214 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



OCTOBEK 25, K)02. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



Letters iiiiil matter for iiuWicatidii, as well as all 

 speciiiicii,s for naming should Iju addressed to the Commis- 

 sioner, Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



It is jiartieularly re(juestecl that no letters he addressed 

 to any member of the staff hy name Such a eourse may 

 entail delay. 



Communieations shoidil always he written on one side 

 of the iiai)cr only. It .should be understood that no eontri- 

 butions or speeimens will, in any ca.se, be returned. 



All application for copies of the 'Agricultural 

 News' should be addressed to the Agents, and 



not to the Department. A eomiilete list »i tlie Lonchm 

 and Loeal agents will bo found on jiage 22.'i of this 

 nundjer. 



Correspondents sending newspaper-s should be careful to 

 mark the paragraphs they wish to bring under notice. 



gijgricuttiiral Dimuh 



Vol. I. .SATURDAY, OCTORER 2-5, 1902. N... 11. 



frequently stated in Loiii.siaiia that a |Humil ot iiiula.ss- 

 <'s has about as much value ibr stoek feeding as a 

 piruiid of oats or ot corn, still our sugar planters will 

 por.sist in selling their molasses and buying oats and 

 corn tVoin the western states.' 



Manuring Oranges amongst Bananas. 



Recent ixpcriments at the Dominica Botanic 

 Station, touching the ap]ilication of manures to orange 

 trees, indicate that where bananas are growing inter- 

 mixed with orange plants, the application of special 

 manures to the latter is usele.s.s. The banana being a 

 fast, gloss feeder dej)rives a slow-growing plant like 

 the orange of much of the plant food intended for it. 



Housing Poultry. 



The ])lan suggested by Mr. Ilarclay on page 218 



of this number for keeping poultry in a comj)aratively 

 small enclosed s])ace and yet securing them a succession 



of fresh runs is worth consideration, especially by 



jioultry keepers in towns. Foi- further notes on the 

 same subject see page 42. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Improvement of Cacao by Selection. 



' A striking feature oi cacao cidtivation, in deal- 

 ing with fields containing different varieties is that 

 certain kinds of cacao usually bear well, while other 

 trees exist which year after year bear little or nothir.g. 

 This shows the importance of selecting jjods for seed, 

 only from prolific strains. This has been don<' largely 

 in Dominica for the past nine years. All the ]ilants 

 and pods are carefully selected, and in (piality and 

 bearing powers Dominica cacao should show a great 

 improvement in the future.' 



These remarks, by Mr. J. Jones, Curator of the 

 Botanic Station, Dominica, are the outcome of several 

 years attention to this question, and are wcnth the 

 careful notice of cacao planters in the West Indies. 



Molasses as Stock Food. 



We have tioni time to time, pointi'd out in these 

 columns the value of molasses for feeding stock (.sec 

 pj). ()(), lO.S, 124'). Siune West Indian j)lanters and 

 others have substituted molasses for corn or oats with 

 entirely satisfactory results. In America the planter.s 

 would a])])ear to be slow to take advantage of the good, 

 eheaj) food to han<l, but ])ersist, as the majority do in 

 the West Indies, in ex])orting their molasses at a low 

 rate and buying in t'xchang^; dear corn and oats. In 

 <liscu.ssing the (piestion the Louitfiand Plunter says: — 

 ' The .sugar world, at least the United States part of 

 it, is slow to appreciate the great value of molasses for 

 stock feeding. While it lias been definitely and 



Nature Study. 



Reference was made in a ju'i'x ions number of this 

 journal (j). 5.5) to the Nature Study Exhibition propos- 

 ed to be held in Royal Botanic (Jardeiis in Lorulon. 

 The Tiiiu's (h'clares that this was a visible and practi- 

 cal answer to complaints that much of the education 

 in rural .schools in England (as we have found it in 

 the West Indies) is unsuited to the circumstances 

 and surroundings of the children liy rea.son of its 

 bciokish and impractical character, and that it tiiils to 

 stimulate intelligent interest in the facts of nature and 

 the conditions of agricultural life. Some of these 

 complaints, it is stated, are founded, or have in the 

 past bi'cii founded, on fact .uid eliservation, otheis on 

 liiejudice. In any case theie has been, it is claimed, 

 sutiieieiit grounds for the imputation against the educa- 

 tion usually given in country schools to justifv a new 

 departure by which the training of children in rural 

 districts may be brought into closer relation w ith runii 

 life and occupations. 'The education of the country 

 chilli', il is claimed, ' should be as the philosophers ,sa3% 

 ill harmony with his environment, and one id)\ious 

 means to this end is the eiicouragmeiit <if intelligent 

 interest in the facts of nature around him, in the 

 formation and character of the soil, the methods of 

 agriculture and horticulture, the life of plants, animals 

 and all living things with which he come.s in contact; 

 last but not least, the formation of habits of observa- 

 tion.' This, Till' T'uiii'ft understands, is the ol)ject of 

 the ' Nature Study ' movement in education ; to i-evive 

 and if possible systemati/e the cultivation of interest 

 in nature and natural objects, which there is rea.son to 

 think has been somewhat crowded out or negleeteil by 

 the presence of a too literary curriculum. 



