starters were shown, also in the exhibits of the Province of Reggio at a meeting of cheese manufacturers and others interested in cheese, promoted by the Association in March 1912 at Milan, and to which twelve travelling lectureships, the Italian Association of members of the industry and trade of milk products, the National Union of Social Dairies, as well as numerous agricultural Societies, Chambers of Commerce, Provincial Councils, Agricultural banks, professors of dairying, agricultural members of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate, etc, had adhered, a resolution was adopted recommending agriculturists and the manufacturers of cheese to follow the new lines of cheese making based on the union of hygienic conditions of the dairy with selected ferments. We are therefore fully justified in affirming that the improved modern system of cheese making is now firmly established in Italy, not only in agricultural institutions and schools of dairying, but also in agricultural and industrial pratice. LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINI STRATIVE MEASURES SECOND PART. ABSTRACTS AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE 330 GENERAL INFORMATION. Italian Law for the Protection and Increase of the Production of Legge italiana per la tutela e l'incremento della produzione zootecnica nazionale. The Royal Decree No. 1395, dated December 19, 1912, approves the Regulations for the execution of the Law No. 832 of July 6, 1912, concerning measures for the protection and for the increase of the production of animal husbandry in the country. According to this law "The number of stallions in the State depots will be raised in five fiscal years to 1200. For this purpose the following sums are set apart for increasing the appropriations for this item: In the selection of the stallions to be purchased special attention will be paid to the need of producing artillery horses (art. 1). "In the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, beginning with the year 1912-1913, the sum of £ 7930 will be devoted to increase the appropriations for the following: Encouragement of the production of horses (prizes for stallions and brood mares; subventions for the purchase of breeding animals; sale of stallions and mares at reduced prices; prizes at races) and encouragement for the production of mules (breeding of asses; concession of donkey stallions; subventions for the establishment and working of stations of donkey stallions; prizes to breeders)." (Art. 2). "With the object of increasing and improving the breeding of cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry the Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Com merce : a) Promotes the establishment of bull, ram and boar stations and subsidizes them, granting also breeding animals. "b) Subsidizes the importation of breeding animals of improved races. c) Grants prizes to those breeders who, uniting in associations, establish special farms for the raising of calves on mountain pastures or in other appropriated localities. "d) Organises directly: 1) prize shows for breeding animals, and subsidizes those shows that are organised by local bodies or committees; 2) prize competitions for the cultivation of forage plants and for the systematic feeding of live stock, and subsidizes those promoted by local bodies; 3) prize competitions for the use of motors to replace animals for drawing agricultural machines and implements. "e) Promotes and subsidizes exibitions of animals for the butcher. f) Favours the development of mutual insurance associations against mortality in live stock, and of dairy associations and of their unions or federations, facilitating their establishment and their operations, by means of contributions in money and by rewarding with prizes the best organized and most efficient ones. g) Promotes and subsidizes the establishment and the working of associations and cooperative societies formed among producers for the organization of general warehouses with annexed markets for wool. "h) Subsidizes the associations of agriculturists formed for carrying out undertakings for the improvement of animal husbandry. 1) Founds and subsidizes new institutions for animal husbandry and poultry stations and depots where their reed is recognized, considering the conditions of the different regions in this respect and the eventual contribution of local bodies. ") Grants contributions for the establishment of animal husbandry sections attached to the travelling agricultural lectureships. "m) Promotes and encourages by means of lectures, temporary courses, scholarships, and in other ways, the propaganda in favour of the intensification of the yield of animal husbandry." (Art. 3). "Upon every head of cattle that is slaughtered before its first permanent incisor is up, a tax of 2 Lire (about Is 7d) is levied by the commune. Of the sum thus raised one quarter is left to the commune and the rest devolves to the State" which devotes it to the objects set forth in art. 3 of the present law. (Art. 4). Journal Officiel 331 - Institution of a General Inspectorship of Agriculture in Tunis. Institution d'une Inspection Générale de l'Agriculture en Tunisie. Tunisien, Year 31, No. 14, p. 198. Tunis, February 15, 1912. By decree of February 13, 1913, a General Inspectorship of agriculture for the technical agricultural services has been founded at the DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICUL TURE IN COUNTRIES. General Direction of Agriculture, Commerce and Colonization. The Director General of Agriculture is charged with the execution of the decree. 332 Agriculture in the Gold Coast. Colonial Reports; Annual, No. 725: Gold Coast, Report for 1911, pp. 49. London, 1912. Agricultural Exports. The total value of all seaborne exports from the Colony during 1911 amounted to £3 792 454 against £2 697 706 in 1910. The agricultural exports in 1911 were as follows: The most notable increases in the value of exports are: cocoa (£746 897), cola (£15 383): and the most notable decreases are rubber (£139 429), palm oil (£32 472). The cause of the decrease in the rubber export is assigned to the fall in prices in the European markets; the fall in the value of palm oil is explained by the attraction held out to farmers by the more easily won profits of the cocoa industry. The Lands The bulk of land in the Colony belongs to the tribal stools", and theoretically there is no land without an owner. Crown posseses no waste land in the Colony, but certain lands have been acquired by the Government from time to time, mostly under the provisions of the Public Lands Ordinance, 1876, which legalises compulsory acquisition for the services of the Colony on payment of reasonable compensation. Of recent years deeds have come into common use, especially in land transactions between natives and Europeans. Agriculture. Agriculture is the staple industry of the interior. The chief food crops are yam, cassava, maize, amankani (a species of eddo), and plantain. The most important cultivated product grown for export is cocoa. The industry is almost entirely in the hands of native farmers. Agricultural stations in charge of European curators are established at Aburi, Tarquah, and Assuantsi in the Colony, at Coomassie in Ashanti, and at Tamale in the Northern Territories. European and native instructors under the control of the Director of Agriculture are constantly travelling and advising the native farmers as to the cultivation and preparation of the various products of the soil. Reports on the following subjects were furnished by the Imperial Institute to the Government of the Gold Coast during 1911. A sample of Nyasaland Upland cotton grown at Labolabo was of good quality, although rather uneven in strength. Recommendations were made regarding the acclimatation of this cotton in the Gold Coast. A sample of native cotton from the Dagomba District of the Northern Territories was of excellent colour but somewhat harsh and rather short. Three samples of imperfectly prepared Hibiscus fibre were received from Tamale. These fibres would be saleable as substitutes for jute, but they are inferior to the latter fibre on account of their interlacing character. Botanical specimens of the plants yielding these fibres were identified at Kew as Hibiscus sabdariffa L. H. cannabinus L., and H. squamosus Hochr. A sample of Funtumia biscuit rubber prepared with formaldehyde contained a little more resin and protein than is desirable, but was otherwise of good quality, and was valued at 6s. 1od. to 75. per lb. in London with fine hard Para at 6s. 11d. per lb. Samples of the roots and stems of three gutta-yielding plants were examined, but only one of them contained sufficient gutta to make extraction on a commercial scale worth consideration. The roots and stem of this plant contained respectively 11.35 and 2.10 per cent. of gutta. Five samples of cocoa which had been prepared by different methods were received for valuation; the fermented cocoa was regarded as superior to the unfermented samples (1), Samples of cola nuts derived from Cola acuminata, C. Johnsonii and C. verticillata were found to contain respectively 2.1, 0.8, and 0.8 per cent. of total alkaloid, expressed on the dried nuts. This sample of C. acuminata is remarkable in containing a high percentage of caffeine. Botanical specimens of the plant yielding "Baco" or "Abaku " nuts were identified at Kew as Dumoria heckeli, A. Chev. L'agriculture en Indo-Chine en 1911. -- Ministère de l'Agriculture, Direction de l'Agri ture, Bulletin mensuel de l'Office de Renseignements agricoles, Nos. 11 and 12, pp. 14931509 and 1715-1727. Paris, November-December 1912. I. Cochin-China. - Over a large extent of this country, rice, which is the chief crop grown, depends on the rain for its irrigation; in consequence, years or irregular rainfall of with prolonged periods of drought result in poor harvests or famines (2). In the provinces of Baclieu and Rachgia, where the soil is very fertile, but consists of recent alluvium (and thus only productive if the rainfall is regular and abundant), the (1) See No. 1301, B. Sep. 1912. (2) See No. 1612, B. Dec. 1912. (Ed.). (Ed.). |