A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



dBRAR 



N^W YO 



BOTANIC 



GARDE 



Vol. I\'. No. iO^. 



BARBADOS, JANUARY 22, 1910. 



PiircE Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Agriculture in Eleiuentary 

 Schools, Triniiliid ... 27 



Balance of Life in the Soil 17 



Cacao, Fermentation of ... 24 



Cocoa-nuts, Yield of 21 



Colonial Fruit Show 20 



Cotton Notes:— 



West Indian Cotton ... 22 

 The Sixth International 

 Cotton Conj^ess 22 



Cotton Seed < )il and Woollen 

 Manufactures 25 



Courses of Readins; in 



St. Kitts, The" 27 



Kxliihitions Br.ineh of the 

 Board of Tr.ide. The ... 24 



Feeding Cows fcpr Milk Pro- 

 duction 2.'> 



Fibre Plants in India 31 



Fungus Notes : — 



Fungi Atfcicking In.sects 30 



German P]ast Africa, Bio- 

 logical Institute 25 



Page. 



... 28 



Glejiuings 



Insect Notes : — 



Insect Pests of Cocoa-nuts 2G 

 Manihiit Dichotoma, Varia- 

 bility in 25 



Market Reports 32 



New Test for Sucrose ... 25 

 Notes and Connnents ... 24 

 Pine Ti'ues for the Tropics 2;> 

 Pure Starters for Butter- 

 Making 211 



Rico in British Guiana ... 31 



Ruliber on the Gold Coast 25 



Students' Corner 29 



Sugar Industry : — 



The Now York Sugar 



Trade Lal>oratorv ... 1!* 

 West Indian See<lling 



Canes in Florida 19 



Trade between Canada and 

 the West Indies 29 



The Balance of Life iu the Soil. 



I. GENEK.\L CONSIDEKATIOXS. 



generation has passed since it was discov- 

 er that one of the chief causes of fertility 

 in the soil, namely the formation of 

 nitrates, is the outcome of a vital process, and this 

 discovery was the beginning of investigations which 

 have led gradually to a recognition of the importance 

 to the agriculturist of the minute living beings which 

 inhabit the soil. As long as the soil was regarded 

 merely as a medium which provided water, air, support 



and a certain amount of chemically produced food 

 for the roots of the plants which flourished in it, so 

 long did experiments, which had been devised for the 

 purpose of determining the conditions under which the 

 soil would best fulfil the purpose of producing good 

 plants in profitable quantities, give results which, 

 were in conflict with the expectations derived from, 

 the theories of the time. It is only since the recognir 

 tion of the soil as the home of countless, quickly living, 

 beings that an adequate means of explaining the behav- 

 iour of plants in it, under varying conditions, has been 

 supplied. Even now, there is much to be done, for 

 investigations in connexion with such a complex of 

 living and dead matter in speedy change as exists in 

 the soil require time and much taking of pains before 

 explanation and practical application bf their results 

 can be reached. 



The great bulk of the soil is composed of particles, 

 large and small, which owing to their shapes cannot 

 completely fill the space, so that the interstices 

 between them provide room for air and water, while' 

 their surfaces also supply a means of holding this 

 liquid, and are inhabited by the minute living beings' 

 to which special attention is being given at present. 

 Of the particles themselves, those which are composed 

 of mineral matter undergo change which is compara- 

 tively slow; those which are organic in nature, however, 

 alter (juickly, especially at the temperature of the 

 tropics, some of the changes being chemical in nature, 

 while others are the outcome of the activity of the 

 living organisms. In comparing the direct importance 

 to the agriculturist of these two kinds of particles, that 

 of the former must not be underrated, in view of their use 

 as a source of slowly available plant food and of the fact 

 that it is their nature which often helps to determine 

 the amount of acidity or alkalinity of the soil. 



