ToL. I. Xo. 11. 



THE AGllICULTURAL NEWS. 



171 



THE BERMUDA LILY DISEASE. By Albert F. 

 Woods. liulhthi Ko. IJf, Dir/'.tio/i -if Vi'r/ctith/c I'hyf.i(A(j(jy 

 ■atid Fatkulixjy, V. S. Departnunt af AijiiciiUid-e. 



Every summer large numbers of bulbs of the Bermuda 

 ■or Easter lily are raised in Bermuda and sliip[]ed to the 

 United States where they are forced during the following 

 autumn and winter. For some years a disease of contin- 

 ually increasing destructivoness lias seriously interfered with 

 the forcing process. 



The disease is characterised by the spotting and distor- 

 tion of the leaves and flowers and the stunting of the plant. 

 It is said to destroy from 20 to CO [ler cent, of the crop in 

 the United States where the liulbs are forced for early 

 flowering. It is also prevalent in Bermuda. The disease is 

 due to a combination of causes. In the first jilace the 

 bulbs have become weakened by im[)roper selection and 

 propagation when they are attacked by mites, fungi and 

 bacteria. Some damage may also be caused liy overwatcring 

 and consequent asphyxiation of tlie roots. 



The spotting ancl distortion of the foliage is due to the 

 attacks of a^ihides and the young of the bulb mite, to the 

 injection of water into the young leaves in watering or 

 syringing, and to the i)resence of water between the young 

 leaves of plants having soft foliage. 



The disease cannot be cured or even prevented by 

 adopting any single course of treatment. It is suggested 

 that great care sliould be taken to imiiro\o the stock and 

 only strong and \igorous plants sliould Ijc used for propaga- 

 tion. Crop rotation might l)e practised in order to prevent 

 the increase of mites and injurious fungi. Tlie bulb should 

 not be raised till ijuite ripe and care e.xercised during forcing 

 in planting, watering and fertilizing. 



THE Q UEEXSLA XD A dlUCUL TUllA L JO IJRXAL 

 Vol. X, Fail 0, Jiiiw lOO.i. 



Situated partly in the tropics and possessing a suil and 

 <-limate suitable for products such as sugar, cotl'ee, bananas 

 etc., and possessing a market in the Commonwealth of 

 Australia for any tropical produce that may lie raised, the 

 agricultural development of (Queensland is naturally of 

 interest to all connected with agriculture in the West Indies. 



In the i)resent number of the Queensland A'jricu/tural 

 ■Journal is to be found an interesting account of some 

 irrigation experiments with sugar-cane carried out at 

 Bundaberg under the direction of Dr. Maxwell, the well- 

 known scientific adviser of the sugar [ilanters of the Colon}'. 

 The effect of the water applied to the land under canes is 

 very evident and large cro}is are anticipated. So far, however, 

 the crop has not been reaped so that the yield of sugar per 

 acre is not known. The results, when published, cannot fail 

 to be interesting. 



A second interesting article is that on the agriculture of 

 the northern or tropical part of the Colony by the editor. It 

 would appear that the coffee industry is likely to succeed 

 .and that rice growing pays. 



DEPARTMENT NEWS. 



Mr. Harold iMuxwoll-Lefr.iy. M.A., F.E.S.. F.Z.S., 

 Eiitoiiiulogist on tho .staff of the imperial Drpartnieiit of 

 Agricultinv in the West Indies lia.s returned from 

 leave and resumed the duties of lii.s appointment from 

 the thirtieth of August, last. 



A iiamplilet (No. 17 of the Department series) i.s 

 in liand giving simple and jiractical hints as to the 

 Treatment of Fungoid pests on cultivated plants in the 

 West Indies. 



The Report on the E3ononiic Experiments carrietl 

 out in connexion with the Botanic Station, Antigua, 

 has just bsen is.sued. These experiments arc directed 

 mainly towards the improvement of existing local food 

 stuffs and the introduction of new crops, and should 

 have an important influence on the future welfare of 

 the island. 



THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 



Mr. E. Kay Robinson in tlie course of a pleasant; 

 article on this subjc^ct in Tite C'nantri/ for March 

 says : — 



Anyone win is familiar with jioultry unconsciously 

 learns to distinguish and understand their language. First 

 there is the 'cheep' of the chicken. Ordinarily this is 

 pitched in a comfortable conversational key, and so long as 

 you hear it at intervals you know that everything is going oii 

 all right with the brood ; but when it is loudly and rapidly 

 repeated you go out to see what is frigliteiiing the chicken.s, 

 and a very loud and insistently prolonged cheeping tells you 

 that one or more of the chickens has 'got lost.' 



But the cheeping of the chicks is not the only sounJ 

 v.hich comes from the fowl-run. From the clucking of the 

 old hen you can tell when .she is merely keciiing her family 

 round her while she looks for food, when she has founil 

 something good, when .she espies danger, when .she summons 

 her chicks to shelter, when she misses them, and when she is 

 attemiiting to terrify an enemy in their behalf. Then there 

 is the hen with no family as yet ; you can hear her communi- 

 cative 'cluck' on discovering an unexplored yard, by which 

 she invites the company generally to come and give her their- 

 opinions, the reassuring cluck with which she leads them 

 past the gate, the warning note .she utters when something 

 moves in the straw, and the squawk of terror with which she 

 rushes from the place on discovering that it is a boy. If it; 

 is some lesser evil, she will stand aloof uttering raucous cries 

 from her stretched neck, and all the poultry-yard will join in 

 the chorus. At such times, you are liaVile to be deceived 

 into thinking that .she has laid an egg, for it is one of the 

 peculiarities of fowl language that the same phra.ses seem to 

 be employed to announce a new laid egg in the nest-box ancl 

 a cat in the straw-yard. But I think tliat the clamour of a 

 hen who has laid an egg is really a device to distract atten- 

 tion from it. To the cat in the straw-yard she shouts 'I see 

 you' I like a woman who, from the doorway, suspects a 

 burglar's boots mider her bed ; and so, after leaving li&i- egg 

 in the nest, she comes out and shouts 'I see you'! because 

 the race has found by experience that this is a good way of 

 distracting the attention of lurking enemies, from the egg 

 which cannot fiy to the hen which can. 



