Vol. IVIII. No. 447. 



THE AGRICULTUE.y:j NEWS. 



lf<T 



confirmed bj noting the - f ihe centre in relation to 



such winds as SSW, o- - in which the term south 



occurs. 



On the other hand, the daiigLr'jU3''position is indicated 

 by those winds which involve the u^e of the term north, as 

 may be seen by notin<» what is implied by such winds as 

 NNE, or N, orNE. 



The first indication of an approaching storm is frequently 

 a heavy swell, breaking in heavy surf along the shore; these 

 •wav.s come from the direction of the centre of the approaching 

 storra. They may be noticed many hoars, sometimes a day 

 or two, before the storm passes 



The next indication is usually some disturbance and 

 unusual movement amongst the higher clouds, coupled with 

 unusual light, often a coppery glare, at sunrise or sunset, 

 particularly the latter; the wind is then unusually irregular 

 and puffy, and the a'mosphere moist and oppressive. The 

 next indicuion is a fall in the barometer, and 'hen the 

 observer may feel certain that a cyclone is in existence. 



It is worth noting that cyclones may, and do, exist, in 

 which the wind is rotating with only moderate velocity; they 

 prese'.t all the characters here referred to, save that not 

 having violent winds they do not damage; it is only when the 

 wind blows violently that a cyclone becomes a hurricane. 



These facts are readily grasped and appreciated ; 

 a knowledge of them is of great service to West Indians, 

 enabling them to take such precautions as are possible to 

 protect "themsehes and tbeir property from approaching 

 storms, and relieving their minds of great anxiety when they 

 are able to recognize that a tlirpatened storm has passed. 



HEALTH WEEK IN BRITISH GUIANA. 



A movement towards an awakening of the public 

 conscience to the serious wastage in human life arising from 

 causes within human control has led in British Guiana to 

 what is called the 'health week' campaign, which was opened 

 on Alay 17, and was to last until May 24. The Demerara 

 Daily Argosy. Mail Edition, May 24, 1919, gi^es an interest- 

 ing account erf the movement which has been organized by the 

 British Guiana Health Council under the patronage of His 

 Excellency the Otlicer Administering the Government. The 

 object of the movement is to bring before the people of the 

 Colony facts relating to public health and ihe diseases 

 which prevail in the Colony, and to impress upon them the 

 need of making every endeavour to improve the conditions 

 under which they live. ., ■ • 



In connexion with the campaign there was an exhibition 

 in the Town Hall, the object being to demonstrate the great 

 amount of injury done to the health of persons by preventable 

 diseases, and the means employed to suppress those diseases 

 altogether or reduce them to a negligible quantity. 



The idea is to get the public interested, and so several 

 expedients are being used to concentrate attention for the 

 week on the question of public health, with an emphasis 

 calculated to inspire a popular response, and ti result in 

 permanent work for the reduction of local diseases and for 

 improvement in conditions affecting the welfare of the people 



of the colony. 



The exhibition itself, which w.is to be opened daily from 

 8 a m. to 6 p.m., was deserving of a great deal of attention, 

 and the various stalls, artistically arranged, contained a large 

 assortment of exhibits with respt-ct to filanasis. malaria, 

 ankylostomiasis, dysentery, etc., while there were numerous 

 pathological specim-ns showing the effects of malaria, 

 lilariasis, tuberculosis, etc on the organs of the human 



body, along with phr>tographs of the bacteria concerned 

 in the ravages of those diseases In the exhibitioa 

 there was also a large collection of attractive and 

 artistic posters specially prepared for the uccasiion. The 

 posters were, some of them, hand-painted, others were 

 printed with striking phr.ises of advice in large type. • The 

 posters dealt with contagious diseases such as typhoid and 

 malaria; general health: Hies, germs and their growth both 

 inside and outside the body ; clothing ; food ; and 

 infant care and management. .4 .special stall was set apart 

 for literature on various health subjects. 



THE MANATEE AS A POOD ANIMAL IN" 

 FRENCH WEST AFRICA. 



In the Ai^rici//tu/a/ News, April 20, 1918, an article 

 appeared drawing attention to the record in \)a& Journal of ' 

 Heredity of experiments made by Dr. Belle on rearing the 

 American manatee in confinement in the lagoons of Florida as 

 a valuable and economic source of butcher's meat. 



Keference to the 'Cambridge Natural History', Vol.'X. 

 Mammalia, pp. 339, and 459, .shows that the writer of 

 the article in the Journa/ of Heredity made a mistake 

 as to the scientific generic name of this animal. Instead of 

 Trichechus it shoald be .Manatus. Triohechus is really 

 the scientific name of the walrus, a carnivorous marine 

 mammal which inhabits the Arctic Ocean, The manatee 

 (Manatus) is a herbivorous mammal living in the fre.sh. 

 waters along the Atlantic coast of .America and Africa. 



The African species or Senegal manatee (Manatus Sene- 

 ga/ensis) inhabits all the estuaries and lagoons from the 

 mouth of the Senegal up to the river Cuenze in Angola, and 

 often goes considerable distances up the rivers. It occurs on 

 all the coasts of Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Cameroons, ia 

 the Congo, and even in Lake Tchad. It is very little differ- 

 ent from the American manatee (.1/ latii-ost/ is), and its habits 

 seem to be identical, though no specimens have been reported 

 quite as large as those in America. Its food-plants are not 

 sufficiently accurately known, but as the water weed 

 Cvmodocea nodosa occurs plentifully in the lagoons and 

 estuaries where it dwells, it is likely, seeing that the Ameri- 

 oan species feeds on C. manatorum, that the African species 

 finds its food on the related plant. 



A note in the Monthly Bulletin of Agricultural Intelli- 

 gence and Plant Diseases, December 1918, draws attentioa 

 to the possibility of rearing this African species also as a food 

 animal in French West Africa, seeing that in captivity it 

 freely eats vegetables, such as lettuce, cabbage, spinach, and 

 even baked apples and bread. 



The .'Vfrican manatee is said to measure from 10 to 20 feet 

 in length, and to vary in weight from GGO to 1,(5-50 tti. for old 

 males. The manatees are monogamous; the period of 

 gestation lasts eight months, and the young are born in 

 shallow lagoons. The family consists usually of four 

 individuals; the adult pair, one half-grown calf, and a young 

 one which is usually born in the autumn. 



The African manatee, it is said, can easily be reared 

 by confining it to the lagoons of the coast, and is it likely that 

 the Governments of the various West African colonies will 

 devote some attention to this subject, as the meat is regarded 

 as not only nutritious, but very palatable. It would be 

 quite easy to fix on lagoons on the coast where the confine- 

 ment of the animals would be possible without too great an 

 expenditure either for starting sucU aqueous pens or foe 

 keeping them up. 



