A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES, 



V.:.L. XVII, Xo. 417. 



BARBADOS. APIML 20. 191S. 



Prick Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Ai::iciiltiiiv ill BarliKil, 's 

 O tton Notf.-<: — 



British C'cttoii (irowiiig 



Association 



Cot ton-Growing Resour 

 ces of thf Britisli 

 Knipirt- 

 !^ea Ibliiiifl t'otton 



Market 



Dusheen Shoots, Forcing 



and Bliinching of ... 



Kiiiileijiics of Plant Pests 



nncl Diseases 



Fooii Maiuiiial. A New 



Frtiit Trees. Varialiilitv 



nf Yield in Fields .'. 



Gleanings 



Insect Notes: — 



Fleas and tlieir Control 



The West Indian Mole 



Cricket or Changa 



Items of Looid Interest 



Legumes as (jreen Manure 



C'oiapar.itive Value of 



Page 

 119 



U« 



118 

 118 

 121 

 I v.', 



II.". 



l-.T. 

 124 



122 



122 

 ll'.i 



120 



Market Kejiorts 



Notes and Comnient-s .. 



Pacaya or Salad Palm .. 



Pliints, C'apillarv Water 



uvj: of 



Sarawak P>euu as a (.'cxer 



Cro| 



Soutlarn Philijipines. De 



velo|iment of The 



Sugar Industry: — 



Sources of Supply for 



Various .Sugars 

 The Svugar Factory as 

 a Source t^f Supply of 



Acetic Acid 



Thymol, A PossiliU- New 

 ■Source of 



Vegetable Oil 



Vegetal lies. Preservation 

 of Hy Fermentation ainl 

 ■Salting 



West Indian Products 



Yerha Mat.- 



Page. 

 .. 128 

 .. 120 

 .. 12(1 



121 



121' 

 127 



IKi 



in; 



117 

 12:! 



12.-. 

 127 

 121 



Epidemics of Plant Pests and Diseases: 

 Past and Present. 



l^'xPV'n' HO-M lime to time tiiere have occ irred in the 

 IT\*Wpast, and still do occiii, severe outbreai<s of 

 ^^^^ pests or diseases aftecting various crops in 

 different countries. These may be so severe as to 

 threaten to destroy completely the cultivation of 

 a particular crop in the region ari'ected. and, in tact, in 

 some cases it has been nece.ssarv lo substitute another 

 crop for the one attacked. 



Fortunately, in most cases rneasur??. either prophv- 

 lactic or remedial, have been poesibl**, which hi^ve 



availed to control the pest or disease, so as to allow 

 of the continuation of the cultivation of the crop with 

 due precautions; but meanwhile disastrous conse- 

 quences to planters have necessarily ensued. 



One of the striking features of these epidemics is 

 the rapidity with which they spread. To take the 

 coftee-leaf disease as au e.vample. Arabian coffee had 

 been cultivated in Ceylon by the Dutch from the later 

 years of the 17th century. Its culture had been largely- 

 extended under English rule, so that the production 

 had reached a total of nearly 1,000,000 cwt. in 1873, 

 representing invested capital of nearly £14,000,000. 

 The leaf disease, caused by a fungus {Hemileia 

 vastatri.i-), believed to be indigenous on certain native 

 shrubs allied to coffee, was only noticed to have assumed 

 a virulent form about ISti!'. From thi.s time it rapidly- 

 spread throughout the island, and led to the abandon- 

 ment of coffee cultivation on most of the plantations 

 on such a scale that the production of coffee in Ceylon 

 in 1895 was less than one-fourth of what it had been 

 twelve years before. In Ceylon tea took the place 

 of coffee as a crop: but in other places, as in Java, the 

 struggle against the disease took the form of intro- 

 ducing other more resistant varieties of coffee, such as 

 ('qrr'ea liberiea and (' robuftta. 



This methotl of combating plant diseases or pests 

 has been found effective in more than one instance. 

 Just about the same time that the Hemileia was first 

 noticed in Ceylon, the vine industry in France was 

 threatened with extinction, owing to the wide-spread 

 devastations of Pht/lloxera vastatrix, an insect which 

 had been introduced on imported vines from America. 

 It has been said that this insect cost France more- 

 than the huge indemnity exacted by the Gertnai* 



