A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THB 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XII. No 293. 



BARBADOS. JULY 19. 1913. 



Pbiok Id, 



CONTENTS. 



Paok. 



Ar.'-eiuc in Pbints, Preseuci- 

 of ... ... 23:i 



Baiiiiii;ts, Janiaicaii, Taxa- 

 tion fpf 23;') 



Bookshelf 231 



Coco-nut Industry, Philip- 

 pine 228 



Cotton Notes : — 



West Indian Cotton ... 230 



Departmental Reports ... 229 



Dominica. Notes on Tree.s 

 in Blossom at 228 



Fungus Notes : — 



A New Disease of the 

 Castor Plant 238 



Gleanings 236 



Hoisting Device, A New 2.30 



Honey Bee and Pollen Col- 

 lection 232 



Insect Notes :— 

 The Control of Froghop- 



pers 234 



The Corn Ear Wf)rm on 

 Rice 234 



Market Reports 240 



Paok. 



Notes .md Conuuents ... 2.32 



Para lUibber, Pre])aration of 

 riantation: A Reply .. 235 



lig Styes, Practical Flooring 

 lor 2.30 



Publication, Significance i f 

 a Recent 225 



Rul)ber- Planting on Hill- 

 sides 239 



Rul>l)er Prices to Encourage 

 New Uses, Reducing .. 232 



St. Kitts, Agi-icultural 

 Attairs in 2:!9 



Students' Corner 2:!7 



Sugar Industry: — 



Louisiana and Syrup-Mak- 

 ing 227 



Sugar-cane Tops for Kn- 

 sil.ige 227 



Tunis, Colonial Agricultu- 

 ral College at 237 



Ventilation and Fruit Stor- 

 age 235 



Virgin Islands, Botanical 

 Studies in 233 



This review gives cause for comment, first of all, 

 because some of the criDioisms which it passed on Balls' 

 work are unjust: that, however, to the general reader, 

 is of less consequence than the circumstance that the 

 review has a bearing on an extremely important phase 

 in the development of tropical scientific research and 

 education, and ic is chiefly from this latter aspect that 

 the opinions expressed in the review will be discussed 

 m the present article. 



The Significance of a Recent 

 Publication, 



: \\ E Assistant to the Agricultural Advisor 

 to the Government of India has lately 



[reviewed* from the economic, and, perhaps 

 one might add, from a purely personal standpoint, the 

 recently published monograph on plant physiology and 

 genetics entitled The Cotton Flant in Egypt by 

 W. Lawrence Balls, Jl.A., Botanist to the Egyptian 

 Department of Agriculture. 



* In The AcjrkuUwal Juiimal of ludi-t for April 1913. 



The reader may be reminded that T/ie Cotton 

 Plant in Egypt, ptibiished as one of a series of science 

 monographs ( which includes Professor BifFen's Improve' 

 ment of Wheat and other Cereals and The Ascent 

 of Sap by Professor Dixon), brings together in an 

 extremely condensed form, the various botanical inves- 

 tigations conducted by the author on the cotton plant 

 to find out — to use plain words — exactly how ic lives. 

 The researches concerned the behaviour of the plant 

 under varying conditions of environment, its physio- 

 logical functions, its hereditary characteristics and 

 the like, the quantitative results obtained, being 

 presented in the form of graphs, formulae and diagrams 

 in what is, mathematically, a most intelligent and 

 concise arrangement. The book, in fact, is really an 

 epitome of the author's nimierous papers on the differ- 

 ent aspects of the subject investigated during the 

 past ten years. 



Ki'serving, for the present, our own views as to the 

 value and significance of the work, we may proceed first 

 to outline those expressed in the article under 

 discussion. The reviewer objects, at the outset, to the 

 motive underlying the researches which the book 

 describes — a motive which is regarded as narrow to an 

 extreme. The chief reason lor this opinion is the 



