342 



THE AGFJCULTUEAL NEWS. 



October 24, 1914. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



Letters and matter foi' publication, as well as all 

 specimens tor naming, should be addressed to the 



Commissioner, Imperial 

 Barbados. 



Department of Agriculture, 



All application.s for copies of the 'Agiicultural 

 New.s" .should be addressed to the Agents, and not 

 to the Department. 



Local Agents: Advocate Co., Ltd., Bi'oad St., 

 Bridgetown. London Agents: Messrs. Dulau & Co., 

 37, Soho Square, W.; West India Committee, Seeth- 

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

 found on page 3 of the cover. 



The Agricultural Neum: Price Id. per luimber, 

 post free Id. Annual subscription payable to Agents, 

 2.S. Id. Post free, 4s. M. 



Ji g r i c u It i iral |lnuH 



Vol. XIII. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1914. Xo. 326. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this number deals with the 

 subject of West Indian food production, and indicates 

 some of the ways in which the locally grown supply 

 may be economically augmented. 



One page 337, under the heading Sugar Industry, 

 will be found two interesting articles on a new grooved 

 mill roller, and on the question of solidified molasses, 

 respectively. 



Under the heading Fruit and Fruit Trees, on pages 

 338 and 339, appears a resume of the latest information 

 on the manuring of bananas and a useful account of 

 the way gi-ound nuts are cultivated on a large scale in 

 Rhodesia. 



The concluding portion of Dr. Watts's address on 

 the agricultural prospects in Montserrat appears on 

 page 340. 



Insect Notes, which will be found on page 344, 

 deals with a new pest of cotton which attacks the 

 young leaves of this plant. 



Under the caption Departmental Reports, the 

 report on the Botanic Station, Montserrat, is reviewed 

 to show the progi'ess that has been made as regards 

 experiments and the production of produce during 

 1913-14. 



Indiffo. 



There is some possibility that the prices of indigo 

 may range high in the near future on account of the 

 restricted output of the srathetic product. Durnig the 

 last ten years the production of the latter by Germany 

 has enormously increased, with the result that the 

 grcjwth of the indigo crop has ceased to be profitable 

 except the very best varieties on a large scale in Bihar 

 and Java. It may b'e noted, however, that the year of 

 ma.xinium depression of the natural indigo market 

 (190.5) was followed by high pri::es owing to the reduc- 

 tion in area the previous year. 



Extensive experiments conducted in Bihar some 

 years ago showed that natural indigo, in the dyeing 

 pi-i icess, gave a better bloom and deptli of colour to the 

 cloth than the synthetic product did, and, moreover the 

 plant pro(hict is .said not to possess the undesirable 

 od(jur that accompanies the aniline dye. So that the 

 dyer's prejudice being favourable, it is only a slightly 

 higher price which is required to stimulate wider 

 cultivatiiin. 



Indigo, it will be remembered, has been used and 

 is used at the present time as a green dressing. It is 

 a drought-resisting crop, but does not thrive under 

 shade as local experiments in Grenada have clearly 

 demonstrated. It will, however, tolerate a damp heavy- 

 soil provided it gets the necessary sunshine. 



Those wh(j are intei-ested in this crop will possibly 

 be aware that the substance indigo does not exist in 

 the plant as such. In the plant a glucoside called 

 'indican' is produced, which is afterwards artificially 

 turned into indigotin by a fermentation proce.ss. 

 Research work has been done in connexion with this 

 with a view to determining the 'indigotin value' of 

 the plant, and the amount of indigotin in indigo of 

 which the tVjrmer is the essential chemical principle. 

 Conclusive results have been obtained which have 

 assisted in the chemical selection of good varieties. 



In 1907, the Imperial Institute published in its 

 Bulletin that a new plant from Sierra Leone called 

 Morinda citri folia contained a substance identical 

 in composition with indican. The roots of this plant 

 are used by the native dyers in West Africa, and the 

 tissue is dealt with in much the same way to produce 

 the pigment, as is employed in India by the native 

 culti\at<irs of Indigofera spp., the true indigo-pro- 



ducing' 



plants. 



It may be added that at one time indig<j was 

 extensively cultivated in several of the West Indian 

 islands. It may yet prove to be a profitable cultivation 

 for some of these colonies. 



Sisal Hemp and Henequen. 



In the Agricidtural Isews of April 2.5 last, there 

 was an article on the cultivation of Si.sal hemp in the 

 West Indies. In connexion with this subject, a very 

 instructive letter appears in the Journal of the 

 Jamaica Agricultural Society for August 1914, from 

 Mr. H. H. Cousins, the Director of Agriculture in 

 Jamaica, on the gi'owing of Sisal hemp and Henequen,. 



After mentioning the various attempts to establish 



