A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Aviv, 



Vol. XVII. No. 416. 



BARBADOS, APRIL 6, 1918. 



Prick Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



. 107 



American Potash 



Avocado Pears as Food, 



and as a Source of Oil 102 

 Castor-( )il in the West 



Indies, Notes on ... KMj 

 Coco-nut Prices and Coco- 

 nut Butter in Dominica 104 

 Cotton Notes: — 



Sea Island ditton 

 Market 



The Need for More 



Cotton 



Department News 

 Experiment Stations ... 

 Food-Horne Infections 



Gleanings 



Guinea Fowl 



Insect Notes: — 



The West Indian Mole 



Cricket or Changa 



Items of Loo;d Interest 



Light ill Healing Tree 



Wounds, Etiect'of ... 

 Lime Estates. Relation of 



Flowering t'< Crop on 105 



... 1(12 



102 



101 



97 



lOo' 



108 

 lost 



106 

 101 



105 



Page. 



Market Reports 112 



Mineral Oil Resources in 



the British Empire ... lo;', 

 Notes and Comments ... 104 



.Pedigreed Seed 105 



Plant Di.-eases: — 



Citrus Blast 110 



The Mottling Disease 

 of Cane in Porto Rico 110 

 Radir -Active Ore, Intiu- 

 ence "f on Plants ... 105 



St. Lucia, Ciimmittee on 

 Develo])ment of Eco- 

 nomic Re.sources of ... KU 



Sugar Factor}', New I'se 

 of Centrifugal Force 

 in The !»!) 



Sugar Plantfitions Suji- 

 plies and Renewals Oft 



Sunlight as a Factor in 

 Evolution Ill 



Sweet Potatoes and other 

 Vegetables, .Storing of 107 



Sweet Potato Starcli ... 104 



Experiment Stations. 



wFEJQN the editorial of the last issue of this 

 aJeinrnal it was pointed out that botanic 

 'gardens had their origin iu remote ages. 

 Experiment stations, on the other hand, have only 

 come into prominence in quite recent times as indis- 

 pensable instruments in the scientific study of ihe 

 principles which underlie the cultivation of all crops, 

 and the problems connected therewith. 



The oldest of such experiment stations, in the sense 

 just stated, is that of Rothamsird in England, which 

 was started by a private land-ownei- about the year 1n40, 

 for the investigation of all sorts (ifi|uestions connected 

 with farming, and for elucidating the principles upon 



which the practice of sound agriculture might be 

 established. It is hardly too much to say that 

 Rothamsted has been the model on which the present 

 system of experiment stations has been formed. In 

 the latter half of the last century the institution of 

 departments of agriculture in most of the civilized 

 cotintries of the world led to the almost universal 

 establishment of experiment stations in connexion 

 with these departments. In this development the 

 United States of America have been foremost. Every 

 State in the Union has its experiment stations, gener- 

 ously supported from public funds, which, as a result of 

 their investigations, supply an amount of practical infor- 

 mation to agriculturists, the value of which can hardly 

 be overestimated. It will be remembered that when 

 the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West- 

 Indies was created to deal with the problems connected 

 with agriculture in these islands, and to further its 

 interests, experiment stations were at once established 

 in every island. 



Now in these islands, as elsewhere, the planter or 

 farmer is a notoriously conservative person. Experiment 

 stations are conducted in reality with a view to 

 the benefit of the planter or the farmer, but the results 

 obtained on them, and the advice based on these results, 

 often run contrary to ordinarily accepted practices and 

 cherished prejudices. If a long-established agricul- 

 tural practice is demonstrated sound, it is the business 

 of the experiment station worl<ers to explain the 

 principles on which it rests, and to establish it on 

 a basis of definite knowledge. If, on the other hand, 

 a practice is unsound or wascefid, it is the function of 

 the experiment station to expose its unsoundness nr 

 wastefulness. Xo such maxim as this, for instance, 

 'Oh, it has worked verv well for a number of 



