s 



L 



te^ 



A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XIII. No. 308. 



BARBADOS, FEBRUARY 14. 1914. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Adsorption, Selective, Settle- 

 ment of tilt- Question 



51 



of 



B;icteriol(pgic:il Analysi.s of 

 Indi.m Soil 



Agricultural Examinations 



Book Shelf 



Cotton Notes: — 



Cotton Pi-oduction in 



India 



Tlie VVorM'.s Pioiluction of 

 Cotton: Tlire.-iteni-d Soui- 

 oes of Sea Island Variety 

 West Indian Cotton ... 



Department News 



Dioscoreaceae, Curious 

 (iermination in 



European Planter in the 

 Tropics 49 



Fungus Notes : — 



Sugar-cane Diseases in 

 India 62 



German Colonies in 1913, 

 Development of 56 



Gleanings 60 



Great Britain, Imjiortfltiou of 

 Sugai into, in 1913 ... 57 



Grenada, Some Recent Offi- 

 cial Notices in Regard to 56 



Pai.e. Page. 



Insect Notes : — 



Suniiii;ir> of Entouiologi- 

 cal Infoniiation in the 



year 1913, III 68 



Lime Cultivation in the 



West Indies 57 



Live Stock Notes 6.^ 



Market Reports 64 



Notes and Comments ... 56 

 Pigeon Pe.i, Selection of... 68 

 Plantation Para, Question of 



Vai'iability of 69 



Prickly Pear in the I'nited 

 States and Australia, 



Spreading of 58 



Sugar Industry: — 



Guverniiient C< i-operative 

 Central Fact< >ries for 



Queensland 55 



The Importance of Sampl- 

 ing Canes in Regard to 

 their Sale to Central Fac- 

 tories 55 



The Packing of Sugar in 



Bags 55 



Trinidad and Agricultural 



Banks 67 



West Indian Develop- 

 ment 59 



54 



54 

 54 

 50 



58 



The European Planter in the Tropics. 



JX the course of reading a book on the 

 plantino' of cacao, rubber and coffee, which 



(has recently been published for the benefit 

 of intending settlers, our attention was arrested 

 by the following statement: 'The more we apply 

 the principles of gardening to all our operations, 

 the greater our success will be." It is needless to 

 remark that the authors niean this statement to refer 

 principally to orchard crops such as the book deals 



with, and within these limitations the advice is 

 undoubtedl}- sound and opens up several interesting 

 points for discussion. 



Beginning with what seems to be the most impor- 

 tant point involved, it may be asked — Is the circum- 

 stance that tropical planting is horticulture rather 

 than agriculture always appreciated by the European 

 settler? In order to demonstrate the difference be- 

 tween so-called tropical 'agriculture' and the agriculture 

 of temperate countries, we may conveniently imagine 

 what an intending capitalist would have to do in a tem- 

 perate country in order to fit himself as technically 

 as possible for starting an estate in the Tropics. Those 

 who were familiar with the conditions of both systems of 

 laud management would at once perceive the parallelism 

 between fruit farming and market gardening, and tropi- 

 cal plantation work. It would be evident that a knowl- 

 edge of horticultural rather than agricultural scientific 

 principles is an essential requirement. In consider- 

 ing preliminary experience as regards practical work, 

 a short term of residence on a fruit farm would be 

 suggested as likely to be more useful than working on 

 an arable estate. In tropical planting, an important 

 matter is the stndy of the plant. This is done in the 

 case of fruit trees wherever they are grown. But on 

 an arable form in temperate countries, crops and 

 systems are studied. It is not to be inferred that 

 intellectually this latter class of agricultural prac- 

 tice is inferior to the former. On the contrary, 

 arable farming in temperate countries, with its com- 

 plicated rotations, inter-relations between live stock 

 and crops, and the vast amount of judgement needed 

 in handling the soil, is more intricate and less easily 

 learnt quickly. Fruit farming requires a different 

 sort of ability. This arises from the circumstance 



