A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW newyork 



*JP THE BOTAiVICA4. 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. ^'*'''''^- 



Vol. IX. No. 220. 



BARBADOS. OCTOBER 1, 1910. 



Pricb Id, 



CONTENTS. 



Page 



Cacao, Improvement of Vjy 



Selection 308 



Cotton Notes : — 



Cottiin-Giowingin India 310 

 The .'^ea Lslands Cotton 



Crop. 1909-10 310 



West Indian Cotton... 310 

 Crea.sote for Preserving 



Gate Posts 312 



Department News .307 



Departmentiil Reports ... 315 

 Dynamiie in Agriculture, 



Uses for 317 



Fungus Notes : — 



Some Diseases of Rub- 

 ber Trees, Part II ... 318 

 Gambia, Agriculture in ... 309 



Gleanings 316 



Gold Coast, Agriculture in 

 the Northern Territor- 

 ies 312 



Insect Notes : — 



A Cotton-Eating Beetle 314 

 A Suggested Way tfi 

 Detect Eel Worms in 



Cane Fields 314 



Lead Chromate as an 



Insecticide 314 



Page 



Maize, Manurial Experi- 

 ments witli 



Market Reports 



Mexico, Trade of, 1909 ... 

 Milk, Test for Dirt in ... 



Notes and Comments ... 



Para Rulilier Trees, Tap- 

 ping of 



Rice, Cultivation of 



Rice in .Ia])an, Production 

 of. 1909 



313 

 320 

 31& 

 313 



312 



311 



308 



St. Luci.i and Canadian 

 Exhiliitions 



Sponges Collected from the 

 Grenadines 



Students' Comer 



Sugar Industry : — 



Production of Seedling 

 Canes in Java 



I'se of Electricity in Agri 

 culture, The 



313 



319 



307 

 317 



307 



Vanilla, Production of, 

 1909-10 



West Indian Products 



... 305 



319 

 319 



The Use of Electricity in 

 Agriculture. 



'HE employment of electricity on the farm 

 'and estate as a form of energy, and the 

 ,iise, under the same circurastance.s, of sub- 

 stances produced by its means, are rapidly increasing 

 in extent. This is chiefly on account nf the ease with 

 which it may be employed, and becau.se of the cheapness 

 of its production, especially where there exist natural 

 sources of energy, such as waterfalls. The extension of 



the use of electricity in agriculture is dealt with in 

 a recent publication*, from which some of the following 

 facts are more directly collected. 



One of the most obvimis ways of using electricity 

 in the production nf plants was suggested after the dis- 

 covery of the arc lamp. This consists in stimulating 

 the growth by keeping the plants under a very power- 

 ful n-d light, or, on the contrary, retarding it under 

 a green one, for the more special purposes of horticul- 

 turists. The process is known as radio-culture; it is 

 only in the exjierimental stages at present, and will 

 probably, as will be shown later, find its widest future 

 application in conjunction with other means of employ- 

 ing electricity in raising plants. 



It was long thought that the growth of plants 

 might be stimulated by the direct application of electric- 

 ity to the soil in which they are living, and therefore 

 to their roots. This supposition has been verified, more 

 especially by the thorough experiments carried out by 

 Professor Lemstiiiiu in England, Germany and Sweden. 

 The method employed is to pass a current through 

 a wire net stretched above the surface of the ground. 

 The real effect of this current is to induce another 

 current, of the opposite kind of electricity, in the soil 

 beneath the net. Similar experiments are being carried 

 out by other investigators; an account of one series of 

 trials in this connexion, namely, that being con- 

 ducted by the Department of Economic Biology at 

 Bristol University, was given on page 17-5 of the present 

 volume of the Agricultural News. Although it was 

 recognized early that a stimulus to the growth of plants 

 may be obtained by this means, much more work has 



♦^Fanners' Bulletin No. 18, of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture of New South Wales, entitled ElKfiicity and Agriculture. 



