OIL CROPS sweatmeats. The refined sugars are mainly consumed by the richer classes of natives, and the molasses are used for making rum and for mixing with tobacco. Simple and inexpensive reforms are suggested by the writer, more especially with regard to the tapping, but also in the boiling and refining processes. These should effect great improvements. Judging from the success obtained by improved methods employed in the Maple Sugar Industry in America, where a juice containing only 3 per cent. of sucrose is exploited, a little expenditure of capital in the date sugar industry in India would yield ample returns. 672 The Recent Evolution of the Exploitation and the Industry connected with the Oil Palm. - BRET, M. C. in Journal d'Agriculture Tropicale, Year 13, No. 140, pp. 42-47. Paris, February 28, 1913. The exploitation of the oil palm has, under European guidance, evolved from a home industry into an important commercial undertaking. The origin of this movement is to be sought in the reputation enjoyed by certain districts for possessing oil palms (Elaeis) which might be from 10 to 30 times more reproductive than they actually are at present. The native palm groves receive no care, and the method of their exploitation leaves much to be desired; often the stands spring up after forest lands have been cleared, and their ownership is doubtful; sometimes the groves remain unexploited on account of the small number of the inhabitants. In order to prevent this loss, the Governor of the Ivory Coast first tried to induce immigration into the thinly populated rich districts from those which were poor and densely populated, but the practical difficultes entailed prevented the scheme being extended to other districts. It has been attempted with some measure of success to render the exploitation more intense by distributing among the natives little machines for crushing the nuts and thereby extracting more oil. The conditions obtaining prove the possibility of European industrial exploitation, but this could only exist in stands which are sufficiently extensive and rich to provide work for a factory, so that districts must be selected in which the biological conditions are the most favourable. An attempt has been made to co-operate with the rative workers by obtaining the sole right in certain zones of treating the fruit mechanically, thus forcing the former to sell their produce to the factories. This method, which is at variance with the usages of the natives, has not proved wholly successful. Installations based on this arrangement exist in the Kamerun and in Southern Nigeria; they are instituted by special legislation on the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast. The purchase from the natives of land bearing palm trees is a matter of great difficulty owing to the possession in common and various legal and administrative hindrances. Fairly remunerative contracts have been drawn up on the Ivory Coast by which the right of gathering the nuts has been ceded for a certain period of time. Success can only be obtained by companies possessing capital sufficient to tide over the difficulties which are inevitable at first. According to the writer, success lies in the direction of systematic planting and the subsequent establishment of factories. 673 The Cultivation of Rubber Trees in West Africa. CHEVALIER, AUGUSTE in Journal d'Agriculture Tropicale, Year 13, No. 140, pp. 33-37. Paris, February 28, 1913. The writer publishes some notes respecting the cultivation of different rubber-producing trees in West Africa and lays stress on the fact that the annual output of rubber in Tropical Africa has remained stationary for some years, so that it is high time that energitic measures were taken to make plantations. After reviewing the results obtained in the different regions of West Africa with Manihot Glaziovii and giving the data collected regarding the yield from tapping, the distances between the trees, and the selection of seed, he recognizes the fact that the value of this tree for plantations in West Africa has not yet been determined. He suggests that all the trials should be made again, using seed from improved trees grown in German East Africa, since this colony possesses trees whose yield is well above the average and which can be tapped from two-and-a-half years, yielding throughout most of the year. 674 - Method of obtaining Tall-Growing Trees of Manihot Glaziovii. ZIMMERMANN, A. in Der Pflanzer, Year IX, No. 1, pp. 16-18. Daressalam, January 1913. The writer has made a number of experiments, both at Amani and in other plantations, for the purpose of ascertaining the best methods of inducing height in such plants of Manihot Glaziovii, as, by reason of unfavourable climatic conditions or other undetermined causes, flower too early and thus ramify at an insufficient distance from the ground. The following are the results of ore of the experiments made at Amani : The trees used had been planted in April 1911 and had mostly branched very low down. In September 1911, they were pruned in three different ways: 1) topped at 12 to 16 in. from the ground; 2) topped immediately below the lowest bifurcation; 3) at each point of ramification all the branches were removed, except the one nearest the stem; a month later the fresh shoots were treated in the same way. A fourth lot consisted of plants raised in the nursery and planted out in September 1911 in the place of dead trees, or such as were not growing well. It was found that the trees of the third group, which had grown zigzag as a result of the pruning, never became straight, although they were young and the side shoots were constantly cut off. Further, the terminal shoots at once flowered again and gave rise to new ramifications. Thus, by this means no perceptible increase in the length of the stem is obtained. In the case of the trees of the second lot, new shoots at once made their appearance: these were all removed except the most vigorous, which grew in perfect line with the stem, in such a manner that the point of junction RUBBER, GUM AND RESIN PLANTS VARIOUS 675 became less and less perceptible. These trees began to branch again much more rapidly than those of the first lot, of which the stems were the highest of these three groups (averaging respectively 5 ft. 6 in., 3 ft. and 4 ft.). The results obtained with the fourth lot were slightly more satisfactory; under the influence of favourable climatic conditions, these produced very tall stems (5 ft. 8 in.). The average circumference at 3 ft. in the four lots was 8 4, 10, 10 and 7 1⁄2 in. respectively. In conclusion the method most to be recommended is the topping of the stem at 12 or 16 inches from the ground, which should be done as soon as the first branching begins. The Results of Szeged Tobacco Selection in Hungary. — SZÉKÁCS, ELEMÉR in Magyar Dohánynjsag, Year XXX, Nos. 6 and 7, pp. 2-4 and 2-3. Budapest, March 20 and April 5, 1913. It is more difficult to select tobacco by the pedigree system than it is to select cereals by the same method, for in the case of the latter, the seeds themselves are the commercial product and can be compared with the best varieties, while with tobacco it is the leaves which are the object of selection. As the leaves of the plants grown for seed production lose all their substance it is only possible to decide from the leaves of the second generation whether the parent plants had been well chosen and were suitable for reproduction. In order to shorten this long process, the writer at the time of the first selection experiment with Szeged tobacco in 1899, tried the following method he removed all the flowers from the parent plants, except the top one which is the first to open. In this way, the plant does not exhaust itself in seed development but some of the sap is left for the use of the leaves, which retain their good quality and can be judged on the parent stem. This experiment was successful: The parent plants ripened their single seed capsule completely; the leaves were gathered when mature, dried and sorted plant by plant, and valued before being made up into bundles. It was at once possible to observe among the leaves the greatest differences in form, size, colour, weight, texture, elasticity and conbustibility. In 1910, when the estate of Arpadhalom was entrusted, under the direction of the writer, with the cultivation of Szeged tobacco for the district of Békéscsaba, the experiments were resumed. In addition to the unselected seed chosen by the Government, he took the 25 parent plants of which the leaves best showed the characteristic qualities of Szeged tobacco. After proceeding in the manner described above he sent the leaves of each stem, made up in different bundles, to the Royal Experiment Station of Tobacco Cultivation at Debreczen, where they were submitted to chemical analysis. After minute analysis, 5 of the 25 parent plants were pronounced suitable for propagation. In 1912, these 5 pedigree families produced sufficient seed to sow about 4 1⁄2 acres, so that in 1913, all the growers of the Békéscsaba district were able to grow exclusively pedigree tobacco. Further, 5" métayer "tenants on the estate planted on their land plants belong ing to the same 5 pedigree families; each cultivated a separate family in the yield. The writer gives a very detailed table showing the results obtained with pedigree and with unselected tobacco; the different columns give the areas sown, the yield of leaves and their classification, the average gross return and the returns per acre. M. Marton Liebhart, who is attached to the Station, established that the individual characters of each family were most striking, and that selected plants infallibly transmitted their physical characteristics. If, however, the crop was less than had been hoped, this was due partly to a bad autumn, and partly to the tenants, who were not of one mind with the cultivators,. and their carelesseness and obstinacy had an unfortunate result on the crops. In order to encourage emulation and to induce the tenants to work more harmoniously with the cultivators, the writer suggests that annual prizes should be given by the Tobacco Departement to those tenants who obtain the best results. Nevertheless, those hitherto obtained are sufficient to show that a great impetus has been given to tobacco growing in Hungary, thanks to pedigree selection. The writer proposes to continue the minute comparison of the five families already existing and to improve other selected types, in order to obtain other pedigree families. 676 - Experiments on Growing Coffee under Shade. BERTONI, MOISÉS S. Experimentos sobre la Resistencia del Cafe á la Maleza y su Crecimiento á la sombra de Arboles. Primera Serie: de 1909 a 1912. Agronomia, Boletín de la Estación Agronomica de Puerto Bertoni, Vol. V, No. 3-4, pp. 119-128. Puerto Bertoni, Paraguay, January and February 1913. This bulletin gives a preliminary report on a series of experiments carried out from 1909 to 1912. The writer, having observed that coffee plants grow very well in company with all wild plants, except Gramineae and Compositae, set himself the task of ascertaining whether, by taking advantage of this fact, it would be possible to save the expense entailed by hoeing. To this end, he planted one-year coffees among the trees of a thinned virgin forest. He made four plots, which were hoed 1 to 4 times respectively in the year, and in each of which there were plants with much, little, and hardly any, shade. The experiment showed that those plots succeeded best which were only hoed once or twice (provided there were not many grasses or composites present).. This was the case under the conditions prevailing in Paraguay, i. e.. with an annual rainfall of from 1500 to 2500 mm. (60 to 100 in.) and 70 to 80 actinometric degrees as the absolute annual maximum. The writer concludes that in Paraguay shade is indispensable to coffee plantations (though he allows that elsewhere a herbaceous intercalary crop giving no shade might be the best). The depth of the shade should depend on the number of hoeings, but the protection is most necessary even if the plot is only hoed once. Shade is requisite for coffee trees of all ages; it is doubtful whether Leguminosae always afford the best protection; the writer obtained the best results with species of Guarea (Meliaceae) about 10 ft. high and the worst with Lippia virgata (Verbenaceae), or "Niño-rupà ”, about 6 ft. 6 in in height. 677 Pepper Production and Trade in Siam. Ministère des Colonies, Bulletin de l'Office Colonial, Year 6, No. 63, pp. 77-79. Melun, March 1913. Only two kinds of commercial pepper are recognized in Siam: — white and black. Nevertheless, of late years it has become the habit in some provinces to distinguish four qualities of black pepper; the first consists of only perfect seeds, round and full, and the fourth of small or broken seeds and fragments, the second and third being intermediate. The following table gives the average price of pepper at the place of production for the year 1911-1912. MARKET GARDENING The tax on transit in the interior is 1.25 tical per picul (about 1 3⁄4/ ₫ per to lbs.) in the case of white pepper, and 1 tical per picul (11⁄2d per 10 lbs.) for black. In 1911-1912 (the Siamese year begins on the first of April) the total export of pepper from Siam was 34270 piculs (4 569 300 lbs), worth 1 193 297 ticals (£ 9r9 933). The port of Bangkok exported 24 200 piculs (3 226 700 lbs.), worth 921 174 ticals (710 072), while Puket exported 10003 piculs (133 700 lbs.), worth 271 827 ticals (£ 209 544). The chief buyers of Siamese pepper are England (13093 piculs = I 754700 lbs. in 1911-1912) and the United States (2291 piculs = 305 460 lbs. in 19111912). During the same year, 4677 piculs (623 500 lbs.) were sent to Singapore and 2367 piculs (315 600 lbs) to Hong Kong. 678 Experiment Field for Strawberries at Rétfalu, Hungary. — HEGEDÜS, ALADÁR in Mesögazdasagi Szemle, Year XXXI, No. 4, pp. 186-188. Budapest, April 1913. In the wooded mountainous country of the commune of Rétfalu (Sopron County), fruit growing has for many years been the principal source of revenue of the inhabitants. In the last 15 years, however, such an impetus has been given to strawberry growing that 250 to 300 tons of this fruit, worth over £10 000, are sent annually to the Vienna market. This remarkable result has caused the Ministry of Agriculture to take every possible measure to still further increase strawberry cultivation, especially by improving the quality and introducing varieties which can supply the |