A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



NEW 

 BOTAI 

 OAR 



Vol. IX. No. 207 



BARBADOS, APRIL 2, 1910. 



Pkick Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Agriciiltur.-il .Slniws, Doiii- 



imstniticiiis lit 



Boes unci P'oiil Brnml 



' Bicliet ' on Caoa 



Ceara Rubljer Trees, \U-\d 



of Latex from 



Copra from Cociia-niits, 



Yield uf 



Cotton Notes : — 



British Cotti m-O n jwini; 

 Production and CiMisniii|i 



til in of Co'. ton 



West Indian Cttnn ... 

 Fertilizing IntluencL- uf 



Sunlight, The 



Fungus JSotes ; — 



The Chief Groups of 



Fungi, Part III 



(iunnination of Seeds, 



Causes of 



Gleanings 



Insect Notes • - 



Lady-Birds ..nd \Vee\il 

 Borers 



Page 



. 105 

 . 105 

 . 105 



107 



101 



102 



102 

 102 



107 

 110 

 108 

 106 



P.\GE. 



Mangos, A Ulelliod nf 



Propagating 104 



112 



9!t 



Market Reports 



Methods of Measuring 

 Trees 



Mexican Vegetable Waxes, 



Two 104 



Mistletoe. Met hods for Get- 



ting Rid of. 



103 



Vanilla in the Seychelles 105 



Way in which Plants T.ike 



u|) Nitrogen, A 97 



" Ill 



101 



West Indian Products 

 Why Plants are Green 



A Way ill Which Plants Tako up 

 Nitioa'on. 



'T has been long recognized that the food of 

 both plants and animals must include bodies 



)that contain nitrogen if they are to continue 

 their existence. In bal.ancing a ration fjr an animal, 

 or in deciding upon the inanurial treatment for a plant, 

 the chief attention is given to those bodies, in the ration 

 or the manure, which contain nitrogen. In order to 

 Hourish, the animal must have a sufficieut supply of 

 proteids, and the plant must be given an adequate 

 amount of nitrogenous food. 



There is, however, a difference in the complexity of 

 the nitrogenous compounds that are supplied in the tw» 

 cases. The animal derives all its energy from that 

 which is given up when simpler substances are formed 

 from the complex bodies that have been absorbed into 

 its sj'stem: therefore it can onl^-make use of compounds 

 that have been built up already by the expenditure of 

 energy. The plant, un the other hand, can derive its 

 energy from an external source — the light of the sun — 

 and it can use this energy in the formation of complex 

 bodies from simpler ones. Subsequently, these 

 are used for the purpose of providing energy, by 

 their breaking down, in the inner parts of the plant, to 

 which the light of the sun cannot penetrate, or they 

 are absorbed by animals, for which they perform a simi- 

 lar function. The plant brings external energy to bear 

 upon the task of building; the animal makes use of that 

 energy when the structure falls. 



It is a matter of common knowledge among agricul- 

 turists that plants absorb nitrogen directly through 

 their roots, as nitrates, and that leguminous plants have 

 an additional power to live in symbiosis with bacteria 

 inhabiting nodules on their roots, which render the 

 nitrogen of the air quickly available to them. Little 

 attention has been given, in practice, to a third way in 

 which plants take in nitrogen, namely in the form of 

 salts of ammonia. The purpose of the present article 

 is to draw attention to this method, and to indicate 

 applications of it that may possibly be made in practice. 



The general opinion has been, in the past, that 

 salts of ammonia, such as ammonium sulphate, jould 

 not be absorbed directly by plants in amounts such as 

 would be useful to them. The common idea was that 

 all the sulphate of ammonia applied as manure must 



