A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. •^-1 



Vol. XIII. No. 314. 



BARBADOS, 



MAY 9. 1914. 



Pkice Id, 



CONTENTS. 



Page, 



Agi'iculture in the Leeward 



Islands, 1912 152 



Cacao, Buddini^ of 145 



Cacao Fcnucniation in Trini- 

 dad 148 



Cacao, Recent Work on the 

 Budding of 148 



Canadian National Exhibi- 

 tion, 19)4 1.52! 



Ca.ssava, Feeding Experi- 

 ments with 149 



Cotton Notes: — 



British Cotton (irowing 



Association 150 



West Indian Cotton ... 1501 



Cotton-Seed Meal for Hens 149 1 



DeiJartnient News ... .. 157 

 Departmental Reports ... 151 

 Diet ii: the Tropics, Proper 14'.t 



FertiliVcr: New Mohissed 

 Superphosphate 149 



Fungus Notes: — , 



Control of Damping oti" 



Disease 158 



Fungoid Diseases in Biir- 

 badoi, 1912-13 158 



Gleanings 156 



Hawaiian Soils, Eti'ect of 



Heat on I.n5 , 



Indian Report, III 157 



Page. 



Insect Notes: — 



Arsenate of Lead 154 



Control of Onion Thrips 

 in till- United States ... 154 

 I'fe of Naphthalene in the 

 Control of b'le.is 154 



International I'liytopatho- 

 logical Conference ... 153 



Labour on Estates in the 

 East 



Market Reports ... . 



Mealies, Manuring of 



Notes and Comments 



Nuts, riiree New ... . 



Oil-Nut Development 

 British Honduras 



Prize Pasture Competi- 

 tion 



Rice Starch, The Fractional 

 Liipiefaclion of J5;5 



Sugar Industry: — 



A Successful Method of 

 Transporting Cane Cut- 

 tings 14G 



An Electrically Driven 



Cane Mill 147 



The Manufacture of 'Habi- 

 tant' Rum in Guade- 

 loupe 147 



Wattle Dark Industry, 

 Pie^rnl Position 153 



We~t Indian Pnjihicts ... 159 



150 

 . 160 

 . 149 

 . ].i2 

 . 148 

 in 

 . 159 



157 



The Budding of Cacao, 



iLiRING a recent visit to the (Jovernment 

 Experiment Station at Trinidad, the atten- 



^tion of the writer was directed to several 

 rows of cacao plants in bamboo pots, which had been 

 successfully budded. The spectacle of the healthy 

 growing shoots on the brown leafless stocks would be 

 sufficiently pleasing and interesting under most circum- 

 stances from a horticultural point of view alone, but at 

 the present time, when uniformity and good quality 

 figure so prominently on the market as the essential 



requirements of the cacixo industry, the botanical 

 features of this form of propagation fade before the 

 economic. It will be well, however, before proceeding 

 to discuss the commercial significance of cacao budding, 

 to present, in brief outline, the work that has been 

 done and the success that has been attained 

 iu this direction during the past year or two in 

 the West Indies and elsewhere. 



It may be remembered that during 1912, articles 

 appeared in this journal which signalized the suc- 

 cessful budding of the mango and avocado pear in 

 St. Lucia and Dominica, and the result of this 

 work may be taken as having provided encouragement 

 for the still greater achievement attained during 

 the same year in Dominica in the matter of 

 budding cacao. The method principally employed in 

 Dominica was patch-budding (which had proved 

 successful for the mango), but whilst the experiments 

 showed that budding in bamboo pots could be success- 

 ful, it was ibund to be by no means easy, and much 

 remained to be learned by further observation and 

 experiment; especially was this the case with re- 

 gard to the T-method of budding. In Trinidad 

 and Dominica, the success which has already been 

 achieved has arisen slowly, and it has been found that 

 good results depend largely upon the experience of the 

 operators. In both these Colonies, the Departments of 

 Agriculture maintain a decidedly optimistic attitude 

 towards the possibilities ahe;id of budding cacao, and 

 there seems little doubt but that the operation will 

 soon find itself included in estate practice. 



On another page of this issue will be found a short 

 article describing the budding operation as carried on 

 in the Philippines. In this territory, the vegetative 

 form of propagating cacao by budding has met with re- 

 markable success. Over 90 per cent.of the stocks budded 



