5;^2 



THE AGRICULTURAL XKWS. 



.TULV 1,- 



19U. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



Letter.s and iiiattiT tor [jnl)lifati(>ii. as well as all 

 Speciineliis for naming, should lie addivssed to the 

 Commissioner. Iin])erial 1 )i']artiiieiit of Agi'icultnrc. 

 IBarbados. 



All applieatioiis tor oopics of thi' 'AgTienltnral 

 Kews' should be adch'essed to tlie Agents, and not 

 to the Department, 



Local Agents: Advocate Co,, Ltd,, Broad St-> 

 Uridgetown. Lomhni Agents: Messrs, Dulan & Co-, 

 37, Soho Square, W.: ^^'est India Committee, Seeth- 

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

 found on page 3 of the cover. 



The Agricultural Nevs: Piice Id. jjer number> 

 post free 2cl. Annual subsciiption pavable to Agents) 

 2s. -Id. Post fi-ee, 4,«, id. 



_^gncultiira[ Mnrii 



Vol, XIII. SATURDAY, JULY IS, 19U. xiT alil 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this immbei' deals with the care of 

 publications, and points out the advantages that maybe 

 obtained in official quarters as well as on estates bv 

 utilizing properly filed literature of this and other 

 departments for purposes of refeivnce. 



( )n page 22(1 appears iui article on tiie liming of 

 Soils in the Tropics, that brings out the necessity for 

 more investigation into this important subject. 



The notes on the sugar industry, on pages 228 and 

 22U, deal, among.st other matters, with the resiilts of the 

 St. Croix siigar-cane experiments, lit! 8. 



Under the heading Cotton Notes, on page 230, will 

 be found an article of .some general interest containing 

 information on cotton growing in foreign countries. 



New facts concerning the concentration of lime 

 juice are described on page 231, which is devoted to the 

 general .subject of lime cultivation in the West Indies. 



A note on the International Ti-opical Pi-oducts 

 Exhibition and Congi'ess appears on j)age 233. 



In.sect Notes, on pages 234 and 235, deal with 

 insect pests of sugar-cane in British Cuiana. 



The notes under Students' Corner, on page 237, 

 comprise a discu.ssion of the an.swers to questions that 

 appeared in the last issue of this journal. 



Fungus Notes, on page 23M, deal with a new l)ut 

 larndess fungus on lime leaves. 



Hedychium Coronarium in the West Indies. 



( 'oTisideiable interest was aroused at the beginning 

 of I!>13 through the appearance in the Kew Bulletin 

 of an article which showed that fibre can be obtained 

 from the ginger-like plant, Hedi/chium coromirium, 

 finer anfi stronger than ilanila fibre and capable of" 

 making paper of ,special (piality. This article was 

 abstracted in the Agricultural iVews for January 18, 

 1913, and the subject was again referred to in this jour- 

 nal on June 21, 1913, in reference to the fact that in 

 Queensland sisal hemp was stated to have proved as 

 successful as twine for reapers and binders as Manila 

 hemp for which fibre from Hedychium was thought 

 to be the only known substitute. 



The interesting plant under consideration is well 

 known in the West Indies, and is in fact a common wild 

 plant along the banks of streams in many of the islands. 

 In British Guiana, the interest sht>wn in Hedychium has 

 l)een of a practical kind. In the recently i.ssued number 

 ni' Kew bulletin of Miscellaneous Informatiun.A note 

 appears on successful results which have been obtained 

 from an experimental planting of Hedychimn in British 

 Guiana. 'The first planting of Hedi/cluum coronariuin 

 has produced 28 tons of stalk and leaves per acre as 

 a five-months ci-op on dry land. On irrigated land (rice) 

 the first tiials have failed. On the tidal parts of the 

 rivers above the l>rackish water sections the Hedychium 

 grows on swampy land submerged twice in every 

 twenty-four hours with great vigour, the stems attain- 

 ing a length of () feet 6 inches as compared with from 

 2 feet (i inches to 3 feet on dry soil.' 



It may be of interest to add that the same i.ssue of 

 the Keiv Bulletin contains another article on this 

 notable species as regards its production near Calcutta. 

 It is Concluded that Hedycldum coronarium will yield 

 fibre of good paper-making qualities from whatever part 

 of the World it is gathered and that any differences 

 which may be met with must be attributed to lack of 

 unifoiiiiity in the prepaiation of the raw fibre prior to 

 shipment rather thaTi to any inherent differences in the 

 .species itself 



Australia's Supply of Coffee. 



The coffee-growing districts of SouthoT'ii India are 

 endeavouring to extentl their trade with Australia in 

 Coffee. Recently the L^nited Planters' A.ssociation of 

 Southern India communicated with the Dominion 

 Government respecting the prospects in regard to the 

 export of the product under consideration. In their 

 reply the Department of External Affiiirs for Austi-alia 

 enclosed statistics showing the imports and expoi'ts of' 

 coffee into anil from the Commonwealth (hiring 1909 to 

 1912. The imports of both raw and roa.sted cofl'ee 

 ha\e shown a steady increase from a total of about 

 £71,000 in 1909 to about £117,000 in 1912. It is 

 stated that the local production being small, the 

 average consuniptiim may be fairly assumed to be the 

 difference between the imports and expirts. These in 

 1909 were about £4,000 and in 1912 about t.i.OOO. 

 Hence by far the greater ])art of the coffer iiiqioited 

 is consumed locally. 



