The one defect in the Pound method of shield budding the mango described in Bureau of Agriculture Bulletin No. 18, The Mango, consists of the necessity of placing an apron to protect the long petiole left on the bud from the sun and the entrance of water, which work necessarily requires more time than if the bud could be wrapped as is the case in budding citrus trees. However, a possible use of scarred or nonpetioled budwood as a means of obviating the need of the apron was suggested in the above-mentioned publication. The results obtained in recent experiments conducted at the Lamao experiment station (November and December, 1914) have fully come up to the expectations of this modification, and if the work is carefully performed, the operator should have no trouble in obtaining 85 per cent of live buds by proceeding in accordance with the following directions:

(1) Select budwood that is well matured, from the first, second, and third flushes from the end of a branch. This budwood is always green and smooth.

(2) Three weeks or more in advance of the date when the budding is to be performed, cut off the leaf blades of the budwood selected. This causes the petioles to drop. When the scars left after the petioles have fallen are well healed the budwood is in condition for budding.

(3) The buds should be cut about 4 centimeters long, with an ample wood shield, and inserted in the stock at a point where the bark is green and smooth like the budwood, not where it is rough and brownish.

(4) Use waxed tape in tying and cover the entire bud.

(5) When in the course of two to three weeks a good union has formed, unwind the wrapping so as to expose the leaf bud from which the growth is to issue, and cut off the top of the stock 10 to 15 centimeters above the bud.

(6) Every ten days after unwrapping the buds go through the nursery and carefully rub off all stock sprouts in order to force the buds to grow.

All other precautions that are taken in ordinary shield budding must, of course, also be attended to in order to insure success.

After repeated attempts the shield-budding experiments at the Lamao experiment station with the camia (Averrhoa Bilimbi) and the santol (Sandoricum koetjape) have been successful, and it has also been found that the barobo (Diplodiscus paniculatus), a nut tree indigenous to the Philippines (Dillenia indica), and the sea grape (Coccoloba uvifera), may be propagated by means of shield budding. Detailed information relative to the budding of these plants will be published on the completion of the experiments.

The average fruit is so poor that most foreigners never give any attention to the santol, and the fruit is a drug even in the native markets and enormous quantities annually rot on the ground. Few are aware that there are mutations among the santol trees the fruit of which in point of flavor vies with the best fruits in the Tropics, and that in this respect it is superior even to its celebrated relative, the lanzon (Lansium domesticum), the greatest defects being the large seeds and the adherence of the flesh to the seeds. If the seed in these superior santols were abortive in the same proportion as those in the mangosteen, the now despised santol, with its translucent pulp, separable from the pericarp as that of the mangosteen, subacid, juicy and of a vinous, excellent flavor, would rapidly become one of the most popular fruits in the Tropics. Its thick, tough “rind” should make the santol at least equal to the mangosteen as a shipper.

What is probably the first horticultural, asexually propagated variety of the santol is now being established at the Lamao experiment station from buds obtained by Mr. F. Galang, assistant agricultural inspector, from a tree in Pampanga, the fruit of which is so highly prized locally that the fruit never retails below the relatively high price of 2 centavos apiece even when other santols are so plentiful as to be literally unsalable.

Mr. B. Malvar, assistant agricultural inspector, has obtained in Batangas budwood of a sweet-fruited camia which is also being propagated. This is the first mutation of this kind coming to the attention of the writer.

The collection of Philippine citrus fruits of economic value or of botanical interest has been in progress since in 1911, but no systematized selection work in the mandarin district has been attempted until December, 1914, when Mr. B. Malvar was detailed to visit the citrus region in Batangas. Mr. Malvar returned with sample fruits of some twenty odd trees, a number of which were found to be of very good quality. These are being propagated for future distribution. Mr. Malvar also found another “Tizon” (Citrus nobilis var. papillaris) of excellent flavor and quality which has been added to the citrus collection at Lamao.

The last three years’ experiments in shield budding tropical fruits which have been conducted by the writer at the Lamao experiment station indicate that for practical purposes in propagation work the tropical fruits may be divided into two groups: (1) Those species the budwood of which may be cut at the time of budding and the petioles cut off close to the bud—for instance, the citrus fruits, avocado, guava, and carambola; and (2) those species in which decay enters the bud from the adhering remnant of the petiole so frequently as to make impracticable budding from newly cut budwood from twigs with the leaves still adhering, such as the mango, hevi, and cacao. It has been found, however, that this trouble may be easily overcome by the simple method of cutting off the leaf blade about three weeks in advance of when the budding is to be done so as to induce the formation of a leaf scar. Then when the petioles have dropped and a well-healed scar has formed, the budwood may be cut and the buds inserted and tied as in ordinary shield budding.

In the case of some species, whether or not the bud is of the same age as the stock at the point of insertion is of little or no practical importance, but in other species this condition is one of the requirements for success. Therefore, two chances of failure are insured against in experimental work with species that hitherto have not been budded—(a) by defoliating the budwood previously to the budding operation, and using what may be termed nonpetioled or scarred budwood; and (b) by inserting the buds at a point in the stock which approximately is of the same age and appearance as the budwood.

NOTES BY CLEVE. W. HINES, M. S., Station Superintendent.

The beginning of a tropical industry in what would be considered a semitropical climate was noted in 1914, when the Southwestern Sugar Company of Arizona milled their first crop of sugar cane and made it into sugar. The factory had been used previously for the manufacture of beet sugar only. It is a singular coincidence to find a region where both cane and beets will thrive well and where sugar is made from both sources in the same factory, and the sugar world is looking forward with great interest to the results of this new venture.

The world’s production of sugar amounts to nearly seventeen million tons, practically one half of which is derived from the beet root, the greater percentage of which is produced in Europe. Now that the ravages of war have devastated many of the better beet-sugar regions of Europe a greater demand will be made on the more fortunate sugar countries as soon as the present supply of storage sugar is exhausted and trade resumes its normal condition.

The past few years have shown great progress in the method of sugar making. It used to be thought that a high grade of sugar could be made only by the use of the bone-black or animal-char process.

The beet-sugar producers were the first to diverge from this method and succeeded in making a perfectly satisfactory sugar in their factories in one continuous process by the aid of the carbonitation system.

Louisiana had been making a fairly good sugar known as yellow clarified for a number of years, but the great step in improvements along these lines was brought about by the acid-thin-juice process of Java. This was a combination of the carbonitation and sulphitation processes which gave a satisfactory sugar, though unfortunately the yield of resulting molasses was also quite high.

The latest improvement in this work was the introduction of the “Battille Process” which has certain similarities to the Steffens process of beet-sugar manufacture. This method has given an excellent grade of sugar and the maximum rendement since practically all of the sugar is extracted in crystalized form.