A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THB 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XII. No. 301. 



BARBADOS. NOVEMBER 8. 1913. 



Price Id, 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Citiu> Cultivation, Hea 

 for 360 



Coft'ee Bcny, Composition 

 of 356 



Cotton Notes: — 



British Cotton Growing 



Association 358 



West Indian Cotton ... 358 



Department News 365 



Dep.irtmentrtI Reports ... 363 



D(iminica 367 



Fnngus Notes : — 



Infectious Gummosis of 

 Citrus Trees 366 



' Recent Interesting Wiak 

 in ^'egetable Pliysiology 366 



Gleanings 364 



Insect Note.s :— 



An Entomological Visit to 

 the Tnited States 362 



Jamaica, Dual-Purpose 

 Cattle in 357 



M.alayan Ruliber Plantation, 

 Life on 361 



Page. 



Market Reports 368 



Notes and Comments ... .360 

 Oniiin Cultivation iu the 



Leeward Islands ,367 



Rainfall, Variability of... 353 



Rubber Industry 355 



Rublier Treas, New Tapping 



Knives for 359 



St. Croix, Motor Plougliing 



I in 359 



Soil, Tlic 3.58 



Soil, Cu|iric Treatments and 



the Nitrification of ... 358 

 Students' Comer 365 



Sugar Industry: — 



White Sugar Manufac- 

 ture 355 



Trinidad, Subsoil Blasting 

 in 358 



Vanilla, Ripe, Characteristics 

 of 356 



Waste in Distributiim ... 361 



West Indian Bulletin ... .".fiO 



Variability of Rainfall. 



MARKED feature of present investigation 

 work in sciences like those underlying agri- 

 culture and civil engineering, whose object it 

 is to harness the forces of nature, is the large amount 

 of attention devoted to the study of statistical records. 

 For examiile, recent examinations of milk records 

 have entvbled deductions to be drawn concerning the 

 relation between the ijuality anti yield of milk, whilst 

 similar work has aJso led to the discovery of what is 

 known as the 'revised maxiniuiu' — a quantity deduced 



from milk records, representing more accurately and 

 more conveniently than the yearly total, the real 

 capacity of an animal's power of lactation. Similarly, 

 in genetics, the collection of statistics over a large 

 number of years is leading to the generalization of 

 rules of great importance in connexion with heredity. 

 In plot experiments, too, it is becoming more and 

 more recognized that reliable resiUts of wide applica- 

 tion can be obtained only by regarding a large n timber 

 of records mathematically, and the combined effect of 

 the general trend exemplified by the above facts 

 inclines one to expect considerable developments in 

 this direction in the future, and the evolution in time, 

 of a class of investigator who will ultimately be 

 known as an agricultural mathematician. 



The extremely interesting and important relation- 

 ships that can be detected as a result of a mathematical 

 examination of numerical records connected with 

 agriculture, is admirably brought out in a recent book* 

 on civil engineering, in which considerable attention is 

 given to variability of rainfall. 



The author of this book, in referring to rainfall in 

 general, points out that although the subject is of imme- 

 diate interest to both agriculturist and civil engineer, 

 it affects each in a different way. The agriculturist is 

 chieffy concerned with the amount of water that 

 percolates into the soil for the use of his crops, whereas 

 the engineer is more concerned with the 'run off' of 

 rainfall and the effect on streams. Both, however, 

 have a common interest in the variability of the rainfall 

 itself, and the investigation of records is therefore 

 interesting from both points of view. 



*27te Cmtiol of Water, by PliQip A Morley Parker. 

 George Routledge & Sons, Limited, London, K.C., 1913. 



