A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



()!■' THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. I. No. 18. 



BARBADOS, DECEMBER 20, 1902. 



Price Id. 



OONTHNTS. 



Page. 



Barbadiis, Minm- Indus- 

 tries at 277 



Bee-keeping : — 



Uses (if Hiiney 281 



Britisli Honduras : — 

 Agricultural Resources 

 of 270 



Cotton in the West Indies 273 



Department News 283 



Dejiartnient Publications 287 

 Dominica, Vanilla at ... 270 



Educational : — 



Barbados, Lectures to 



teachers at 283 



Montsen-at, Lectures to 



teachers at 285 



School Gardens 285 



Garden Notes : — 



Grafting or Budding 



Tape 280 



Gleanings 284 



Herbarium, Value of ... 283 



Pao 



Indian Com, Compci.sitinn 



of 



Insect Notes : — 



Orange Bark Weevil ... 



280 

 280 



278 



Market Reports 



Notes and Comments 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



Physical Geogi'ai>hy ... 283 



The Universe 283 



Poultry 282 



St. Lucia, Agricultural 



Notes 275 



Screw Pines 281 



Sugar Industry : — 



Prussian Beet Sugar 



Factoi-y 274 



West Indian Sugar in 



Canada 274 



Volcanic Dust, Analysis 



of 280 



West Indian Products ... 275 

 Yara(|Ue, a Proiluct of 



Cas.sava 270 



Cotton in the West Indies. 



N the West Indies, as in Africa and else- 

 where, considerable interest is beins; taken 

 at the present time in cotton, and efforts 

 are being made, or are soon likel}- to be made, to 

 extend its cnltivation. The establishment of a cotton 

 industry in these Colonies does not mean the introduc- 



tion of an entirely new plant, with all the accompanying 

 doubts as to its suitability to West Indian circum- 

 stances. Cotton may yet be called a West Indian 

 industry, albeit shrunken to such small proportions 

 that it exists on a commercial scale only in the 

 little island of Carriacou. 



Cotton has long been identified with the West 

 Indies and at one time these Colonies supplied over 

 70 per cent, of the cotton u.sed in Great Britain. The 

 older books on the West Indies contain numerous 

 references to the cotton plant and its cultivation. 

 According to Sir Hans Sloane, ' it appears that it 

 was found manufactured for cloathing by the Indians, 

 when Columbus first discovered the West Indies.' 

 (Hidiirji of ./(imiiiva. Vol. II, jx 71). Ligon in his 

 Hi^fiii-y of BiirlxuloK, published in 1G57, notes that on 

 one estate of 500 acres in the island only 200 acres 

 were cultivated in sugar, and the remainder devoted to 

 wood, pasture, provisions, tobacco, together with ' five 

 acres for ginger and as many for cotton wool.' 



In Jamaica, cotton was an imiwrtant pi;int early 

 in the Eighteenth Century and, to quote Sir Hans 

 Sloane again, ' cotton is one of the wealthy West 

 Indian commidities.' He also records that it was to be 

 found in St. Lucia and Guiana. In Trinidad too 

 cotton was grown. ' A few individuals made their 

 fortunes b}' its growth and exportation. This cultiva- 

 tion, however, was afterwards abandoned for the more 

 lucrative production of sugar.' (De Yerteuil's Trinidad, 

 p. 252). 



