72 



THE AGRICULTURAl. NEWS. 



March 8, 1919. 



editorial: J^fefe^ NOTICES. 



Head Office 



M _ 



Barbados. 



Letters and matter tor publication, as well as all 

 Bpecimens for naming, should be addressed to the 

 Commissioner, Imperial 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 

 page 4 of the cover. 



Imperial Commhsioner of 

 AgriciUture for the TVest Indies 



Sir Francis Watts, K.C.M.G., 

 D.ScF.I.C, F.C.S. 



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



Seienti/ic Assistant and 



Assistant Editor 

 Entomologist 

 Mycologist 

 Asiittaiit for Cottoti Research 



fW. R. Duulop.* 

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

 H. A. Ballju, M.Sc. 

 W. Nowell, D.I.C. 

 S. C. Haikna, B.Sc.t 



Clhief Clerk 



(ierical Assistants 



Typist 

 Assistant Typist 



WLBRIOAL STAFF. 



A. G. Howell. 



fL. A. Corhin. 

 P. Taylor.* 



iK. R. C. Foster. 

 Miss B. Robinson. 

 Miss W. Ellis. 



Assistant for Piibticatioim 



A. B. Price, Fell. Journ. ln.st. 



*Stconded for Militunj Service. 



^Provided by the Imperial Department of Scientific: and 

 Indimtnal Research. 



m' • 



^griculturat Jlinu!j 



Vol XVIII. SATURDAY, .MARCH 8, 1919. No. 440. 

 NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents ot Present Issue. • 



The i-'litonal continues the subject of the wurk ol 

 the fulur'' in thf' West Indifs--. especially with reganl to 

 the sugar industry. 



Under Insect Notes, on page 74, will be fouud 

 descriptions of somein.sects occurring in these i.slands, 

 which have been recently idt^ntified. 



Un page 7H hu article ou bacteria will probably W 

 of interest. 



cotton 

 pAgf' 



Tb«! question of the advisability ol allowiDt; t,v,( 

 3n plants to grow in .>ne hole ie discu.^sed on 

 7<i. 



Agricultural Experiment Station, St. Croix. 



The United States Department of Agriculture ha 

 definitely assumed control, from the beginning of this 

 year, of the Agricultural Experiment Station iin 

 St. Croix. Dr. Longfield Smith, who was for some 

 years under the Danish regime Director of Agriculture 

 in St. Croix, has now been appointed Agrononiist-in- 

 (~'harge of the station in connexion with the United 

 .States l^epartment of Agriculture. We wish him 

 continued success amid his old surroundings, under is 

 new title. . 



A Remarkable Upland Variety of Cotton. 



In the Annual Report of the Chief of the Bureau ol 

 Fiant Industry, United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, for the year ended .lune HO, 1917. there w*s a note 

 on a new variety of Upland cotton called Meade It was 

 stated that, possessing the more rapid and prolifc fruit- 

 ing habit of Upland cotton, this variety has been devel- 

 oped with lint scarcely distinguishable in texture and 

 length of fibre from that produced by the Sea Island 

 cotton of Georgia and Florida. 



The subject is also noticed in the report of !,he 

 Acting Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry for the year 

 ended .June 191s. In the report of 1917 it is stated 

 that the continued production of .Sea Island cotton in 

 (Jeorgia, and Klorida seems precarious, on account of the 

 ravages of the boll weevil. The development, however 

 of the Meade variety, the report of 191S states, may make 

 it possible to maintain the production of extra staple 

 cotton in the .South-Eastern States. The Meade cotton is 

 much earlier than the Sea Island, and has yielded ra ire 

 than twice as much in alternate planting with Sea Island 

 under weevil conditions. The fibre attains a length of 

 Ih inches or more, under favourable comlitions. The crop 

 is harvested in the same manner, and ginned with the 

 same machinery as Sea Island, so that the substitution 

 would cause no change in llie customary methodn of 

 handling Sea Island cotton cither at the ginnery or on 

 the market. The; Meade cotton was sold at Savannah on 

 thn same footing ;is .Sea Island. The percentage of liut, 

 it is true, is low because of the larger seeds, but the 

 percentage of oil is correspondingly high. Supplies of pure 

 seed arc being increased as rapidly as possible, and enough 

 was available for plmting about .500 .acres under the 

 new variety in th> .se;i.son of l!t]K. 



Sarawak Bean (Doliclios HoseiJ. 



A note in the .Ajricultaral Nfws, Vol. .\.VII, No. 417, 

 drew attention to the value of this bean as a cover crop 

 in rubber plantations. Seeds of this species were distri- 

 buted by the Imperial (.'ommissioner of Agriculture 

 lor the West Indies to the Kxpeiiment Stations in .seve- 

 ral of the West Indian island!-. Only in St. Lucia appar- 

 ently did a:i) of tfiem germinate In the report on 

 the Agricultural I >ep;irtment of that island for 1 917- 18. 

 th' Agricultural .Superinten<ient, Mr A. .1. Brooks, 

 /lotes that f>i>iirlio.* Hosri had spread vigorously 

 bittween permanenT, plots of oranges, cjrape fruit, jnan- 

 go<'s, etc. and h id made a dense ooiu^mct covering of 

 the soil ovtT large areas. 



