88 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



March 15 1913 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



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 ■specimens for naming, should be addressed to the 

 •Commissioner, Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



All applications for copies (jf the 'Agricultural 

 News' shoTild be addressed to ihe Agents, and not to 

 "the Department. 



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 37, Soho Square, W. A complete list of Agents 

 will be found on page 8 of the cover. 



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 jiost free 2(7. Annual subscription payable to Agents, 

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Agricultural ^tm 



Vol. XII. SATURDAY. MARCH 1.5, 1913. No. 284. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The leading article in this number deals with the 

 subject of A West Indian Herd Book. The matter is 

 brought forward in a general manner and will be 

 recurred to, from time to time, in future issues of this 

 journal. 



Pdge 83 contains an interesting account of the 

 ■ employment of germicides in sugar factories. 



Under the ca))tion fruit trees, on page HA, experi- 

 ments are described on the testing of fruit for trans- 

 port. 



The subject of a University in the Tropics receives 

 further consideration on page .S7. The article deals 

 principally with the existing relations in the matter, 

 between the Roj'al (Jardens, Kew, and the Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture for the West Indies. 



The Insect Notes, which will be found on page 90, 

 contain an account of the lime twig borer. 



On ]>age 91 will be found an article dealing in an 

 explanatory manner with the fermentation of cacao. 



The Fungus Notes, which will be found on page 94, 

 give important information on two local diseases. 



Index to the Agricultural News. 



With this number of tiie A^jricultivral Xeivs, is 

 published, as a s"uppleuient, the index to Volume XI. 

 This may be bound in the usual manner with numbers 

 2.i8 to 278 of which Volume XI is comprised. 



The index should prove useful for purposes of 

 rt-ffrence ou all matters relating to tropical agricul- 

 ture, but especially will it be of value as a guide to 

 concise informarinn on insect pe.'^ts and fungus diseases 

 of tro^lic^l cultivated plant-. 



Vegetable-growing in the Tropics. 



The series of publications appearing as the 

 Blbliothnjue d'Agrindtare Colovude received an 

 addition, last year, in the shajie of a work dealing with 

 the colonial, or tropical kitchen garden, the title being 

 Le Jardin Potager aux Colonies, and the author 

 Dr.L.Vitrac, Director of the Experiment Garden, Pointe 

 ;i Pitre, Guadeloupe. 



Following an introduction, the subjects dealt with 

 comprise: general cultural conditions, composition of 

 soil, information concerning gardens, general recpiire- 

 ments of a good kitchen garden, preparation of garden 

 soil, tillage and manures, vegetable seeds, times for 

 sowing, sowing, weeding, watering, diseases of plants 

 animals injurious to the garden, alphabetical descrip- 

 tions of vegetables, and a horticultural calendar. There 

 is no index, and although most of the matter in the 

 book is arranged alphabetically, the usefulness of the 

 work would be increased greatly by the inclusion of 

 such a guide to its contents. 



The whole may be said to consist of a collection of 

 information of the greatest ti.se to those who wish to 

 commence, or are engaged already in, kitchen gardening. 

 At the same time this information is presented in a way 

 that is at once thorough and entertaining. Such 

 a work is very greatly needed in the English islands of 

 the West Indies, and the French Antilles are to be 

 congratulated on their greater good fortune in its 

 possession. 



Damage to Different Crops by Hurricanes. 



The unfortunate ocGu.rrence last year of a devasta- 

 ting storm in Jamaica, has led to the publication, in 

 the Journal of the Jamaica Agi-icHltural Sotiety, for 

 December 1912. of an article entitled The Storm and 

 Crops. In this it is stated that the greatest loss to 

 the Colony has been the widesjiread destruction of 

 banana trees. In advising the repair of the damage 

 done, it is suggested that old fields of bananas on large 

 estate* should be cut down knee-high and fresh suckers 

 planted in between.' For the small holder, who requires 

 bananas for food and not for export, it is best to leave 

 the battered trees as they are, for even if they give rise 

 only to small bunches of fruit, these will be valuable for 

 food, even though they are useless for export. Peas 

 and beans (but not sweet potatoes and pumpkins) 

 shonld be planted in- between the rows. 



Yams are considered to be the most importanti 

 local food crop in .lamaica and the loss by the wind in 

 this crop has been a very serious one. Yams are an 



