40 



THE AQKICULTTJRAL NEWS. 



Kkp.ri'ahy S, 191^. 



editorial: 



Heap Office 



NOTICES. 



— Barbados. 



Letters and matter ior publication, as well as all 



S;ecitnens ior naming, should be addressed to the 

 ommissiouer, Impeiial Department of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



All applications for copies oi the 'Agricultural 



News' and other Departmental publications, should be 



addressed to the Agents, and not to the Department. 



The complete list of Agents will be found on 



|)agc 4 of the cover. 



Imjierial Conimissi&tier of Sir Francis Watts. K.C.M.G., 



Agrifulinre for the. Vest Indies D.Sc, 'F.I.C., F.C.S, 



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



ScidUiiir AssislayU anct 



AssitiaiU Ediiif' 

 Xntomologisi 

 Uycologisr 

 Assi'^taxt fur C'/tron Jit^stdt'cft 



/W. R. Dunlop.* 

 (Rev. C. H. Branch, B.A. 

 I£. A. Ballou, M.Sc. 

 W. Nowell. D.I.C. 

 S. C. Hailai.tl, J'..Sc.t 



ChUf CUfh 

 OUrical Aaaiitunti 



OLEEICAL STAFF, 



A. O. HoweU. 

 fli. A. Corbin. 



Typid 

 Jittittant Typist 



At$i>taiit for Pnblicatioiis 



1 P. Taylor.* 

 (K. R. C. Fostei-. 

 Miss B. Robin.s<m. 

 Miss W. EUis. 



A. B. Price, Fell. Joum. Inst. 



Camphor Trees in the West Indies— A Correc- 

 tion 



In the AgriculUn-al New-", December "iiS. 1!>1-S, it 

 \V!i.- stated that 'so tar as is known at present no cam- 

 phor tree growing in the West Indies produces any- 

 thing hut oil. This ' was a mistake, as Mr. A. E. 

 Collens, the Government Chemist of the Leewani^ 

 Islands, has pointed out. 



He refers to results obtained from tree.s growing in 

 Jamaica, recorded in the Jourvnl <</ Olumical Indus- 

 try. 1912, which showed that camphor was obtaine<J 

 there from both green and dried leaves, twigs, and wood. 



In Trinidad also, distillations made at the Govern- 

 ment Laboratory from the produce of trees growing in 

 the island, and reported on by Mr. J. H. Hart in 

 October 190t!, gave camphor from dried leaves and 

 twigs. 



Mr. C'ollens himself, as r)ftieer-inCharge of Special 

 Investigations, Department of Agriculture. Trinidad, 

 in 191(i undertook an investigation at the request of 

 the rUrector of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Kew, on 

 the yield of camphor and oil from the pmnings of cam- 

 phor trees at the Experiment Stations of St. T'lair and 

 Valsayn, and at the Royal Hotanio Gardens at Trinidad. 

 He obtained yields of from 12 to 1 o percent, camphor, 

 and Oi to Oo per cent, oil from fresh green lea»'es. and 

 2"9 per cent, camiihorfrom air-dried leaves a week oM.. 



One tree iri the Royal Botanic Gardens was tbuiid 

 to yield oil only. A field examination of this tree 

 showed several differences from the ciniphor-producing 

 type: the stem and petioles were reddish and the leaves 

 ovate. On being crushejj, the leaves of this tree yielded 

 a turpentine like odour, somewh^it similar to that of 

 mango leaves 



*Se.condi't for Military Sn vice. 



tProvifleii by the Imprrial De.parVmetit of l^cientifi': aud 

 JjKiustnal i?esea)c/i. 



v: 



Agricultural llciufi 



Toi. X'VIII. SATUUDAY, FEHKUAKY H. 1919. No. 438. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial draws attention to various actions of 

 TnouUlK in the soil, and the influence they may be. sup- 

 poaed to e.vert on soil fertility. 



The fir.st part <>f a report by the Kntomologist on 

 iiif>s< I iii 10 control' in one of lhe.se islands will be fouml 

 under Ina.ct Noteri on page +2. 



.\ij interesting note on the subject of the so-calie<f 

 'root disca.'»e of coco-nuts appears under I'lant Diseases 

 tin page 4'' 



An Experiment in Yam Cultivation 



In the cnitnation of vaiiis in the smaller West 

 Indian islands, the practice of allowing the vines to run 

 along the ground is usually followed, no stakes or sup- 

 ports being proviiled. It has. however, been considered 

 that the crop would be benefited if such .supports were 

 siip]>lied to the plants. Mr. W. Hobson, the Curator of 

 the fiotanic Station, Montserrat, has recently carried 

 out an experiment with regard to this question, and the 

 results obtained by him for the one yeai's crop are- 

 very striking. 



Twelve rows of yams, each 11h feet in leijgth. of six 

 diflerent varieties of yams in duplicate, were planted 

 in .Vpril lOlS. i'en manure was applied to the whole 

 plot which was prepared by making banks 4 feet 

 apart, and the yams planted on the banks, at a distance 

 of ;i feet apart. Si,\ rows, one of each variety, had stakes 

 j)iac(!d as supports for the vines; in the other six, the 

 vines were allowed to run over the ground. 



Tiie crop wa.s rq^iped in January Iftllt, with the 

 result that in eveiy case the slaked plants gave a much 

 larger yield than the . unslaked plants of the same 

 variety The average yield of the si.\ slaked rows was 

 calculated at l9,2(lotb. per acre, while that of the un- 

 stated rows vas only 10,71 tilt.. This gam of the staked; 

 as compared with the unslaked plants w.is thus 79 per 



