Vor.. XIV. No. 33S. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



11a 



hasten to acknowledge other agencies as well. First 

 and foremosl I hi re are the piom i ho have settled in 

 tin- islands, and who have by indi\ idual enterprise and 

 keenness been responsible for many important introduc 



fcions. This observation refers esp i ill] to 1 ir Kew 



correspondents, some of whom wi re planters who devoted 

 their leisure time both studj >i ocal botany. Others, 

 again, interested in practical agriculture have obtain -I 

 in w varieties and species on a purely business footing. 

 Such enterprise is equally beneficial in .the long run. 

 Of recent years the Wesl [ndies have owed a great deal 

 both United States, particularly to the Southern 

 States where climatic conditions and hence vegetation 

 are mori comparable to our own. h may nol be irre- 

 levant to point out that in considering West Indian 

 commercial relationships with the Mother Country and 

 the United States, it is only fair to remember the 



debl we owe in regard to our ec< mic flora on which 



our prosperity depends. Thi intrinsic value of an 

 imported seed or cutting ofa useful plant is inconsider- 

 able: but its potential value \ b enormous. 



Yrn little has been said in the course of this 

 article inrespeel of the agencies through which animals 

 have been introduced. As a matter of fact there is, 

 comparatively speaking, very little to say, because 

 domestic animals do not underh tin- staph' industries 

 of the West Indies to anything like the extent plants 

 do. Several instances of the different agencies have been 

 Doted however in a former article, and it will berealized 

 that these have been generally speaking, individual, 

 and during recent years the outcome of local initiative 

 en tin part of planters, and latterly of the Departments 

 of Agriculture. The agencies through which pests 

 and diseases arrive can scarcely be dealt with in this 

 article, as it is a subject which requires special treat- 

 ment. It may be observed, however, that it is the 

 function of Kew and the Departments of Agriculture 

 in tin' Colonies and in foreign countries to prevent 



listribution of these parasites, just as it is their 

 object t" encourage the. distribution of the species or 

 varieties which these parasites attack 



INDIAN CORN. 



MEASUREMENT OF INCREASED YIELD 

 FROM HYBRIDIZATION. 



Si i _"■ ;i | in i] ii n-t ioa of fii maize li\ ' 



! been found to give increased d the increase i- 



frequently of suet magnitude thai the utilization of this 

 I tor ot | I icl in ness becomes a [i actical question. It is 



fore highly desirable to unci and tin- reasons why 



give favoui i i result - and i ithei 5 give little 1 

 no increase over the yield r>l the parents. \ necessary step 

 in this iliriTtii.n is to devi [op a reliable method of measuring 

 the effect of crossing, apart from othei factot that influence 

 yield, 



The development 1 met hods "i compai hag 

 the yield nt first geuerati m hybrids with thai of their parents 

 has I mini by (1) a failure to fully appr :ciate tin 

 imp 11 in,..' pi indh idual dn ersity in by ' 1 1 he abnor- 

 mal behaviour of self-polliuati I ze plants, and (3) the 



difficulty of securing for comparison hybrids and parents with 

 identical ancestry. It is believed that the method hi 

 described avoids these diffii ilties and affords moi trate 



means of comparing fii ration maize hybrids with thi 



parents. 



The method is illustrated by m ! meriment in crossing 

 i«" varieties oi sweel corn in whirl, it was found thai the 

 progeny from one hybrid ear yielded nearly double thai of the 



other hybrid ear involved in the experi nt. 'I'., have taken 



either ear alone would have led to entirely erroneous conclu- 

 sions regarding the: increase secured as a result of crossing. 



The increase in yield d le to crossing asured by the 



method here proposed was 31 percent. 



'I'lie must important conclusion arrived at by 

 ( i. V Collins, to whose paper in the Journal 

 of Agricultural Research (October 1914) the above 

 is the summary, appears to In- that the mean yield 



produced by seed fr two hybrid ears compared 



with the mean yield produced by seed from the two 

 pure seed ears u'ives a fair measure • >!' the effects, 

 of hybridization. 



New Method of Growing Corn.— The Experi- 

 ment Station Record, Vol. XXXI, No. 7, states that corn has 

 been planted successfully under dry land conditions in 

 western Kansas, by the following methods. The seed is sown 

 in rows twice the usual distance apart, while the plants are 

 twice as thick in the row. The stand is therefore the same, 

 but as this method seems to preserve the moisture midway 

 between the rows, the supply is often sufficient to maintain 

 the corn in a flourishing condition during temporary periods 

 of drought, while occasionally it may complete the develop- 

 ment of the crop. It is noted that by this method the yields 

 were about 30 bushels per acre, while in adjoining fields in 

 which the rows were 3| feet apart, the yields were only 10 to 

 12 bushels per acre. 



It is stated in the Journal 0/ the Royal Horticultural 

 Society foi November 191 I, that a new bean known as Tepary, 

 a supposed variety of Phaseolus a cu tifolius, Gray, has beeu 



found in the arid districts of Arizona to yield four times as 



much as kidney beans. I' is well adapted to dry farming on 

 account of rapid germination with but little soil moisture. It 

 one,- established, it will stand protracted seasons of water 

 famine. Another note in the same journal makes an inter- 

 esting reference to the occurrence of gloss and colour in beans 

 a subject investigated in the United States. No generaliza- 

 tions are attempted,^ but a long series of crosses has 

 ni.i.l". ami tin- results obtained tabulated. The flower 

 colours recognized are white, light pink, (link and cri 

 and wli,a is especially in ■, it is considered that 



bio is closely >rrelated with seed coal .'..lour. 



