It will be seen by this table that the Hanna variety is the earliest, next come "Probstei" and "Golden Melon ", which can also be culti vated in this part of Hungary, but "Hofbräu " is too late to be grown profitably. The comparative experiments in cultivation and manuring are shown in Table II. It will be seen from this table, that the yields were increased by the use of fertilizers, that a nitrogenous fertilizer increased the protein content (a good brewery barley should not contain more than 9 per cent of protein) and that nitrate is only injurious in this respect if by means of the application of this fertilizer, the soil contains an excess of nitrogen in proportion to the potash and phosphoric acid present. Nitrate used alone increases the protein content 1.69 per cent, if superphosphate is applied at the same time, the increase is only 0.39 per cent. 27- Rice Culture in the Philippines. CONNER, CHAS. M. and MACKIE, D. B. Government of the Philippine Islands, Department of Public Instruction, Bureau of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 22, pp. 40 + XXII plates. Manila, 1912. In the Philippine Islands during the fiscal year 1911, 1 043 757 hectares (2 579 228 acres) of land were cultivated in rice, producing 882 794.13 metric tons (1 945 677 976 lbs) of rough rice (palay). The area cultivated in rice is 94.5 per cent of the total areas cultivated in abacá (Musa textilis). coconuts, sugar, corn, and tobacco. The crop is valued at £6 220 755 ($ 30 897 795) representing 65.9 per cent of the total value of the above named crops. Counting the population at 8 886 314 there is one hectare (2.47 acres) of rice cultivated to every 8.5 persons. The following table shows the area cultivated, total yield, and average yield, and average yield per hectare. Table No. 1. Rice Crop in the Philippine Islands. (1) The people throughout the country measure rice by the cavan, the average weight of which is 43 kilos (94.6 lbs) for rough rice (palay) and 57.5 kilos (126.5 lbs) for cleaned rice. Rice seems to grow well on almost any of the different types of soil. The only essentials are that the soil be fairly fertile and that it have a layer of impervious clay beneath. At the present time the great majority of rice growers depend upon rain water for growing their crop. As a rule only one rice crop is grown, which is planted at the beginning of the rainy season. The rice-growing provinces may be divided into two groups, those that have a pronounced wet and dry season, and those that have their rainfall distributed more or less throughout the year. Most of the former are located within the Plain of Luzon; and the latter are near the Pacific coast or towards the south. It is estimated that it takes at least 100 to 116 hectare-centimeters of water to grow a normal rice crop, provided it is evenly distributed over the growing season. The average rainfall for the five rice-growing months (June-October) in those provinces having a pronounced wet and dry season is 1556 millimeters. In such localities irrigation is destined to play a great part in rice growing: firstly because rice can be planted at the best time for its development, and secondly, two crops may be grown each season. About 50 587 hectares (125 056 acres) are now under irrigation; 485 640 hectares (1 200 065 acres) may be easily brought under modern irrigation. This work is going forward rapidly. About four-fifths of the rice grown is transplanted. One-twentieth of the area to be planted is required for the seed bed. In some sections where water is less scarce two crops of rice are grown each year, and the second or short-season crop is sown broadcast. Weeds and grass do not give much trouble in those sections where there is a pronounced dry season and where irrigation water is not available. The rice is harvested about the close of the rainy season and the fields are used for pasture during the rest of the dry season. Cases may be cited where large areas have been grown in rice for at least one hundred years and still produce good crops without the use of fertilisers. Upland rice is sown on the hills and, as a rule, on new land. The rainfall is depended upon for moisture. The rate of seeding is about 64.5 kg. per ha. (57.6 lbs per acre). The average yield from upland rice is not more than one-half that of transplanted rice, nor is the quality considered as good. If the stand is not even, weeds and grass give considerable trouble. The same varieties may be used for this method as for the caiñgin method; this consists in burning the underbrush and trees on the hills and sowing the rice in holes, without ploughing, when the rains begin; the land is not planted a second time but allowed to cover itself with young growth for three or four years' when it may be cut over and used again. Crops of rice grown in this way may exceed in yield crops grown in the regular way. There are a few localities where a short rotation is practiced; for example, in sections of Tarlac and Pampanga sugar cane is rotated with rice. In some parts of Laguna and Batangas corn is rotated with rice to good advantage. In many sections mungos are planted on the rice fields during the dry season. The following is the estimated cost of production of 1 hectare (2.47 acres) of rice according to 230 answers to an enquiry made by the Board of Agriculture. When the crop is harvested on shares, the harvesters get from onefourth to one-tenth, depending upon the condition of the crop, but the general average seems to be one-fifth. When the land is rented and the farmer has his own work animals, plows, etc., the owner of the land gets from one-third to one-half the crop. If the owner of the land furnishes the animals, plows, etc., the farmer gets one-fourth. Threshing is still done in most localities by tramping out with the feet, pounding with a flail, or tramping with carabaos. However, steam threshers are being used more generally each year in the large rice-growing districts. One hundred kilos rough rice, or palay, will give about 65 kilos of cleaned rice. Much of the rice that is used locally is cleaned by pounding in a large wooden mortar. But there are a number of large rice mills in the Islands properly equipped for making good marketable rice. There are also some two hundred and fifty small mills requiring engines of 6 or 8 horse power to operate, which clean rice for local use. There are only two grades of by-products: " binlid" or broken rice and "tiqui-tiqui" or rice bran. Of the 910 varieties of rice collected by the Bureau of Agriculture of the Philippine Islands, 452 were found to be lowland and 458 upland ; 134 of the lowland and 6 of the upland were bearded. The detailed results of variety tests are shown in a number of tables. The earliest lowland variety matures in 118 days; the latest in 209 days. Except for making the planting and harvest fit in with the average weather conditions there is no occasion for growing a variety that requires more than 150 days to mature. The average yields of the lowland varieties tested were as follows: White, non-glutinous, beardless varieties: 33 or 20.6 % gave less than 1000 kilos of palay per hectare. 58 69 群 36.2 ranged between 1000 and 2000 kilos of palay per hectare. White, non-glutinous, bearded varieties: Four hundred and fifty-eight upland varieties were tested; the data relative to 25 of them are tabulated. The earliest of thesc matures in 126 days; the latest in 141; the yields varied from 2665 to 4554 kilos of rough rice (palay) per hectare, being, on the average, higher than those for lowland. One explanation for the short range in the ripening period of the upland varieties is that they tend to mature as soon as the rains stop. Four varieties were found which have the grains arranged in bunches of three, much after the fashion of wheat, which is rather unusual. Unfortunately all of these have very dark or black grains which render them unfit for general use. Rice pests. Rats have been the most numerous and destructive of all pests. Four distinct species have been found, a large brown rat, probably Epimys norvegicus Erxleben, being the must numerous. Birds. - In some districts seed-eating birds often are very destructive, the "mayas" Munia jagori Martens, and Uroloncha everetti Tweed (Ploceidae) being the most numerous. Two ducks, Anas luzonica Fraser and Dendrocygna arcuata Horsf., are also destructive; the former seems to prefer fresh water streams and the latter the salt water "esteros." Insects. The rice is subject to the attacks of: 1) locusts; 2) moth borers spending the larval stage within the stem (Schoenobius punctellus Zell. and perhaps other species); 3) rice-worm (Spodoptera maurita Boisd.), often parasitized and held in check by Tachina flies; 4) rice butterflies (Melanitis ismene Cram., - a Nymphalid, and an undetermined species of Hesperid) feeding upon the leaves of the growing rice; 5) rice bug (Leptocorisa acuta Gem.) sucking the juice from the ripening grain; 6) rice weevil (Calandra oryzae) often found in stored palay and also crawling about on the ripening heads of grain. Fungi. A smut, identified by Merrill as Ustilago virens, has been found on upland rice at Lamao, Bataan Province. Another species very much like Ustilago virens, but with brown or sooty spores, was noted by Mr. D. B. Mackie on rice growing on Catanduanes Island. Rusts have been reporteed from various sections, but they rarely do any damage. MC LACHLAN, ARGYLE: U. S. Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Plant Industry, The excessively large size of the vegetative branches or limbs on Egyptian cotton plants grown under irrigation in the Colorado River Valley in Arizona and California occasions difficulties in cultivation and harvesting, and causes the development of normal fruiting branches to be postponed. To place the growing of Egyptian cotton in the Southwest on a practical basis, cultural control of the production and development of vegetative and fruiting branches must be established. A study of the branching habits of Egyptian cotton is necessary as a preliminary investigation of this problem. The present paper gives the results of investigations of the branching habits of Egyptian cotton carried out in Arizona and in Colorado during the seasons of 1909 and 1910. The following conclusions are reached : "The Egyptian cotton plant bears two kinds of branches, long vegetative branches on the lower part of the stem, which bear no flower buds directly, and above these, to the top of the plant, shorter fruiting branches which bear flower buds. The differences between vegetative branches and fruiting branches are very sharp: 1) Vegetative branches usually approximate the length of the main stem, while fruiting branches are about one-third as long. 2) Vegetative branches bear no flower buds except as they produce secondary fruiting branches. Fruiting branches bear a flower b d at each node opposite the leaf. 3) The vegetative branches, like the axis, bear fruiting branches and may bear vegetative braches. The fruiting branches rarely bear fruiting or vegetative branches. Vegetative branches may be either axillary or extra-axillary. Normal fruiting branches are always extra-axillary. Single bolls or short fruiting branches are sometimes developed from buds in the axillary position, at nodes bearing fruiting branches. Such branches may be regarded as secondary fruiting branches borne by the axillary vegetative branch, which is itself suppressed. From 6 to 8 vegetative branches are usually produced from the first 10 nodes of the axis. At the next 2 or 3 nodes the buds frequently remain dormant or are abortive, and above these a fruiting branch is produced at each node. Under conditions of great luxuriance extra-axillary limbs occur at some of the lower nodes which would bear fruiting branches if the development of limbs was restricted. The length and number of vegetative branches largely determine whether the plants are bushy and spreading or upright. The control of the production of vegetative branches-that is, of the stature of the plant-is necessary because of the desirability of small plants in cultivation and harvesting. Egyptian cotton when planted late apparently develops more num FIBRE CROPS. (1) See No. 497 B. March 1912. (Ed.). |