72 



THE AGRICULTDKAL NEWS. 



MAiiCii 9, 1918. 



EDITORIAL j^ 



Head Office 



\>^ NOTICES. 



— Barbados. 



Letters and matter for publication, as well as all 

 specimens for naming, should be addressed to the 

 Commissioner, Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



All .ipplications 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 Westlndies D.Sc, F.I.C., F.C.S. 



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



Rainfall in Dominica in 1917. 



Copies of rainfall returns of 1 'ouiinica tor 1917 

 have been forwarded to this Office by Mr. Joseph Jones, 

 the Curator of the Botanic (iardens. From these io 

 appears that the mean rainfall for thirt}' stations wsis 

 IIO08 inches — for thirteen Leeward Coast stations, 

 JSSiiT inches; for three Windward Coast stations, 123'90 

 inches; for eight Inland stations. 149'80 inches; for six 

 Lasoye stations, 994y inches. The highest total 

 recorded was 19950 inches at Corlet, an inland station; 

 and the lowest, .5()'92 inches at Batalie on the leeward 

 coast. Compared with the rainfall of the two previous 

 years, that of 1917 is considerably lower than the 

 average. In 191(i the mean for thirty-three stations was 

 125'70; and in 191.5. for thirty-four stations, 137 11. 



Seittdific Assistant and 

 Assistant Editor 



Entomologists 



Mycologist 



AssiUaut for Cotton Research 



fW. R. Dunlop.* 



I Rev. C. H Brancli, B.A. 



J H. A. Ballau, M.Sc.t 



I, J. C. Hutson, B.A., Ph.D. 



W. Xowell, D.I.C. 



S. C. Hailan.l, B.Sc.tt 



Chief Clerk 

 Clerical Assistants 



CLERICAL STAFF. 



A. G. Howell. 



fL. A. CorVjin. 



- P. Taylor.* 



iK. R. C. Foster. 

 Typist Miss B. Robinson. 



Assistant Typist Miss W. Ellis. 



Assistant for Publications A. B. Price, Fell. Journ. Inst. 



*Secondfd for Militarn Service. 

 fSecoiided for Duty in Eyijpt. 



tt Pro tided by the Imperial Deparimeul of Scientiji'- and 

 Industrial Research. 



Agricultural |Tinufi 



Vol. XVII. SATURDAY, MA i;CH 9, 191S. Xo. 414. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents ol Present Issue. 



The editorial draws attention to the work of the 

 University of the I'hilippines, especially in relation to 

 Tropical Agriculture. 



The value of (jua-ssia extract as an insecticide is 

 discussed under Insect Notes on page 74. 



TTnder I'lant Di.seasos on page 7.S, will be found 

 an account of the control of cacao canker in Java, and 

 some notes on plant diHrases in Barbados. 



The article on food in the West Indies is con- 

 cluded on page 08. 



Progress in Combating Hookworm and 

 Malaria. 



According to a note iniSicu'?ice, November 80, 1917, 

 the annual report of the Rockefeller Foundation states 

 that during the year 1910, in co-operation with the Gov- 

 ernments of the respective coumrit.'S, systematic efforts 

 towards control of hookworm have now been inaugurated 

 in eight of the Southern United .States and in the 

 fifteen foreign countries situated in the tropical and 

 subtropical belt between the degrees of latitude 30 

 North and -SO South, which is tht; native habitat of the 

 hookworm. During the year repoited on, prelimin- 

 ar)' infection surveys were made in British Honduras 

 and in Barbados. Active measures to control and 

 p.'event hookworm disease are now in operation in 

 Antigua, Grenada. St. Lucia, St. Vincent, an<l Trinidad, 

 of the West Indies, and also in Biitish Guiana. 



The Board conducted during the year a series 

 of experiments in malaria control. The object of 

 these experiments was to determine the degrees to 

 which malaria could be controlled within the limits of 

 reasonable expcndiluie, and under conditions pre\ailing 

 in typical farm commimities of the south, (iralilying 

 results have b<'en obtained. 



An experiment is being conducted as to the 

 practicability of malaria control by detecting the 

 human carriers, and freeing them of the malaria 

 paiasites. Coininunities with an avt-rage population of 

 a thousand were dealt with onr after anotivr. the work 

 in each lasting about four weeks, with sukseipient 

 visits to insure thoroughness. In these the blood of 

 indi\iduals was testeil, and those (omul inrectid wen- 



treated with i|ninine. 



— ^^^^ ♦ ^^^^-^— - — 



Research Work and Applied Science. 



The Presidential address deli\ered to the Riintgen 

 Society on November (i, 1917, by Captain G. W. C. 

 Kaje, is reported in Nature. January 31, 191^^. The 

 chief subject of the address was the important use 

 made of X-rays in military hospit-^ls during the war. 

 In concluiling, the President emphasized the value of 

 applied science to industry which, he said, was now 

 thoroughly accepted by the British ))ublie; and British 

 industry should begin to feel the benefit, especially 

 now that the principle of State-aided research has been 

 established. 



