, were not entirely fulfilled. In the district of Podolia and near 
Kieff the winter wheat was excellent, but the Dnieper district, which supplies 
the bulk of grain for South Russia, and contributes the largest part of its 
exports, was very unsatisfactory. The feature of the year was the crop of 
maize — which has never been equalled in South Russia, and enormous 
quantities were supplied for export. The following figures relate to the 
harvest for 1901 in the Russian Empire: — The total area under cultivation 
was 219,070,401 acres, of which about 40 per cent, were under winter-sown 
crops, and 60 per cent, under spring crops. The yield of wheat was 
11,463,576 tons, of rye 18,881,650 tons, of oats 8,919,695 tons, and of 
barley 5,143,388 tons. The result shows a decrease of i2|- per cent, when 
compared with the harvest of 1900, and, for the whole Empire, must be 
considered as under average. The yield of oil-seeds was very poor during 
1901. The British Consul at Novorossisk states that within the past three or 
four years the cultivation of the sunflower plant for the manufacture of oil- 
cake has been extensively adopted by the peasantry and farmers of the 
district. The industry, which it would appear is very remunerative, is rapidly 
increasing in proportions, and promises to still further develop before long. 
It is claimed that the sale of the oil-cake produced, in itself more than covers 
all the working expenditure of the mills. The stalks of the sunflower plant 
are used as fuel for driving the machinery, and the ash that remains gives 
from 25 to 30 per cent, of potash. Briefly speaking, it would appear that the 
sunflower seed when properly crushed gives 23 per cent, oil, 40 per cent, oil- 
cake, and 37 per cent, stalk. Writing on the culture of fruit in Holland, 
M. Bellet, in the Journal iV Agriculture Pratique , states that the chief centres 
of the industry are the provinces of Zealand, Friesland, Drenthe, and 
Overyssel, where the commercial plantations amount in area to about 
40,450 acres. About half the area is devoted to apples, and nearly one- 
fourth each to pears and cherries, plums covering only about 1,850 acres. In 
many of the orchards trees are grown alone, while in some gooseberries, 
currants, or raspberries are grown between and under the trees. The 
cultivation appears to be somewhat poorly managed. Planting is too 
thick ; manuring is not judiciously carried out ; the bark of the trees does 
not receive proper attention ; and pruning is not done on the best system. 
The fruit is largely exported to Germany and England, partly in a raw 
state, and partly preserved in one way or another. The quantities sent to 
this country vary greatly. In one recent year we received only 52,000 
bushels of apples from Holland, and in the next nearly 387,000 bushels, the 
range being from 23,000 to 134,000 bushels for pears, 34,500 to 149,500 
bushels for plums, and 29,000 to 65,000 bushels for cherries. Considerable 
quantities of gooseberries and currants come to us from Holland, and a few 
strawberries. 
