350 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



October 30, 1909, 



ST KITTS: REPORTS OX THE BOTANIC 

 STATION, ECONOMIC ENFERIMENTS AND 

 AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION ALSO ON AGRI- 

 CULTURAL EDUCATION, V.ins-'.i. 



The total expL-ndituix' during tlie jieiiiH! 1908-9 was 

 £1,142 15s. M.; of this £721 Cs. 11(7. was from the 

 Imperial Grant-in-aid, and £421 .s.s. 9</. from local funds. 

 The receipts from the sale of plants, etc., were £201 13s. id. 



In St. Kitts, the number of plants distributed was 876. 

 These consisted of cacao, Castilloa, and trees for wind-breaks 

 and ornamental purposes. In addition, many thousand 

 young hedge-plants and seeds were sent out, as well as 

 34,000 cuttings, 5,600 plants and about 50 tti. of seeds from 

 La (Juerite Experiment Station. Those distributed in Nevis 

 included 8,766 plants and 10,S93 ft), of .seeds and cuttings. 



Among economic plants, success has been obtained both 

 in St. Kitts and Nevis in growing onions. The raising of 

 these would prove to be a promising minor industry, but for 

 the fact that difficulty is met with in finding a market for them. 

 As regards cacao, the attempts which were begun in St. Kitts 

 five years ago to introduce the cultivation of this plant, on 

 a commercial scale, into the island are meeting with success. 

 In Nevis, neglected plants already exist which only require 

 proper attention and care to bring them into profitable bear- 

 ing. In both islands, especially in Nevis, an increasing 

 interest is being shown in the cultivation of limes. 



The rainfall at the Botanic Stations in St. Kitts and 

 Nevis for the year 1908 was 44-C2 inches and 50 50 inches, 

 respectively. In both cases this was higher than that for 

 1907; by 8"21 inches in the former and 7 05 inches in the 

 latter. In these islands, heavy rains were experienced 

 toward the end of the year, which did a certain amount of 

 damage to the maturing cotton. 



At the Stations, economic exp'.'riments were carried (uit 

 with yams, cassava, ground nuts, limes, cotton and broom 

 corn. In St. Kitts, there wore, in addition, experiments with 

 sweet potatos, velvet beans, tobacco, sesannun and woolly 

 pyrol ; and in Nevis with eddos, Indian corn, Guinea wheat, 

 cowpeas and onions. The manurial experiments with cotton 

 in St. Kitts have shown, so far, that the application of 

 manures to this crop is unremunerative, and this experience 

 lias been repeated in Nevis ; but trials have only been made 

 for one year in the latter i.sland. Experiments in St. Kitts 

 still continue to show that cotton planted 4 feet by 2 feet gives 

 a better return than when the plants are farther a])! rt than this. 



As regards the cotton industry, the Report shows that 

 the total area planted in this crop in the islands of St. Kitts, 

 Nevis and Anguilla was approximately -1,000 acres, the areas 

 being 1,500, 1,200 and about 1,300 acres, in that order. Of 

 the amount in St. Kitts, 1,200 acres were planted as an 

 intermediate croi> with cane, and 300 acres as an independent 

 crop. The returns of lint per acre over the whole area were 

 140 lb. in St. Kitts and 100 lb. in Nevis, thciugh these have, 

 of course, been much exceeded in some individual instances. 

 In Anguilla, the weather was very unfavourable, so that 

 a return of only GO lb. of lint per acre was obtained. 



The number of [ilots in which sugar-cane experiments- 

 were conducted in St. Kitts during the .season was 532 ; of 

 these, 340 were devoted to experiments with varietie.s, plants 

 and ratoons, and 192 to manurial experiments with ratoons. 

 The results of these are published in the Official Reports on 

 Sugarcane Exiieriments in the Leeward Islands, 1907-8, 

 Parts 1 an<l II, issued by the Imperial Department of Agri- 

 culture, and in Pamphlets Nos. 56 and 57. The interest 

 that is taken, in the island, in the new varieties of sugar cane 

 is shown by the fact that, of a total area of 7,493 acre.s, 

 5,900 are in the newer varieties. Of these, B. 147 and. 

 B. 208 occupy the greatest area, with 3,726 and 2,074 acres, 

 respectively. 



At the Grammar School, there were eleven agricultural 

 pupils holding scholarships from the Dejiartment during 9 

 months of the year, and ten during the other 3. The 

 science teaching is conducted along the lines of previous 

 years, being arranged to cover the requirements of the 

 Cambridge Local Examinations. Of eleven pupils who took 

 science subjects in tho.se examinations, eight passed, one 

 obtaining the nuiik of distinction in Senior Agricultural 



JAMAICA: REPORT ON THE DEPARTMENT 

 OF AGRICULTURE, 19<iS U. 



At the time of writing the Report, it was a year since 

 the Department of Public Gardens and Plantations, the 

 Experiment Station, and the Governjuent Laboratory had 

 been amalgamated to form a Department of Agriculture. 

 One consequence of this change has been that the expenses of 

 administration of the gardens have been decreased; while 

 their utility has been increased by a rearrangement, to. 

 a certain extent, of their contents; .so that they have been 

 brought into line with the policy of paying strict attention 

 to the development of the agricultural interests of the colony. 



The number of plants distributed from the Hope 

 Gardens was 225,040, of which 210,208 were economic, and 

 214,832 ornamental, plants. Free grants of 60,837 plants 

 were made, of which 26, 133 were cane tops. Of the economic 

 plants that were sold, the chief were tobacco, cacao, sisal 

 and rubber. From Castleton Gardens, 28,586 plants were 

 distributed, of which 5,018 were sold, 14,072 were cacao 

 plants granted free of charge to small settlers, and 9,496 

 were sent to Hope Nursery. 



The chief crops which figure in the agricultural experi- 

 ments are sugar-cane, cofl'ee, oananas, citrus fruits, mangos, 

 pine-apples, cacao, cassava and tobacco. Among the cane 

 seedlings, B.208, B. 147 and D.625 have been in demand. 

 The first of these is gaining increased favour among planters, 

 while B. 147 seems to be sjiecially suited to certain soils, 

 and D.625 a[)pears to be useful in wet situations. None of 

 the varieties of coffee and bananas that have been tried have 

 shown themselves siqierior to the ordinary ones under 

 cultivation in Jamaica. The drought of the past two years 

 has caused serious damage to the citrus trees of Jamaica 

 from the attacks of the white scale, but a recovery is hoped 

 for on the return of more favourable conditions. Trial ship- 

 ments of mangos to America have shown that the best 

 variety to grow for export is the ' Bombay '. (This is the 

 same as the ' Peters' mango of Trinidad ; see A'picii/tum/ 

 News, Vols, n, i)p. 22, 276 : III, pp. 132, 204 ; V, p. 148 ; 

 VII, p. 388 : Vfll, p. 312.) Only one of the seedling pines 

 obtained by the cross-fertili/.ation of selected varieties has 

 been found to be of any use : this is a cross between the 

 ' Queen ' and ' Smooth Cayenne ' varieties. As regards 

 cacao, the production of this is increasing in Jamaica, and it 

 is suggested that its cultivation .should be extended to 



