A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



f>4.»^ 



Vol. XIII. No. 311. 



B.ARBADOS, MARCH -28, 1914. 



Pkice Id. 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Agi'icultural Progress in 

 Dominica 105 



Agricultural Show in Mont- 

 serrat, 1914 1U4 



Bombay, Steam Ploughing 



in 103 



Book Shelf lO'J 



Bovine Tuberculosis in the 

 West Indies, Control of 97 



Cold Storage of Fruit and 

 Vegetables 100 



Cotton Nntes: — 



West African Cotton... J 02 

 West Indian Cotton ... 102 



Density of Population in the 



Tropics 104 



Departmental Reports ... 107 



Fungus Notes : — 



Diseases of SweetjPolato 110 

 Gleanings " ... ... IdS 



Page. 



Insect Notes: — 



The Eiadication of Mos- 

 ((uitoes by the Cultivation 

 of Bats 106 



•lava, Green Dressing Experi- 

 ments in 101 



Market Reports 112 



Notes and Counnents ... 104 



Selection of Lands for Plan- 

 tations in tlie Tropics... 105 



.*ubsoiling in Southern 

 India 103 



Suyar Industry: — 



Sugar-cane Experiments 

 in the Leeward Islands, 

 1912-13 99 



Tick Problem in New South 

 Wales 102 



West Indian Products ... Ill 



West Indian Fibres and 

 Rubber 105 



Wood. Preservation of ... 107 



The Control of Bovine Tuberculosis 

 in the West Indies. 



JT the Tuberculosis Conference held in 

 Trinidad during March 191.3, it was fully 



5 established that bovine tuberculosis exists 

 in the West Indies and that it is urgently necessary 

 bo advise and recommend the measures that should be 

 taken to prevent the extension of the disease and 

 the possible infection of human subjects. Up to the 

 present time no definite action has been taken, at 

 least not in the Windward and Leeward Islands, and 

 since it is in these colonies that recent systematic 

 observations have been made principally, it would 



seem desirable to bring forward in these columns the 

 facts relating to the transmission of tuberculosis from 

 animals to man, and the measures that have been 

 adopted in other countries for the prevention of this 

 transmission. 



Largely as the result of the enquiries of successive 

 Royal Commissions, it is now to be regarded as an 

 accepted fact that bovine tuberculosis is communicable 

 to man. and that it is principally transmitted by the 

 agency of milk used for human consumption. Is is 

 abundantly clear, then, that any operations aiming at 

 the diiuinution or eradication of the disease would not 

 only be productive of benefit as regards the improve- 

 ment of the condition of live stock, but would also 

 comprise a material step forward in the campaign 

 against the disease in man. 



At present there are four recognized types of 

 tubercle germs — human, bovine, avian, and a type 

 that infects cold-blooded animals. As already stated, 

 the human and bovine forms are transmissible and 

 it is also important to observe that tuberculosis in 

 fowls can be communicated to pigs and vice rersa. It 

 is evident, then, in view of the cosmopolitan n.iture of 

 the disease, that the fate of the bacilli outside 

 the animal body is a most important phase of the 

 problem of prevention. It is the germ living what 

 may be regarded as a saprophytic life which demands 

 our first attention, for this is the material which is 

 a constant source of infection. The tubercle bacillus 

 although it does not form spores, is one of the most 

 resistant species of bacteria; it can, however, be killed 

 in a few minutes to a few hours when exposed to direct 

 sunlight. In running water, tubercle bacilli can live 

 for more than a year. A watering trough harbouring 

 these germs may therefore be a dangerous source of 



