168 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



May 20. 1916. 



.^.. 



EDITORIAL i^t:-^i/rp 



Head Office 



NOTICES. 



— Barbados. 



Letters and Biatter for publication, as well as all 

 epecimens for naming, should-., be addressed to the 

 Commissioner, Imperial Department of Agi'iculture, 

 Barbados. 



All applications for copies of the 'Agi-icultural 

 News ' and other Departmental publications, should be 

 addressed to the Agents, and not to the Department. 



The complete list of Agents, and the subscription 

 and advertisement rates, will be found on page 3 of 

 the cover. 



Imperial Commissimier of Francis Watts, C.M.G., D.Sc, 



Agricrdture for the West Indies F.I.C., F.C.S. 



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



Scientific Assistant and 



Assistant Editor W. R. Dunlop. 



Entomologist H. A. Ballon, M.Sc. 



Mycologist W. Nowell, D.I.C. 



CLERICAL STAFF. 

 Chief Clerk A. G. Howell. 



Assistant Clerk M. B. Connell. 



Junior aerk W P. Bovell, 



Assistant Junior Clerk P. Taylor. 



Typist Miss B. Robinson. 



(A. B. Price, Fell. Journ. Inst. 

 \L. A. Corbin. 



Assistants for Publications 



^griculiurat JlciuH 



Vol. XV. SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1916. No. 367. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this number concerns progress and 

 changes in the West Indian sugar world during the 

 last ten years. 



On page 166, the account of the proceedings of the 

 recent Cotton Conference is continued from our last 

 issue. The present account ^has regard to the third 

 day's proceedings, which will be continued in the next 

 issue. 



An interesting note on degerminated corn meal 

 will be found on page 171. 



Insect Notes in this issue deal with insects attack- 

 ing onions, being a continuation of the notes on the 

 same subject in ihe kist issue. Under Plant Diseases 

 will be found a useful article on pine-apple wilt. 



'West Indian Bulletin', Vol. XV, No. 3. 



Number o of Voliime XV of the West Indian 

 Bulletin hiis receiftly been issued. Amongst the 

 important matters dealt with therein are two interesting 

 studies in insect parasitism. The first of these, by Mr. W. 

 Nowell, D.I.C, Mycologist on the Staff of this'Depart- 

 ment, describes two Scoliid parasites, on Scarabaeid or 

 hard back larvae in Barbados, namely Tiphiu jxi.rallela, 

 Smith, and Campsomeris (Dielis) domata. Fab., the 

 investigations described having been carried out in 

 connexion with the Barbados Department of Agricul- 

 ture. The second is by Mr. S. C. Harland, B.Sc, Assistant 

 Agricultural SujDerintendent, St. Vincent, and com- 

 prises notes on Trichogramma minutum (Pretiosa), 

 the egg parasite of the lesser moth borer of sugar-cane 

 {Biatraea saccJiaralis, Fab.). In addition to these, is 

 a useful paper on legislating against plant diseases by 

 Dr. Francis Watts, C.M.G. Bay oil and the cultivation 

 of the Bay tree as a crop plant, is fully discussed in 

 a paper by Di-. H. A. Tempany and Mr. W. Robson. 

 This is probably the first comprehensive discussion of 

 the Bay tree as a crop plant yet published. Following 

 this is a valuable statistical article on the development 

 of Dominica by Dr. Watts, showing the steady and 

 important progress manifested in the agricultural 

 development of the Colony during a period of twenty- 

 three years (l'S02-;1914). Not the least useful con- 

 tribution is a summary of the manurial experiments 

 with sugar-cane in the West Indies, with which this 

 number of the Bulletin concludes, by ilr. W. R. 

 Dunlop, Scientific Assistant to the Department, dating 

 back from 1891 to the present time, with an impor- 

 tant final note on the precision of West Indian 

 methods. 



This constitutes a very interesting number of 

 Volume XV. 



Close Season Ordinance in Montserrat. 



In the Leeward, Islands (iazette for January 13, is 

 a Proclamation by the Government fi.xing the close 

 sea.son during which no cotton has been planted iu 

 Montserrat. This was from September 1, 1915, to 

 March 1.5, 1916. All cotton plants planted before 

 the month of September 191.5 had to be destro3-ed by 

 being pulled up out of the soil, and everj- part complete- 

 ly burnt on or before the last day of January 1916. 



This Proclamation is of interest in connexion with 

 the iliscussions concerning the control of the cotton 

 stainer and internal boll disease that took place at the 

 recent Conference, and which will appear in a summariz- 

 ed form in the next issue of the Agricultural Neivs. 

 There can be no doubt that a close season is desirable 

 in most islands. It is important to bear in mind that 

 the Ordinance makes provision for suspending or 

 changing the dates from year to year, according to the 

 time that cotton has been sown, and according to 

 weather conditions. Hence the Ordinance is an adjust- 

 able one, and in that respect is to be regarded as a. 

 most satisfactory piece of legislation. 



