Vol. XV. No 368 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



189 



AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES IN 



GRENADA. 



Copy of a progress report has been forwarded to tliis 

 Office by Mr. J. C. Moore, Superintendent of Agriculture, 

 Grenada, on the work of the Agricutural Department for tlie 

 quarter ended March 31, 1916. 



Operations in the Botanic < iardens were chiefly in the 

 nature of ornamentation, and t'ornratinn and preparation of 

 nursery beds for planting. Horse beans were sown through- 

 out a plot of land in the orchard in which budded grape 

 fruit trees had recently been planted. The value of this 

 bean as a soil cover and renovator, as well as for producing 

 organic mulching material, and keeping down weeds will be 

 referred to in the next Annual Iteport. In the meantirje, 

 seeds are being distributed from the experiment stations, and 

 efforts are being made to encourage the use of this plant in 

 Grenada. 



The scarcity of suitable land in the Gardens for such 

 nursery work as the raising of limes, budded mangoe?, citrus 

 fruits, coco-nuts, etc., has been met by the Board of Agricul- 

 ture agreeing to the Superintendent's proposal to reduce the 

 area under cacao. A plot of the younger cacao will be 

 reserved. The work of preparing the additional nursery land 

 has been begun by the removal (if some of the cacao and 

 immortel trees, and will be continued as is found necessary. 



Plants distributed during the year ended IMarch 31, 

 1916, included : Limes 26, +-56, coco-nuts 9,689, shade trees 

 850, cacao 500, various economic and ornamental 362; besides 

 2,000 seed coco-nuts, and 630 lb. horse beans. This consti- 

 tutes a record distribution for plants raised in the Botanic 

 Gardens' nurseries, and indicates a satisfactory extension of 

 the area under permanent crops other than cacao, in 

 the isbnd. Extensive preparations have been made to 

 provide for this section of the Department's work during 

 1916-17, including a promising stock of about 30,000 limes. 



Regarding the experiment plots, in addition to the 

 routine work of weeding, etc.. the limes at Morne Rouge were 

 pruned by the Agricultural Otticers. Pruning, though 

 seldom required on lime trees, was in this instance necessary, 

 and consisted in removing only the lower branches touching 

 the ground so as to facilitate the gathering of the crop, 

 mulchi:;g •in.l sanitation operations. The sugar-cane planted 

 at Morne Rouge in November last has made good progress 

 and has, so far, satisfactorily withstood the drought. 



During the quarter the Superintendent attended a 

 meeting in Grenville of the Agricultural and Commercial 

 Society; two meetings of settlers at the Morne Rouge sugar 

 works, and visited four estates in St Andrew's and two in 

 St. George's parishes; while the Agricultural Instructor visited 

 213 peasants' holdings, and made, amongst other.', fifteen 

 visits to the land settlements and experiment plots at St. Cyr, 

 Westerhall, and Morne Rouge. 



The receipts on account of Land Settlements for the 

 quarter amounted to £59 9s. l\d. The land settlements 

 accounts and records were examined by the Auditor, who 



expressed his appreciation of the satisfactory manner in 

 which these had been kept since the previous examination. 

 The weather is reported on as having been particularly 

 favourable for most agricultural operations, the dry season not 

 setting in until about the middle of April. 



POISONOUS NATURE OF CHLORATE 

 AS A MANURE. 



Last December this ( )tnce was informed by the Secretary 

 of State for the Colonies, tliat it was anticiinted that some 

 1,200 tons per annum of unrefined nitrate of potassium would 

 be available from a certain source, and the question was 

 raised as to whether it would be suitable as a fertilizer. An 

 analysis of the material was enclosed, and this showed that 

 it contained some 6 per cent, of pDta.ssium chlorate. Reference 

 to current literature showed that such a considerable quantity 

 of chlorate would be likely to render the material unsuit- 

 able for use as a manure, and other uses were suggested 

 for it. More recently the Colonial Office has furnishe<l 

 this Department with more detailed information obtained 

 from the English Board of Agriculture in the form of 

 a report by Sir, .James Dobbie, the Board's Chief Analyst. 

 This report includes the results of three series of experiments 

 that were conducted in Germany in 1899, with the specific 

 object of determining the toxic powers of varying quantities 

 of chlorate. The first two series were made on rye. No. 1 

 series was with chlorate and perchlorate of potash. The 

 general conclusions and results of this series of experiments 

 were: (a) Plots treated with nitrate containing chlorate 

 caused the leaves to become pale and spotted, but there were 

 no symptoms of perchlorate poisoning; the crop showed an 

 increase of 4 to 7 per cent, (b) I 'lots treated with chlorate 

 and perchlorate without nitrate showed very few .symptoms 

 of poisoning: the plants were very weak owing to the absence 

 of nitrate, (c) Plots with nitrate alone gave an increased crop 

 of 31 to 33 per cent, (d) Plots with nitrate containing 

 perchlorate gave a less crop than (c), and showed .symptoms of 

 perchlorate poisoning. 



The second series of experiments was with perchlorate 

 of soda. Compared with the plots in which nitrate alone 

 was used, the presence of 0'5 per cent, of perchlorate in the 

 nitrate reduced the crop 3 per cent-; 1'3 per cent, of 

 perchlorate in the nitrate reduced it 40 per cent.; while with 

 the 2'68 per cent, of perchlorate in the nitrate the crop was 

 only one-half the size of that from the plot treated with 

 nitrate alone. 



The third series of exiieriments was upon young plants 

 in November. It was found that plots treated with nitrate con- 

 taining 0'04 per cent, of sodium perchlorate were injuriously 

 affected, but the young plants gradually outgrew the injury. 

 With nitrate containing 2 to 3 per cent, of perchlorate, 

 however, many plants were killed. In the case of potassium 

 perchlorate the plants outgrew the injury even if the nitrate 

 contained as much as 3 per cent, of perchlorate. It is 

 therefore evident that sodium perchlorate is more harmful 

 than potassium perchlorate, and that potassium chlorate is 

 the least harmful of the three substances. 



These results clearly indicate that potassium nitrate 

 containing as much as 6 per cent, of chlorate could not be 

 used safely upon plants. It might possibly be used to some 

 extent in compound manures, if tlie proportion employed 

 was such as to give less than 1 per cent, of chlorate in the 

 mixture. But care would need to be exercised in the 

 selection of constituents of the compound manure, as 

 chlorates cannot be mixed with some substances without 

 action. 



