A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. in. No. 63. 



BARBADOS, SEPTEMBER 10, 1904. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

 Banana Industry in tlie 



Canary Isbuuls ... 2f>2 

 Berimula, Agriculture in 297 

 Birds, Fruits, and In.sects 29t) 



Cocua-nuts f(ir New York 20G 



Date Palm in India ... 295 



Department News 301 



Department Reinirts : — 



St Kitt's-Nevis 301 



Dominica, Fisli oils from 294 



Fil)re Plants in Mauritius 

 Forestry in Hon.t;kung ... 

 Fumigation of Imported 



Plants 



Gleanings 



Insect Notes : — 



Mexican Cotton B( ill 

 Weevil 



St. Lucia 



Market Reports 



Mos(fuitos and Malaria ... 

 Notes and Comments 



297 

 301 



297 

 300 



298 

 298 

 303 

 292 

 29C 



AGE. 



289 

 295 



Onion Cultivation ... 

 <_)nion Cultivation in 



Egvpt 



Our Book Shelf :— 

 Cultuurgewassen en 

 Boschproducten in 

 de Kolonie Suriname 299 

 Guide to Castleton 



Gardens, Jamaica ... 299 

 Notes on Egyptian 



Agriculture 299 



Pine-apple Cultivation in 



Fiji 292 



Queensland, Agriculture 



in 301 



Raljbit Keeping in the 



West Indies 294 



Rats and Mice, Destruc- 

 tion of 299 



Rul)ber in Jamaica ... 293 



Soil Moi.sture, Control- 

 ling in the Orchard 295 



Sugar Industry : — ■ 



British Guiana 290 



French West Indies ... 291 



West Indian Products : — 



Canada 302 



London 302 



Onion Cultivation. 



S mentioned in the last issue of the Ar/ri- 

 caltui\il ASCIIS, 767 ft>. of onion seed have 

 been obtained by the Imperial Department 

 of Agriculture from Teneriffe for planters in the West 

 Indies. This amount of seed should be sufficient to 

 plant nearly 200 acres. 



Within the last twelve or thirteen years onion 

 cultivation has been to a certain extent revolutionized — 

 main!}' in consequence of what is known as the 'New 

 Onion Culture' put forward by Jlr. T. Greiner in 

 a little book of that title. The novelty of the method 

 consists in transplanting the onions from seed beds. 

 It has been demonstrated by experiments that the 

 transplanting method has many advantages over the 

 old style of sowing the seeds directly in the field. 

 The yield is larger : the bulbs are of uniform size 

 and mature earlier; much waste of seed is avoided, 

 and the young seedlings can be looked after better. 



On account of the smallness of the seed, special 

 care is necessary in securing well-prepared nursery 

 beds in which the seed is to be sown. These should 

 be raised 1 foot or 18 inches, and the soil well 

 pulverized. The seed should be sown in drills across 

 the bed about G inches apart. 



As ants are very liable to be troublesome at this 

 time, a careful watch must be kept : it would probably 

 be as well to spray the bed lightly, before and after 

 sowing, with a dilute kerosene emulsion. Perhaps 

 a simpler method — and one which has proved 

 equally efficacious — is that recommended in Pamphlet 

 no. 8, 'Cultivation of vegetables in Barbados,' (p. 3): 

 'The soil should be watered lightly with ordinary 

 water, and then with a mixture of kerosene oil 

 and water, in the proportion of one tea-spoonful of 

 kerosene oil to 1 pint of water, which should be well 

 shaken before and during use.' 



