296 



THE AGKICULTUKAL NEWS. 



Septemi-.kk 13, 1913. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



Letters and matter for publication, as well as all 

 Bpeciinens for naniiiig, sliould be addressed to the 

 Commissioner, Imperial I)epartment of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



All applications for copies of the 'Agricultunil 

 News' should be addressed to the Agents and not to 

 the Department. 



Local Agents: A(ivocate Co., Ltd., Broad St., 

 Bridgetown. London Agents : Messrs. Dulau & Co., 

 37, Soho Square, \V. The complete list of Agents 

 will be found on page 3 of the cover. 



The Agricultural News : Price IcJ. per number, 

 post free 2d. Annual subscription payable to Agents, 

 2s. 2d. Post free, 4s. 4ci. 



giijricultiinil |linr!i 



Vol. XII. SATURDAY. SEPTEMRKH 13. 1913. No. 297. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this number deals with the demand 

 for agricultural literature. In order to avoid waste 

 and to increase the effectiveness of agricultural publi- 

 cations, attention must be given to the requirements of 

 «]ifterent sections of the community. 



1 'iider the heading of Fruit, on page 292. the effect 

 of fertilizers on the quality of fruit, and the fermenta- 

 tion of cacao are dealt with, amongst other matters. 



On page 29H information wiW be found concerning 

 jnilk-supply, the eradication of tuberculosis, and 

 a. disease of the eye of chickens. 



Important views regarding the competition of 

 iSakellarides cotton with W'est Indian types are pub- 

 lished under Cotton Notes, on page 294. 



On page 295, the filial article on the efficiency of 

 manual labour is continued from the last issue of this 



lournal 



Useful information is given under Insect Notes, 

 on page 29'^, concerning the use of flour paste in 

 spraying. 



Under the heading of Rubber, on page HO'S, will 

 found many useful facts concerning the cultivation 

 and preparation of the Pora variety. 



The Problem ot a Pure Milk Supply. 



Professor Rosenau. of Harvard, in his recently- 

 published work on the milk (juestion drives home the 

 importance of the subject when he tersely states, 'The 

 milk problem starts from the cradle and ends with the 

 grave. Sometimes it leads to an untimely grave'. 

 The book from which this is taken, is reviewed interest- 

 ingly in Nature (July .31, Ifilo) but a statement is 

 made in the review to which we must take exception. 



In referring to the subject of the mixing of' 

 milk from several cows, the reviewer states: 'this the 

 author says is desirable, as it furnishes a more unifornii 

 product, and tends to dilute infection if present; this 

 the trainers of liills in this country might note.' 



In a recent editorial in this journal, the desirability 

 of mixing milks was advocated but with certain 

 reservations. From the point of view that mixing 

 furnishes a more uniform product, the practice is to be 

 encouraged and agreement may be expressed with the 

 views of Nature and Professor Kosenau. But as regards 

 the dilution of infection, and particularly tuberculous 

 infection, mixing is to be condemned. The infection is 

 diluted it is true, but unfortunately at the same time it 

 is more widely distributed, whilst the reproduction of the 

 pathogenic germs in the milk will soon tend to render 

 all infected supplies equally dangerous. And even dis- 

 regarding the natural increase of the germs, it does not; 

 appear to have been demonstrated that children, for 

 instance, are positively able to resist infection below 

 any particular degree of intensity. 



-^ — — 



St. Vincent and Artificial Manures. 



It is somewhat regrettable that .Air. F. O. Davies,. 

 of Trinidad, was unable to give a less distorted descrip- 

 tion of agricultural conditions in St. Vincent in an 

 article on the subject recently published in the Cuha- 

 Magazine (August 1918). In the first place the 

 sub-heading to the article Sugar: Arrowroot: Cotton: 

 Primitive methods — is misleading, in view of the fact 

 that, in order of importance, the positions of these 

 crops is the reverse of the abo\e arrangement. Again, 

 although amongst the peasantry tne methods nf cultiv- 

 ation may, in some respects, be primitive, the general 

 organization of the qotton and arrowroot industries is 

 a model in many ways, even to Cuba and Trinidad. 

 A spirit of co-operation is very much in evidence 

 in St. Vincent, .and partly in consequence of this, the 

 island can maintain the uniform production of the 

 highest grade of cotton in the world. Furthermore the 

 recent resolve of the St. A'inccnt Arrowroot Association 

 to hold the 1918-14 crop for Kngland at 8}(/. perlb-. 

 can hardly be regarded as a ]iriniitive procedure 



P>ut Mr. Davis is unacquainted with, or else ignores 

 such facts as these. The fundamental aim of the article 

 appears to be to increase the use of artificial fertilizers 

 in the island. Speaking with regard to progress in 

 the cotton industry he says: 'things ran smoothly with 

 it [the cotton crop] for a time, but, alas, the time is 

 come when the earth is weary with cotton, in- 

 deed in most cases exhausted, and what will 

 it grow now.'' There 'is no scientific foundation for such 

 remarks. 



