40 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Januaey 31, 1914. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



Letters and matter for publication, as well as all 

 -specimens for naming, should be addressed to the 

 Coinmissioner, Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



All applications for copies of the 'Agricultural 

 .News' should be addressed to the Agents, and not to 

 the Department. 



Local Agents: Advocate Co., Ltd., Broad St., 

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

 37, Soho Square, W.; West India Committee, Seeth- 

 ing Lane, E.C. The complete list of Agents will be 

 ^ound on page 3 of the cover. 



The Agricultural News : Price Id. per number, 

 post free 2d. Annual subscription payable to Agents, 

 '22s. d. Post free, 4s. -id. 



llgricultural '£ixm 



ToL. Xm. SATURDAY, .JANUARY 31, 1914. No. 307. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this number concerns the princi- 

 ples involved in the proper taking of samples. The 

 subject is considered both from the point of view of the 

 investigator in agricultural science, and from the point 

 of view of the estate manufacturer of agricultural 

 produce. 



<Jn page 35. information will be found concerning 

 the agricultural side of the essential oil industry in 

 relation to perfumery. 



The fruit and fruit trees page contains two inter- 

 esting articles dealing with variation in the size of coco- 

 nuts, and the profitable inanuring of bananas, respect- 

 ively. 



Further notes on the report of the standardization 

 committee appointed by the Rubber Growers' Associa- 

 tion, appear on page 37. 



(Jn page 38, a list of useful references occurs con- 

 cerning breeds of Indian cattle. Notes on cotton also 

 appear on this page. 



One ofthe first series of experiments with dynamite 

 in regard to the soil is described brielly on page 40. 

 The trials are being made in Dominica and Antigua. 



Insect and Fungus Notes comprise, respectively, a 

 •summary of information given in the Agricultural 

 Nevss on plant pests and diseases during 1913, 



Publications of the Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture. 



The Report on the Botanic Station, St. Kitts- 

 Nevis, is just being issued, and of this series there now 

 remains to come only the Antigua and -Montserrat 

 publications, both of which are m the hands of the 

 printer The 1!J12-13 Report on the Leeward Island 

 Sugar-cane experiment is soon to be issued together 

 with the West Indian Ballctin. Vol. XIV, No. 1. This 

 latter publication will, it is believed prove interesting. 

 Its contents are confined to economic and social science 

 questions — a phase of West Indian agriculture which 

 has not been attacked as systematically in the past as 

 it might have been. There are other forces at work in 

 agriculture besides purely chemical and physical 

 ones, and as social conditions become more and more 

 intensive and established, it becomes more and more 

 necessary to try and control these economic tendencies 

 to the best advantage scientiricallj'. 



In speaking of the first number of ^'olunie XIV 

 of the Bulletin, it may be added that the index to 

 Volume XIII is now ready. The index to the Agrl- 

 caltiDul Neivs is nearing completion and should be 

 ready for distribution in about a month's time. It 

 might have been earlier but at this time of year the 

 publication work connected with Reports causes con- 

 siderable pressure. 



Agricultural Credit Movement in Trinidad. 



Co-operative banks have been advocated in Trini- 

 dad since 1889, but it would seem now that some definite 

 action is soon to be taken in the colony in regard to their 

 actual establishment. According to an article in the 

 Ballet in of the Department of AgricuUure {D&^emhQt 

 1913), the District Agricultural Societies have been 

 asked to consider carefully the regulations drawn up 

 in connexion with the St. Vincent (Jrdinance, and to 

 suggest any desirable modifications. Doing this, it is 

 thought, will provide the Government with something 

 tangible to go upon. 



In the meantime, the Government will examine 

 a great deal of information obtained from India where, 

 as everyone knows, the system of rural and urbaa 

 credit is very efficient. Residents in Trinidad and 

 other places in the West Indies where the banks move- 

 ment is on foot, may be glad to know that an extremely 

 interesting and comprehensive account of agricultural 

 co-operation in British India will be found in the 

 Bulletin of the Bureau of Economic and Social 

 Intdligence, No. 3 of 1910. This describes the initial 

 difficulties, sources of capital, size, purposes, and uses of 

 loans, legislation,' central banks and other matters, 

 supplemented by interesting statistics. 



It is somewhat surprising, in view of the large 

 coolie population in Trinidad and British Guiana, that 

 authorities have not earlier followed up co-operative 

 credit activities in the East. Curiously enough, the 

 growth of co-operative credit in India started at the 

 same time that the subject first received definite 

 attention in the West Indies (190.5), but it is 

 unfortunately impossible to compare relative progress 

 in the two places. 



