40 



THE AGRICULTUBAL NEWS. 



Febkuary 0, 1918. 



Ms 



EDITORIAL [Xl ' 



NOTICES. 



Head Office ^'^^^'^ ~ Barbados. 



Letters and matter for publication, as well as all 

 specimens tor naming, should be addressed to the 

 Commissioner, Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



All .applicalions for copies of 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 Commissioner of Sir Francis Watts, K.C.M.G., 



Agriculture for the West Indies D.Sc, F.I.C., F.C.S. 



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



Seieutific Assistant and f W. R. Dunlop.* 



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



„ , . ( H. A. Ballon, M.Sc.t 



Sntomologisis |j q Hutson, B.A., Ph.D. 



MycologUt W. Nowell, D.I.C. 



Assistant for Cotton Research S. C. Harland, B.Sc.tt 



CLERICAL STAFF. 



A. G. Howell. 



Oiief Clerk 

 (Aerical Assistants 



Typist 



Assistant Typist 

 Assistant for Publi^:aiiotis 



(h. A. Corbin. 

 J P. Taylor.* 



[k. R. C. Foster. 

 Miss B. Robinson. 

 Miss W. Ellis. 

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



Pollination of Ooco nut Flowers. 



According to a paper on coco-nut experiments, 

 contributed to the Agrotiltural Bulletin of the 

 Federated Malay States, July lUlT, by (J. E. Coombs, 

 Economic Botanist, and W. S. Cookson, Manager of 

 Dindings Estates, the average loss in a year's crop of 

 four to four-and-a half-year-old palms, which is due to 

 undeveloped nuts falling otif, is from 50 to (JO per cent. 

 The authors place such losses in the following 

 categories: — 



(a) Nuts which are unpollinated, and therefore 

 unfertilized; 



(b) Nuts which are pollinated, but in which 

 fertilization does not take place; 



(c) Nuts whjch are pollinated and fertilized, but 

 which are thrown off from physiological causes, because 

 of the trees' inabilit}" to carry theiii. Nutrition factors, 

 water-supply in particular, here play an important 

 part, and may possibly largely determine periodicity in 

 crop production. 



The probabiluy is that the overwhelming majority 

 of these falling nuts are those under category (a), in 

 which pollination is never effected. 



The coco-nut flower is pollinated l)0th by insects 

 and by wind. As an insect flower, however, it falls 

 short of the general attractive mechanisms of scent, 

 colour, and amount of nectar produced. As a wind 

 flower, it lacks the generally present pendulous stamens, 

 the much expanded stigma, and other characters, though 

 it produces a quantity of smooth pollen. Some experi- 

 ments on hand pollination are Ijeing naw conducted in 

 Ceylon, with a view to finding out whether the number 

 of falling nuts can be thus reduced. 



*StC(jndtd for Miliinnj Service, 

 f Seconded for Duly ia E(j>ipt. 

 HProvided hij the Imperial Deparlmeul of Scienliji': and 

 Industrial Ilesearch. 



^ijricutlural ITinuJi 



Vol. XVII. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1918. No. 412. 



c~~ ' 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents ol Present Issue. 



The editorial in this issue deals w th the value of 

 farmyard and other manure.s, especially when used in 

 combination. 



Under Insect Notes, .m page 4.2, will be found an 

 account of the sweet potato root weevil, a closely 

 related pest to the scarabce of these islands. 



A fnngus disease afltctir.g many species of trees is 

 the subject of a note under Plant Diseases, on page 4t). 



An article on page -iH draws attention to the 

 possible utilization of the waste products in the manu- 

 facture of cane sugar. 



Machines for the Treatment of Cotton Seed 

 against Pink Boll 'Worni. 



In Bidletiii No. I ', o'i the Technical and Scientific 

 Series of the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. (!. 

 Storey discusses the general nature and action of the 

 machines which have been proposed for the treatment 

 of cotton seed in order to kill pink boll worms therein, 

 and to render the seed safe for distribution for planting, 

 ami gem rally innocuous as regards the dissemination 

 of the pest. 



The machines which are the subject of the 

 bulletin are of two kinds, those which attempt the 

 destrtiction of the pest by means of poisonous gases, 

 and those which seek to attain this end by means of 

 heat. 



The bulletin contains an interesting discussion 

 of certain fundamental principles which must be 

 attained if the machines are to prove effective. As 

 regards machines employing poi>onous gases, it is 

 pointed out that, it is essential that these gases must 

 reach every part of the material under treatment if 

 they are t(j be ellf'Ctive. it would seem that this is not 

 so readily achitvi-d as might be expected, for even in 

 machines in which a vacuum is created, and into 

 which hydrocyanic aci<l is subsequently admitted, it 

 was fouml that this giis did not readily penetrate 



