A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OK THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



• -try 



Vol. XIV. No. 343. 



BARBADOS, JUNE 19, 1915. 



Price Id. 



The American Society of Agricultural 

 Engineers. 



tu the present agricultural engineering 

 [has not been recognized as a specific branch 

 ;of agricultural science in the tropics as it 

 has been in the United States and in some European 

 countries. This is largely due do doubt to the fact 

 that all mechanical devices have to be imported into 

 the tropics which necessitates procuring also from 

 abroad responsible engineers. The economic impor- 

 tance of agricultural engineering is perhaps greater 

 than any other branch of agricultural science, for upon 



it is dependent agricultural development to a very 

 large extent. In the West Indies the sugar industry 

 is dependent upon engineering in regard to factories, 

 and even in the cacao, cotton and lime-growing indus- 

 tries imported machinery and its proper working is 

 a necessary factor. But besides these phases which 

 imply the investment of considerable capital, agricul- 

 tural engineering underlies the conduct of ordinary 

 operations on the estate, such as ploughing and the 

 carting of produce. As well as these there is the 

 important subject of drainage, irrigation and other 

 aspects of water-supply. 



The transactions of the American Society of Agri- 

 cultural Engineers tor IMI4 present an interesting 

 review of recent work in engineering relating to 

 agriculture in the United States. Two of the papers 

 deal with the place and field of the agricultural 

 engineer, and in these it is held that the engineer 

 should be closely associated with agricultural activ- 

 ity. For instance it is not sufficient to be able to 

 design and handle a motor plough: it is equally necess- 

 ary to be familiar with the adjustment required in 

 regard to soil variation and other fluctuating fac- 

 tors which are so constantly met with in the 

 application of exact science to agriculture. An impor- 

 tant side of agricultural engineering which we have 

 not yet mentioned is that of ventilation. This sub- 

 ject is dealt with in the publication under considera- 

 tion, but from the tropical standpoint, owing to clima- 

 tic conditions, it is probably not as important as under 

 temperate conditions where the protection from cold 

 is more liable to interfere with the main tenet i A 

 a pure atmosphere. In tin- paper the interesting I 

 mentioned that it is not simply an increase in the 

 percentage of carbon dioxide in the air of a stable that 



