A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XVII. No. 420. 



BARBADOS, JUNE 1. 1918. 



Price Id, 



CONTENTS, 



Page 

 Agriculture in Barbados l(i.5 

 Agriculture in (irenada 175 

 Banana Bread in .Jamaica 171 

 Bauxite in British (juiana 175 

 Blackie's 'Seniiu' Tropical 



Reader' 1(39 



Cabbage Palm Fruit us 



a Food for Hogs ... 171 

 Chee.se, Cottjige, How to 



make 160 



Citrus Conditions in Flor- 

 ida, California and Cuba 17^l 

 Cotton Notes: — 



Cotton Exports from 

 the West Indies ... Kid 



Sea Island Cotton 



Market 160 



Cuban Sugar Industry, 



Development of 

 Dairy Cattle, Prominent 



Breeds of 



Farm Tractor, The 



Post-War 



102 



1(54 



167 



Fish Skins, The Tanning of 168 



Page. 



Food Hoarding 167 



Gleanings ... 172 



Insect Notes: — 



The Value of Zoology 

 to Human Welfare 170 



Items of Loe.ll Interest 165 



Jamaica Imperial Asso- 

 ciation 168 



Jamaica, The Food <,>ues- 

 tion in 



Johnson and Sudan 

 (jrasses in Barbados 168 



Market Reports 



National Physical Labor- 

 atory, The 



Notes and Comments ... 



(•nions in Dominica 



Plant Sanitation in Cuba, 

 ( >rgani/.ation of 



Trinidad's Food Su])ply 



\'egetable Products Fac 

 tory in Demei'ara 



West Indian Agriculture, 

 ( )rg!inization of 



.. 17<» 



176 



160 

 168 

 169 



174 

 l()'.i 



... 166 



161 



Organization of West Indian Agriculture. 



•HE organization of the agricultural interests 

 .of the West Indies is a subject of great 

 [importance to all those interesteci in the 

 future welfare of these islands. For in the past our 

 greatest weakness has been a kind ot parochialism, 

 each island — and in the case of the larger islands, each 

 district — thinking only of its own limited interests. 

 This has been the case with all the chief industries, 

 and has led to weakness in them all. 



There is an old Latin saying, Fas est ab hoste 

 cloceri: it is right to be taught by the enemy — and if 

 there is one lesson which we can rightly learn from 

 the Germans it is the value of organization. Germany 

 had so correlated all her activities that she was able 

 to throw all her energy in any direction. This was 

 shown in ever\' branch of industry and commerce 

 before the war began, and during the war it has been 

 proved in military matters. To her organization, not 

 perhaps so very wonderful or very efficient, but appear- 

 ing so by contrast, ( (ermany owes her military effi- 

 ciency, and her powers of endurance. 



But to return to the question of West Indian agri- 

 culture, let us take some of the chief industries, and 

 examine some aspects of the problem of organization in 

 connexion with them. By this problem we mean in 

 the first place, the correlation of supply and demand, 

 and in the second place, the correlation of capital and 

 labour. 



The vicissitudes of our oldest, most wide-spread 

 industry, the cultivation of sugar-cane and the 

 manufacture of sugar, afford an instance in most 

 of these islands of the evils which result from want 

 of organization in both those directions. When the 

 highly organized beet sugar industry began to threaten 

 the supremacy of cane in the markets of the Mother 

 Country and of the world, it was long before those 

 interested in the sugar-cane began to 'learn from the 

 enemy'. The beet-growing countries organized 

 a system whereby the grower could devote his energies 

 to the production of the highest amount of beet of the 

 highest saccharine content, while the manufacturer 

 and refiner devoted his to the turning out of the 

 purest sugar possible, at the lowest cost. Meanwhile 



