Vol. XVir. No. 421. 



THE AGRICULTUKAL NEWS. 



189 



TORTOLA: REPORTS ON THE AGRICUL- 

 TURAL DEI^ARTMENT, igrj-jd AND 1916-ry. 



The reports on the Agricultural Department of the 

 Virgin Islands, for the years 1915-10 and 1916-17 have just 

 been issued together. It appears that the publication of the 

 former was delayed through unavoidable circumstances, 

 hence the publication of the two reports toaether. 



In the report for 1915-16 we n'>tice that the Curator, 

 Mr. Fishlock, thinks that the Governor plum, of which there 

 is a hedge at the P.otanic Station, Tortola, ought to be named 

 FUiaiiirtia ^epiaria and not E. Ramontchi, on the ground that 

 the latter grows to a small tree, whereas the former is 

 a shrub. This is ijuite true, but nevertheless, as was stated 

 in a note in the A,i(ricuiti/m/ .AVr.v, Vol. XIV, p. 339, 

 the species fairly vyell spread throughout the West Indies, 

 and successfully grown as a hedge not only in Tortola but 

 in St. Lucia and Dominica as well, is E. Ramoiitclti, which 

 like other small trees, lignum vitae for instance, forms a 

 capital hedge, if kept well trimmed. As far as we know, 

 there is only one specimen of F. sipiaria in the smaller 

 i.slands, and that is in the Botanic Garden, Dominica. This 

 is a slow growing shrub with small, oval berries, quite 

 distinct from the fairly large, round berries of E. Ramoiitchi. 



The tone of the two reports is markedly ditl'erent. That 

 of the first is hopeful; of the second, one can only say that ic 

 is but slightly removed from despondency. Xor is this to be 

 wondered at. when it is remembered that the Virgin IsUnds, 

 especially Tortola, experienced the lull violence of a destruc- 

 tive hurricane in October 1916, which greatly damaged all 

 the crops of the Presidency. We can only hope that the 

 energetic etl'orts which were evidently made to repair the 

 damage caused by the hurricane have met with success in 

 the year just passed. 



The establishment in 1915 of a Cotton Seed Farm, 

 mainly for the purpose of producing seed of dependable 

 quality, and of a pure strain suitable to local conditions, is 

 a step in the right direction. Hitherto all the Sea Island 

 cotton grown in the Vigin Islands has been from seed 

 obtained from St. Kitts and Sr. Vincent. But experience 

 in other islands has shown that each island tends to produce 

 its own strain of cotton, which it is advantageous to develop 

 and keep pure. Ic is to be hoped that good results will 

 accrue to the \irgin Islinds from this undertaking. For it 

 must be noted that the production of cotton, to which the 

 conditions of tho?e islands seem eminently suited, has much 

 declined there. In 191 "2, the year of the greatest production, 

 52,677 lb. of cotton lint were shipped, of the value of £3,165, 

 but this fell year by year, until 1916 when only 15,253 It), 

 were shipped, valued at £1,465. It is to bo regretted that the 

 cotton flower-bud maggot {Cnntarinia :^ossypii) has made 

 its appearance in Tortola. This pest seems to have been 

 successfully dealt with in Antigua, where it was troublesome 

 some years ago. Early planting was advised by .Mr. Ballou 

 the Entomologist of this Dep.irtment, and it may be practi- 

 cable to adopt this means of avoiding attack should the 

 effects become .serious in Tortola. 



The lime industry, on which some hopes had been 

 based has been practically put an end to by the hurri- 

 cane of 1916. Such large numbers of irees were destroyed 

 that it will be some years before the lime plantations can be 

 re-established, should that course be considered advisable. 

 As the result of minurial e.xperiments with lime trees, 

 Mr. Fishlock advises liberal surface mulching with sparing 

 applications of nitrogenous manures. 



The important food crop of sweet potatoes has been the 

 subject of experiments with a large number of varieties, 

 carried on for some years. 



It would seem as if a profitable market for onions grown 

 in the British Virgin Islands c-in be found in the neighbour- 

 ing Virgin Islands of the I'nited States, and that this 

 industry might be profitably e.xtended in the future. 



Experiment plots planted in other foodstuffs — Indian corn, 

 cassava, beans, and peas — were yielding interesting results, but 

 were practically destroyed by the hurricane. 



A crop which Mr. Fishlock thinks deserving of more 

 attention, is coffee. He considers that it could be successfully 

 grown in many parts of Tortola, and that a sufficient 

 quantity could be produced to meet local demands. 



In .spite of the immense damage done by the hurricane 

 of 1916, the reports show that progress in agricultural mat- 

 ters is being made in the Virgin Islands, and that the 

 Agricultural < )fficers in charge of the Experiment Station in 

 Tortola are to be congratulated on the result^; of their work. 



EXPLANATION OP SOME MENDELIAN 

 TERMS. 



As certain technical terms are oftBn being used in 

 articles in this Journal relating to plant breeding, it will be 

 useful for general readers to have a short explanation of some 

 of them. 



Except for relatively rare instances, a new individual, 

 whether plant or animal, arises as the joint product of two 

 sexual cells derived from individuals of different sexes. Such 

 sexual cells, whether ova or spermatozoa or derived from 

 ovules or pollen grains, are known by the general term of 

 i^amctes, or marrying cells, and the individual formed by the 

 fusion or yoking together of two gametes is spoken of as 

 a zvi^otc. Since a zygote arises from the fusion of two separ- 

 ate gametes, the individual so formed must be regarded 

 throughout its life as a compound structure, in which the 

 components brought in by each of the gametes remain inti- 

 mately yiiked in the form of partnership. 



The various generations are denoted by the signs F,, F.^, 

 etc. In this system F, denotes the first filial generation, F^ 

 the second filial generation produced by two parents belong- 

 ing to the Fj generation, and so on. When in the F, gener- 

 ation a character which is peculiar to one of the parents 

 appears in each individual, that character is denoted the 

 • lominant. In the same way a character possessed by one of 

 the parents, which disappears from view intheFj generation, 

 is denoted rt'iessive. 



To express the constitution of individuals in res- 

 pect of inherited characters, the words komozvgofi and 

 /it-k>vz\\i;i)ic are employed. An individual is said to be 

 homozygous for any character when it is derived 

 from gametes both of which possess that character. 

 When however the zygote is formed by two gametes, of 

 which one bears the given character while the other does not, 

 it is said to lie heterozygous for the character in question, 

 and only half the gametes produced by such a heterozygote 

 bear the character. 



