166 



THE AGllICULTUUAL NEWS. 



Septembeh 13, 1902. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



Letters and matter for imblication, as well as all 

 speciiiii'iis for ii;iiiiiii>^ sliduld Ue addressed to the Commis- 

 sioner, Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



It is [larticiilarly rei|uested that no letters lie addressed 

 to any niend)er of tlie statf by name .Sueh a course may 

 entail delay. 



Communications should always lie written on one side 

 of tlie paper only. It should be understood that no contri- 

 butions or sjiecimens will, in any case, be returned. 



All application for copies of the 'Agricultural 

 News' should be addressed to the Agents, and 



not to the Department. A complete list of the London 

 and Local agents will be found on the last page of this 

 number. 



Correspondents sending newspapers should lie careful to 

 mark the paragraphs they wish to bring under notice. 



^igricultural ^Imiii 



Vol. I. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBKll i:?, llWi'. No. II. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Popularity of Bananas in England. 



At a recent lecture at Livcr|MMil Mr. J. Scouler 

 pointed out that whereas eleven years ago only about 

 30,000 bunches of bananas were imported into 

 England, last year 3,000,000 bunches came from the 

 Canary Islands in addition to 450,000 from Jamaica. 



Gunga in the West Indies. 



Willi reference to the article on this subject 

 (p. !•■>()) the JitiiKilrd Daily Tclf'^/rd/ih writes: 'We 

 agree peifectly with what the A(jrivtill o ral Xncs snys 

 of the articK' in ('li<niihers'.-< Jnuriidl on " the gunga 

 ctirse in the West Indies." The statenieiit.s made by 

 the writer of the article (as we stated at the time we 

 rejiroduced extracts from it) are highly sensational 



and a 



1 almost altogether ei'roneous.' 



Toronto Exhibition. 



According to a notification in the Dominica 

 Officitd (Idzi'tic (August 2'A) : ' three packages contain- 

 ing eighty-eight samples <if the island's produce in glass 

 bottles, and ten ci-ates of various kinds of fresh Iruits 

 were despatched to the Toronto E.xhibition per S.S. 

 Ocitino on the 31st. idtinio. It is satisfactory to find 

 that this collection of samples was larger and bettei- in 

 e\ci-v way than the oiu' sent last yen i-, to the Halifax 

 Exhibition, and it is hojK'il that it may be the means 

 of <lrawiiig public attention in Canada, to the capabili- 

 ties and resources of this island. Alessrs. I'ickford and 



Black have kindly con.sented to an-angc the Dominica 

 samples in an attractive manner. Cordial thanks are 

 due to these who have contributed exhibits and 

 espi'cially to Mr. J. Jones f)r his careful efforts in 

 collecting, packing and organizing the despatch of the 

 Dominica exhibits.' 



Praedial Larceny. 



A Connnittee has been appointed at Dominica to 

 inquire into the ])revalence of prac<lial larceny in the 

 island. His Honour 8. R. IViidjertcm is Chairman. 



Dominica Pine-apples. 



In a letter to the Doiiiiiiicd Gudrdian, the 

 Administrator, Mr. H. Hesketh Bell gives an interest- 

 ing account of the result of trial shipments of pine- 

 apples made to the London market. .Several crates of 

 large ' Maijjuri' pines (originally obtained from British 

 Guiana) shipped in April realized onl}- 9il. each. On 

 the other hand, ten crates of' Bull-head' (.Jamaica) and 

 ' La Brea' (Trinidad) pines, shijiped in -May s :)!d, twen- 

 ty-nine at 2s-. each ar.d eighteen at 2.s'. 3(/. eai-h. The 

 Jlaipuri pines again sold b.iilly only fetching l.s. apiece. 

 The whole consignment after all expenses had been 

 paid averaged 11'/. apiece. Mr. Bell concludes:' the 

 results of the several trial shipments that I have made 

 from Dominica during the past two years conclusively 

 prove, I think, that very large profits may reasonably 

 be expected from the cultivation of pine-aj)ples in 

 Dominica, and it is hoped that land owners here will 

 turn their attention seriously t(j this minor product.' 



Sugar-cane Exparlments in Barbados. 



A special Planter.s' meeting was held on Friday 

 the 12th. inst., under the aiispices of the Barbados 

 Agricultural Society to hear the sunniiary of the results 

 obtained from the exp;'rim -nts with seedling and other 

 canes during the past season by the Imjierial IX'part- 

 ment of Agriculture. Mr. J. R. Bovell, F.L.S., F.CS.. 

 the Agricultural Superintendent of Sugar-cam^ Experi- 

 ments stated that Barbados Seedling B. 208 was 

 the best all-round cane on the result of this year's 

 experiments. White Transparent maintained its repu- 

 tation as a good all-round cane, but B. l-i7 w;is 

 less .satisfactory in the average quality of its juice, 

 although its actual yield of sugar was very high. 



Mr. Bovell announced that next year it is proposed 

 to extend the cultivation of one or two of the best 

 seedlingrs, together with White Transparent ;us a 

 .standard, to duplicate i)lots of one acre each in extent;. 

 By this means it is hoped to obtain results, under 

 estate conditions, whic;h should form a valuable comple- 

 ment to those obtaineil from the small area jtlots. 



B. 147 in British Guiana. 



According to Prof Hai-rison Seedling Cane B. 147 

 is making itself a reputation f )r ratooning in British 

 Guiana. Otherwise it is not much in favour. 



