







A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XVIII. No. 446. 



BAKBADOS, MAY 31, 1919. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Pagb. 



Agricultural Examinations, 

 1918 175 



Agriculture in Barbados 167 

 Camplioi Cultivation in 



the Briti'sh Kmpire ...173 

 Ci>C'>-nut Induetries of 



Trinidad 163 



Cotton: — 



Cotton E.xports from 



the West Indies ... 166 

 Sea Island Cotton Mar- 

 ket 166 



Departmental Reports ... 164 

 Index to the 'Agricult jral 



News' 168 



Infusorial Earth as a 



Fertilizer 171 



Insect Notes; — 

 The Cotton Worm ... 170 



Pagb. 



... 166 



Items of Local Interest ... 

 Lime Cultivation in 



Dominica 



Limes, Green, Condition 



when Shipped 



Market Reports 



Notes and Comments ... 

 Plant Diseases: — 



Investigati' n of the 

 Froghopper Pes'; and 

 Disease of Sugar-cane 174 

 Plant Legislation in 



Grenada, Recent 



Plants Poisonous to Stock 



in Antigua 



Rainfall in St. Kitts, 



Abnormal 



Retrospection 



Sucrose Content of Canes, 



Deterioration in 



165 



169 

 176 

 168 



169 



168 



168 

 161 



169 



Retrospection. 



^'^ERHAPS one of the commonest definitions 

 of the present age is that it is an age of 

 progress. This is undoubtedly true, espe- 

 cially with regard to all matters affecting the material 

 conditions of human life in general. The amelioration 

 of these conditions is due in a large measure to the 

 progress of scientific discovery. 



In the first place, the progress that has been 

 made in all directions in mechanical devices has been 

 one of the most remarkable features of late years. The 

 diacovery of the possibilities of the employment of 

 steam power wm perhaps the greatest note of progress 



in the last century ; but the present day development 

 of internal combustion engines, and of electricity 

 in its man}' aspects, marks a still more remarkable 

 step forward. 



In the second place, as regards the application of 

 science to agriculture, the progress made in this 

 connexion in the past half century is hardly less than 

 that made also in mechanics. The possibilities of 

 production in all agricultural industries have been 

 wonderfully enlarged and organized. 



All this progress has undoubtedly led to such a 

 feeling of exhilaration and expectancy as regards the 

 future that there seems to be a general feeling of what 

 may be called impatience. Always to be hurrying 

 forward with new ideas, always to be striving to obtain 

 new results may be said to be the tendency of most 

 experimenters and investigators at present. It is true 

 that this can be considered to be, in a way, the very 

 business of such experimenter.s and investigators, buU 

 when the tendency is carried so far as to lead to the 

 opinion that a new theory is necessarily a true one, or 

 that new results obtained from some new process are, 

 because of their novelty, a great improvement on all 

 results obtained from past experience, such tendency 

 may result in hindrance to real progress. 



The most lasting progress in any direction usuallj 

 follows from a careful retrospect of results already 

 obt'^ined, and a careful comparison of these with pre- 

 sent observations. By such retrospection and com- 

 parison it would be easier to guide thought and 

 practice into valuable progressive channels for the 

 future 



