A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



or THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XVIII. No. 449. 



BAKBADOS JULY 12, 1919. 



PUOK Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Paoi 



Paoi. 



A<{riculture in Barbados 212 

 Avocado, Another Species 



of 219 



Ooco-nufe Fibre Factories 214 

 Cotton Seed By-products 214 

 F»rm--S:hoolfi in Cuba ... 219 

 9tmi Production, War- 

 time, in St. Lucia ... 313 

 Fo«d Requirements of 



Man 216 



Foods, Value of certain 216 



Gleanings 220 



Orenada, Agricultural 



Inftruction in 223 



Insect Notes : — 

 Sugarcane and Hard- 

 back Grubs in An- 

 tigua 218 



Items of Local Interest 212 

 lAnd Settlement for 

 Demobilized Officers in 

 khe West Indies ... 209 



Liming of S..ils. The ... 217 



Market Reports 224 



Montserrat, Agricultural 



Outlook in 



Notes and Comments ... 

 Oranges, Shedding of ... 

 Plant Diseases: — 



Investigati^^n of the 



Froghopper Pest and 



Disease of Sugar-cane 222 

 Rice, West Indian 

 Settlers, Assisted, in South 



Africa 



Sugar Industry : — 



Palm Sugar Production 



in Madras 



Sugar Cultivation in 



Germany 2U 



Vitamines 212 



Water-cress 216 



Water Power 217 



West Indian Products ... 223 



221 

 216 

 21S 



217 

 210 



211 



Land Settlement for Demobilized 

 Officers in the West Indies. 



,HERE is a large number of young 

 British officers with moderate amounts 

 of capital who would gladly take up 

 tropical planting if facilities were available to help 

 them. Many of these men have little or no knowl- 

 edge of agriculture, just as they had little or no 

 knowledge of warfare before they went to the front. 

 Most of them were in business of some kind, generally 

 of a kind that fails to be attractive after long and 

 hard military service. Are there any prospects for 

 these people in the West Indies ^ 



Their scanty qualifications for agricultural work is 

 to some extent a handicap. But there is one important 

 fact to bear in mind : the war has taught them resource 

 and adaptability. Moreover, we are not discussing 

 agricultural work in England. We are talking abou* 

 tropical planting, whish, as everyone knows, is much 

 .simpler than farming in England Dr America. Any 

 man with business acumen and some knowledge of 

 local conditions can soon learn to manage a Wesb 

 Indian estate, particularly cacao, limes or coco-nuts. 

 The difficulty of inexperience, moreover, is consider- 

 ably lessened by the expert advice that is available 

 from agricultural officers in these islands. In fact 

 learning the work of an estate is only a minor matter 

 compared with other things. 



The intending planter must have capital. The 

 majority of those who are keenest have only moderate 

 amounts at their disposal — amounts ludicrously 

 small when we consider the present day value of 

 sugar and some other kinds of estates in the Wesb 

 Indies. But there is no reason why, in certain places, 

 s young man with £500 to £1,000 should not begin 

 planting, on a small scale, certain permanent crope 

 like limes, coco-nuts or cacao, if he can support him- 

 self for the first three or four years without drawing 

 for this purpose on his capital. 



One way of doing this is to obtain a position of 

 some kind or other on an estate, or in a business 

 house, and to be content with a small salary, provided 

 some facility is given for finding suitable land, and 

 superintending in a general way its clearance and 

 planting. The knowledge of local business methods 

 obtained in this way would be most valuable 



A position of that kind, however, is not easy 

 to obtain, especially by a stranger. The other 



