290 [November, 1902.] 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
Vol. VIII. No. 95- 
AGRICULTURAL RETROSPECT. 
United Kingdom.- — -The weather of October was generally favourable to 
ploughing and sowing, which is the most important work of the month. The 
root crops have benefited by the rain, and this may increase the weight of 
swedes materially. The mangold crop has now been secured in many places, 
any delay alter the end of October involving risk of damage by frost; this 
crop has realised the highest expectations, and a yield per acre considerably 
above the average will undoubtedly be recorded. The potato-crop is a very 
poor one. and the proportion of tubers free from disease is small. It is 
significant of the failure in the home-grown crop that our imports of 
potatoes have expanded enormously in the last few weeks. If the cereal 
crops which have been harvested this year in Great Britain had only proved 
as fine in quality as they appear to have been large in yield per acre, the 
season of 1902 would have deserved recognition as a memorable one. 
The results of the Times' annual enquiry show wheat, barley, and oats to be 
all above average in their yield of bushels per acre. Glancing first at the 
wheat crop, nearly all the English counties report an average yield of 
30 bushels or more per acre, whereas last year there were only two dozen 
counties coming up to this level. On this occasion four or five counties 
average the yield at over 35 bushels. Calculating the mean of the estimates 
received from all parts of the country, the Times records a general average 
yield of about 33 bushels of wheat per acre, which compares with the 
latest official decennial average of 29^9 bushels. The chief defect of this 
year’s crop is not in deficiency of straw, as was the case in the crop of last 
season, but in low quality of grain resulting from the inclemency of the 
weather over the exceptionally protracted period of harvesting. In the case 
of the barley crop the average yield works out at over 35 bushels per 
acre in about one-half of the counties of England, and it is doubtful if any 
county falls below an average of 30 bushels. Both Wales and Scotland 
indicate rather better average yields than England, and, as between them 
they account for about one-fifth of the barley acreage of Great Britain, 
they exercise an appreciable influence upon the average for the whole 
island, which works out at between 36 and 37 bushels per acre, com- 
pared with the official ten years’ average of 32*8 bushels. Oats appear 
to have given an extraordinary yield this season, more than half the 
counties of England averaging the crop at over 45 bushels per acre, 
and few falling below 40 bushels. The mean of the Times'' estimates for 
Great Britain indica f es a general average yield of over 46 bushels per acre, 
compared with the official decennial average of 38'3 bushels. Oats, despite 
their big yield this season, are like wheat and barley in that they lack 
quality, as is shown in many cases by their lightness in weight per bushel. 
The resemblance between the season of 1902 and that of 1894, states the 
Times , is maintained to the end, for, in both years, wheat, barley, and oats all 
gave over-average yields of grain, the quality of which was much impaired 
by inclement weather preceding and during harvest. 
A leaflet has been issued by the Board of Agriculture on the causes and 
prevention of the disease known as “ finger-and-toe ” in turnips. This 
disease — known also as Anbury, Club Root, and “ Grub ’’—attacks most, if 
not all, cruciferous crops. The source of the mischief is a fungus which 
may exist for some years quiescent in the soil, but when a crop that it can 
attack is sown upon the ground, it enters the fine roots, and rapidly induces 
malformation and decay. The disease is extremely infectious and spreads 
through beihff carried in the soil which sticks to the wheels of carts or 
agricultural implements, the boots of workers, or the feet of horses or sheep. 
Or some of the diseased turnips may get amongst the dung which, in the 
succeeding season, is used to manure a turnip crop on another field. Or 
diseased roots may be spread on a grass field to be consumed by stock, and 
a year or two later this field may be under turnips, when serious infection may 
be revealed. The most effective preventive lies in the application of burned 
lime, 5 to 7 tons per acre, the dressing being given in the autumn, either 
six months or eighteen months before a turnip crop is to be grown. 
Another system is to put on a small dressing, say 1 to 2 tons, directly after 
a turnip crop is removed. To spread such a small quantity evenly over the 
land, it is necessary first to slake it and afterwards to fill it into carts, 
spreading by means of shovels directly from the carts. If a considerable 
amount of disease is present, the dose of lime may be increased somewhat, 
whereas if the field is sound, or nearly sound, the dressing need not exceed 
1 to i-£ tons. In this case the treatment is to be regarded purely as a 
preventive measure. Other forms of lime are also more or less effective, 
though none is so powerful as common burned limestone, which is slaked 
before spreading. If gas-lime be used, it should be put on not later than 
eighteen months ahead. Although many farmers appear to think that this 
disease can only be prevented or cured by the use of lime, there is no doubt 
that Its spread and virulence can be greatly affected in other ways. It often 
happens that, to begin with, the disease appears only in certain small portions 
of a field, frequently the headlands, and while it is still on a circumscribed 
area, no trouble or expense should be spared to stamp it out. Land that 
is soured by want of drainage, or a patch that is suffering in consequence of 
a burst drain, frequently exhibits the disease. Neglecting to keep land clear 
of charlock and other cruciferous weeds must contribute to the spread of 
the disease, for it is in such plants that the fungus lives when a field is 
not in turnips. Experiments have shown that acid manures encourage 
finger-and-toe, and this fact should be borne in mind in the cultivation of 
land that exhibits a tendency to this disease. The best phosphatic manure 
to use, under these circumstances, is basic slag or precipitated phosphate. 
Colonies. — In his annual report to the Colonial Office on Barbados, 
the Governor, Sir F. M, Hodgson, refers to the condition of the agricultural 
industries of the island in the following terms : — The cultivation of the sugar 
cane is the agricultural industry of absorbing importance in Barbados. The 
soil and climate are adapted to it, and labour is plentiful. Nearly all the 
available area of the island is under sugar cultivation, which has been 
brought to a very high standard of efficiency. It is when the manufacturing 
process commences that a lack of progress is observable. There are 
445 sugar estates, and of these 343 are dependent upon wind power for cane 
crushing ; 102 estates have installed machinery worked by steam, and of these 
eight have vacuum pans. Not a single estate has yet installed the requisite 
machinery for the extraction of the maximum quantity of juice obtainable 
from the canes, and in the present critical state of the industry this is not 
to be looked for, excepting with the assistance of the Government. The 
matter is necessarily engaging attention. The majority of planters have long 
seen the necessity for better methods, but the gradual reduction in the market 
price of sugar, and the lack of combination among themselves, have prevented 
their finding the requisite capital. But the question of the hour has been 
not so much the improvement of methods of manufacture by the establish- 
ment of central factories, or otherwise, as the saving of the sugar industry, 
and the vast population dependent upon it for support, from absolute ruin. 
The reassembling of the Brussels Conference at the instigation of the 
Imperial Government for the purpose of considering the general abolition of 
bounties is looked forward to with keen interest, as upon the result arrived 
at depends in a great measure the possibility of the local government being 
able to maintain the credit of the colony, and to arrive at some means for 
keeping the population in employment. When this has been secured as far 
as possible, the question of the establishment of central factories will have 
to be taken up and finally dealt with. Among the minor industries is 
mentioned the cultivation of arrowroot, which is principally carried on in 
small plots by labourers in their spare time. The annual yield is about 
2,700 barrels, and the value, at the low price of 9s. per 100 lb., about 
^5,000. Efforts are being made by the Imperial Department of Agriculture 
to establish a trade with England in sweet potatoes, and a small trial 
shipment has been made with satisfactory results. The potatoes arrived in 
good condition, and the industry would, it is believed, become a profitable 
one if it can be found possible to extend the sales. A pamphlet containing 
fifteen recipes for cooking sweet potatoes, has been prepared by the 
Department, copies of which were distributed with the first consignments. 
The cultivation of sugar forms the principal agricultural industry of Fiji. 
The Colonial Refining Company, Limited, of Sydney, are the largest 
producers. They own three mills in the colony. A fourth is being erected, 
and is expected to start crushing in 1903. It is situated at Lautoka, in the 
Island of Vitilevu, about 20 miles from the same company’s Ba Mill, and 
the large areas of land in its vicinity are already under cane cultivation. The 
experiment of cane growing on reclaimed mangrove swamp is still being 
extensively carried on in the Labasa district, and seems to promise very 
satisfactory returns. The total area of land in the colony under cane 
cultivation is estimated at 27,399 acres, from which were produced in the 
year 1901-2, 291,629 tons of cane. 
Foreign Countries. — The grape harvest in France, in so far as bulk 
is concerned, is nearly everywhere inferior to that of last year. In quality 
it is reported to be very irregular, except in the southern vineyards, where 
it is distinctly good. The lifting of the sugar beet crop is being proceeded 
with in the north, but, according to the Journal de / Agriculture, the yield 
is much smaller than the vigorous leaf development gave cause to anticipate. 
As some compensation for this, however, the roots are reported to be 
exceptionally rich in sugar. The potato crop, as at home, is very indifferent 
in both yield and quality. The study of soils is being prosecuted with 
greater vigour in the United States than probably in any other country. The 
investigation and mapping of soils in the field is only part of the work, 
which is supplemented by the chemical and physical examination of soil 
samples in the laboratory. There is a well-known and time-honoured 
method of testing the capillary power of soil by observing the rise of water 
in a column of dry soil contained in a glass tube, but it has now been ascer- 
tained that this does not give the height at which capillary action operates 
under natural conditions in the field when the soil contains more or less 
moisture. The difference, indeed, is so marked that laboratory experiments 
with dry soils fail entirely in affording a quantitative measurement of the 
extent of capillary movement in the same soil in moist condition. In the 
Sea Island cotton soils, for example, the capillary rise in the moist soil is 
over four-and-a-half times that taking place in the dry soil. Other experi- 
ments are in progress to determine whether a constant ratio exists between 
the two determinations for any soil. If no such relation can be established, 
the measurements of the capillary rise of water in dry soils which have been 
