A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



LIBRAK 

 NEW vol 

 BUT A NIC 



QAItDEI 



Vol. XIII. No. 310. 



BARBADOS, MAECH U. 1914. 



Price Id, 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Al)Mir|)tii>n nf Plant Fooil : 

 InHuencu i)f the Mciliuiii 9.'> 



Agricultunil Atfaiis in the 

 West Indies 88 



Aaricultural Iiiiliist rics in 

 "^Biiti.sh Guiana. 1H12-1.'5 89 



ALrricultural Indiistiie.* in 

 Tiinidad and Tobagd, 

 1912 la 89 



Alcohol for MotoiFuel, Pro- 

 duction of 81 



Book Shelf ... 95 



Cassava, Cost of Cultivat- 

 ing 86 



Cotton Notes: — 



West Indian Cotton 



De[iartnient Kews ... 



Deiiartini-ntal Reports 



French Kuliber 'I'r.nlc 



Fungus Notes : — 

 Kepi>rt oil a \'i.-ii t 

 Lucia 



Gleanings 



Insect Notes:— 

 Errata 



86 

 95 

 87 

 91 



St. 



94 

 92 



90 



P.\GE. 



Insect Niitcs:— (Contd ) 



Scarahee or Jacobs ... 90 

 Ticks in the West Indies 90 

 Maize, Drought-Rusinting 

 Adaptation in Seedlings 



of 93 



Manures and Manuring ... 91 



Market Reports 96 



Meteorological Research .. 89 

 Notes and Comments ... 88 

 Onion (i rowers. Hints to 84 

 Potiitoes, Sweet, I'lanting 

 from Sprouted Tubers and 



Vines 84 



Rhodes Grass and its Intro- 

 duction into the West 



Indies 85 



Rubber Trade, Topics in S8 



Sisal Hein]i in Fiji 8(5 



Sugar Industry: — 

 Kti'ect of Manures on the 

 Time • if Ripening of ."^ugar- 



canes 83 



Selection and Treatment 

 of Cane Cuttings 83 



Production of Alcohol for Motor Fuel. 



CC(>K1>ING to a recent discussion* it would 



^^ seem probable that a new field of industry 



■^^will be very soon opened up in the Colonies 



to meet the rapidly growing demand for motor fuel. 



Last year Great Britain alone consumed about 



20,000,000 gallons more of petroleum spirit than -was 



used in Iflli, whilst it is calculated that American 



requirements for motor spirit must be somewhere in 



the neighbourhood of 1,. 500,000,000 gallons per annum, 



and this figure is likely to increase each year. It is 



true that new oil fields are being developed, but it is 



equally true that old fields are getting exhausted, and 



* See Journal of ihe Boyal SocieUj of Arts (February 6, 

 1914). 



the ever-growing price, not only of motor spirit but also 

 of lubricating and lighting oil, makes it fairly evident 

 that production will not be able to keep pace with 

 demand in the near future. 



For petrol, the obvious substitute is alcohol; 

 and on this point the mechanical engineer and the 

 planter come into intimate contact. Already we 

 know that the greatest of the manufacturing indus- 

 ti'ies — with the exception of the metal trades — are 

 directly dependent on the soil. It would not be strange 

 if agriculture is now to play an important part, in 

 engineering, and to provide the principal source of 

 energy for mechanical locomotion. Of course the 

 principal consideration at jiresent is whether alcohol 

 could really be an efficient substitute. According to 

 Dr. Ormandy, there seems little doubt that it could. 

 Already, we are told, alcohol can be applied with 

 perfect success in specially designed engines in Ger- 

 many, where thousands of machines working on alcohol 

 are emiiloyed for miscellaneous purposes in and about 

 agriculture. But these engines are primarily of the 

 high-compression, slow-running type, and the employ- 

 ment of alcohol for the fast-running, motor-car type of 

 engine has not yet received systematic attention. 

 Nevertheless it has been definitely established that 

 a mixture of alcohol and benzene can be used in fast- 

 running engines of present day construction, and it ia 

 further a fact that alcohol, chemically and physically, 

 possesses properties which should enable it, under 

 proper conditions, to yield superior results as a fuel to 

 petrol. A discussion of the relative merits would be 

 out of place in the present article: but we may 

 strengthen the soundness of our contention that a de- 

 mand for alcohol fuel will spring up, by quoting the fol- 

 lowing concluding passage from Professor Vivian Lewes' 



