146 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



May 



1904. 



form, is very necessaiy and should take the funn 

 of 2 cwt. to 3 cwt. of nitrate of soda or 11 cwt. 

 to 2J cwt. of sulphate nf aniinonia. It will be found 

 profitable to apply, in addition, jiotash and ])hosphate, 

 and for this jtuijwsc the api)lication of 4 cwt. of 

 sulphate of potash and 1! cwt. to 2 cwt. of cither 

 basic j)hosphate or superphosphate is suggested. The 

 manurial requirements of ratoon canes differ consider- 

 ably from those of plant canes. 



It should be borne in mind that these conclusions 

 apply only in the case of sugar estates in the Leeward 

 Islands and under the conditions normally existing 

 there. 



In an aj)pendix to the rcjiort Mr. Watts deals with 

 the relationship between the tonnage of canes and the 

 pounds of sucrose in the juice. The conclusions 

 arrived at must be regarded as of considerable 

 importance both to practical planters and to chemists 

 in charge of sugar-cane experiment stations. 



Hitherto it has been the custom to make 

 comparisons between the various plots on the basis of 

 the pounds of sucrose per acre in the juice expressed 

 from the canes. Carefully conducted experiments 

 have shown, however, that the artificial manures 

 employed do not exert a profound influence upon the 

 amount of sugar in the cane, in contradistinction to its 

 influence upon the weight of the cane. The variations 

 in the amount of sucrose as a result of the influence of 

 manures are not great. 



Mr. Watts therefore arrives at the following 

 conclusion : ' Manures in such quantities as are 

 likely to be used in ordinary practice in the Leeward 

 Islands, e.xert their influence chiefly in altering 

 the weight of the cane per acre without profoundly 

 altering the weight of sucrose to the ton of cane. 

 It is probable that we shall in the future make 

 our comparisons in manurial experiments on the 

 basis of tons of cane rather than of pounds of sucrose.' 

 Some doubt has existed as to this point, and the 

 conclusion is, therefore, of considerable importance. 

 It may readily be understood how this will simplify 

 the work of the Experiment Station worker and enable 

 the results to be attained at a less cost than fbrmerlv. 



Sweet Cup. Tlie ipui-|)le-fi-uited Sweet cni> (Fasfijinm 

 edulis) introduced by the luiiierial Department of Agriculture 

 from Jamaica Ls doing well at the Botanic Station at Antigua. 

 A .single vine is hearing at present about 100 fruits. The 

 results at other Stations wliere plants have been rai.sed wnulJ 

 be of interest. 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



Sugar-cane Experiments at Barbados. 



Tile following is a progress report by Professor 

 d'All)u<iuer.pie, M.A., F.I.C., F.C.S.. and Mr. J. R. 

 Bovell. F.L.S., F.(,18., on the sug.-ir-cane experiments 

 at Barbados for the half-year ended December '.U, 

 VMS :— 



During tlie half-year under review, the report of the 

 manurial experiments for tlie crop reaj)ed in 1903 was 

 puliHshed. These experiments were carried on at Dodds 

 Jliit.uiic Station, St. Philip, and at six plantations situated on 

 typical black and red soils. 



At four of the stations the plots were apimiximately 

 1 acre each in area, and were laid down in duplicate. The 

 object in adopting a limited number of plots <if the larger 

 area was, in the first I'lace, to a.scertain how far tlic results 

 obtained with the ordinarj' small plots would agree with 

 those on a somewhat larger scale, and, in the second place, to 

 meet the wishes of planters who had expressed a desire to see 

 some of the results tested on larger plots. 



At Dodds a gangway or unoccupied sjtace is left around 

 each plot ; this eliminates the possibilit}- of the canes in one 

 plot inteifering with those of the adjacent plots, but it also 

 introduces a condition somewhat diti'erent to that of ordinary 

 cultivation. 



The waste of land and conseiiuent exi)ense which 

 would attend the employment of this method on a large 

 scale, especially on ordinary estates, led us to look for 

 another method of attaining the same object. Accord- 

 ingly, the whole field under experiment is planted in 

 canes and parcelled out into plots, and the wliole of each 

 plot is manured with its own inojier fertilizer. In 

 leaping, however, the outside ring of canes of each i)lot 

 is left uncut and serves as a kind of guard ring to 

 laeveiit the roots of the inner (reaped) portion of each jilot 

 interfering with those of its neighbours. This reduces the 

 experimental area of the [ilot, but renders the conditions of 

 cultivation perfectly normal and eliminates the likelihood of 

 the manuring of one plot interfering with that of others. 



The lines upon which the manures were selected were 

 the same as in the jirevious three years : that is to say, active 

 forms of nitrogen (suliihate of ammonia, nitrate of soda), ba.sic 

 slag phosphate, superi>liospliate, sulphate of potash and 

 slaked lime were the materials used for the experiments. 



The weather conditions were exceedingly unfavourable 

 for the crops and for agricultural experiments, and the 

 results of the manurial experiments serve to indicate the sort 

 of return to expect from manuring in a year of repeated 

 periods of drought rather than under the average conditions 

 under which agriculture can be pursued with [irofit. The 

 root-fungus ( Mara. ■tin i us sacchari) was, under the conditions 

 prevalent this season, distinctly in evidence in all parts of 

 the island and must be reckoned with as a disturbing factor 

 ii] estimating the value of the experimental results. 



The soil of Summer vale tield at Dodds, which was the 

 mauurial experiment field reaped this year, is a heavy clay 

 black soil. It is poor compared with the soils generally 

 under cultivation in Barbados : its content of carlwnate of 

 lime is below the average and the amounts of nitrogen, 

 ph';'-phoric acid and potash are exceedingly low. If well 



