Vol. VIII. No. 192. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



•277 



.S'7'. LUCIA ; ANNUAL KEPOIiTS ON THE 

 BOTANIC STATION, AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL, 

 AND ENPERIMENT PLOTS, 1W)S^'J. 



The total expenditui-e in connexion with the St. Lucia 

 Botanic Station during 1908-9 was £781; 3s. "id., which is 

 .greater than the sum expended last year by £1-50 bs. id., 

 and less than that of 1906-7 by £2.5 IOn. 2i. An amount 

 of £7 1 Gs. was realized from the sale oi [ilants, flowers, etc., 

 and is the highest on record. It was made u]) of £56 lis. 5rf., 

 for plants, seeds, etc., and £1-1: 14.s. Id. for flowers. 



The total number of plants distributed was 43,492, of 

 which 33,135 were raised in, and distributed from, the 

 Agricultural School nurseries. The latter consisted of 23,610 

 limes, 9,405 cane, and 120 orange plants, besides 450 potato 

 cuttings, 16 cuttings of cacao shade trees, and 1 gallon of 

 .seed corn. In addition to all these, i|uantities of seeds of 

 vegetable and other economic plants, and of ornamental 

 l^lants, as well as cuttings of the last, were sent out from the 

 Botanic Station. 



Among the seeds received from the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture were some of the Jiquie ilanicoba {Manihot 

 dichotoma), and of the Eemanso 'Mixnieohn (Minihot pinhi/- 

 ensis). These were sown soon after arrival, and a few seedlings 

 of each kind have been obtained. It was decided by the 

 Agricultural Society to distribute free the seeds of Tara 

 rubber that were obtained through the Imperial Department 

 •of Agriculture in 1907, in order to encourage the planting 

 of Heivn hranlieii^is in the island. In addition to this, the 

 price of grafted mango plants has been reduced from 4s. to 

 2s., with an increased demand as the result. 



Several of the Castilloa elantica trees at the Botanic 

 •Station were tapped in order to obtain rubber to be prepared 

 and exhibited at the International Rubber lAhibition held at 

 Olympia in September 1908. Reports on this rubber have 

 been made by Me.ssrs. Lewis and Peat, and by the Imperial 

 Institute. The gist of these is that the Iiiscuit rubber from 

 St. Lucia was good in Cjuality, strong, clean, and well pre- 

 pared, though rather too thick, and containing a little higher 

 percentage of resin than it should — a defect that may possibly 

 disappear as the trees grow older. The scrap rubber was in 

 good condition, but slightly barky. 



As a result of a suggestion by the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture that Nature Tencldwj should be used as a basis 

 for futui'e agricultural work in the elementary schools, the 

 Agricultural Superintendent, after conferring with the 

 Inspector of Schools, was asked to dra^v up a syllabus of 

 lessons selected from that text-book, with the object of 

 securing uniformity of work throughout the schools, and for 

 the guidance of teachers. This has been done, and the 

 .syllabus is now in operation. A new scheme by which grants 

 are made to elementary schools for agricultural teaching has 

 been drawn up by the Government, and, in connexion with 

 this, arrangements have been made by which such work in 

 schools is inspected by the Agricultui-al Instructor, who 

 makes his report to the Agricultural Superintendent. 



The expenditure at the Agricultural School and Experi- 

 ment Station was £911 lO-s. There is a monetary return, to 

 be deducted from this, of £195 18s. 9fZ., which was derived 

 from produce sold and that raised at the Station and used as 

 food in the School. The report indicates that the progress, 

 conduct, and health of the pui)ils have been satisfactory. 

 Details are given of the work in the Experiment Plots 

 attached to the School. An interesting table at the end of 

 the report discloses the fact that up to December 31, 1908, 

 of the sixty pupils who had been admitted since the School 

 was opened, twenty-three had completed the course of 

 instruction, and the same number remained in residence. Of 

 the former, thirteen were employed in the island (eleven as 

 overseers) and ten had left St. Lucia. 



The report of the Agricultural Instructor contains an 

 interesting account of the attempts that have been made to 

 establish the Sea Island cotton industry in St. Lucia. Advice 

 has been given, for the guidance of those who are taking 

 this up, by means of lantern lectures and visits by the 

 Instructor to the cotton-growing districts. For the further- 

 ance of the object, free grants of manure and seeds have 

 been made to all having land prepared, the former by the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture and the latter by the Agri- 

 cultural Society. To deal with the produce, a cotton factory 

 has been erected in Castries by Messrs. JIacfarlane, Junior 

 l\: Co. The rest of the report deals with cacao and limes, 

 sugar, and agriculture in the primary schools, and contains 

 a detailed account of the ^irogross made with school gardens. 



A SUGGESTED FOOD FOR STOCK. 



A food to which the name of ' sugar meal ' has been 

 given, and which consists chiefly of rice bran and inferior 

 sugar to which a certain amount of crushed cotton seed is 

 added has been fed for some time to stock by Mr. N. Forte, 

 of Bennetts, Barbados, and it is stated that the animals have 

 thriven on it and have remained in good condition daring 

 its use. An analysis of the food conducted at the Govern- 

 ment Laboratory, Barbados, gave the following results : — 



Moisture ... ... ... 10'70 per cent. 



Oil _ 2-78 „ „ 



Albuminoids* ... ... 12'32 „ „ 



Mucilage, starch, etc. ... 50'38 ,, ,, 



Indigestible fibre ... ... 13 '70 ,, ,, 



Asht 10-12 „ „ 



*Containing nitrogen ... 1-97 



t ,, phosiihoric anhydride I'Ol 



t ,, i)otash ... 0'74 



t ,, insoluble siliceousmatter 5'22 



Expressing the food-material in terms of carbohydrates, 

 the value in units is 88 ; in a similar way, the value of 

 cotton seed meal alone is 162 units. The albuminoid ratio 

 of the food, that is the ratio of the albuminoids present to 

 the oil, mucilage and starch, expressed as starch, is actually 

 higher than that which is required for working animals, 

 being 1 to 4'6. 



It may be mentioned that rice bran consists of the out- 

 side of the grain together with part of the germ. When 

 100 K). of rough rice are n^anufactured into clean rice, about 

 181 lb. of rice bran is obtained. 



It would appear that, where there is likely to be a fair 

 quantity of waste sugar on hand, and where rice bran can be 

 easily obtained, these materials, together with a certain 

 amount of crushed cotton seed, can be combined to form 

 a cheap and palatable food for stock. 



