232 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



July 15. 1916. 



EDITORIAL 



Head Office 



NOTICES. 



— Barbados. 



Letters and matter for publication, as well as all 

 •specimens for naming, should be addressed to the 

 •Commissioner, Imperial Department of Agiiculture, 

 Barbados. 



All applications for copies of the 'Agricultural 

 "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 Commissioner of Francis Watts, C.M.G., D.Sc, 



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



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



■Scientific Assistant and 



Assista^it Editor 

 Jhitomolngist 

 Jdycologist 



•Chief Clerk 

 Assistant Clerk 



Clerical Assistants 



W. R. Dunlop. 

 H. A. Eallou, M.Sc. 

 W. Nowell, D.I.C. 

 CLERICAL STAFF. 



A. G. Howell. 

 M. B. Connell. 



L. A. Corbin. 



P. Taylor. 



The Demand for Sponges. 



The American Consul at Hong Kong has drawn 

 attention, in a recent Eeport, to the fact that the 

 present supply of sponges to that port comes from Great 

 Britain, although their origin is Turkey. These sponges 

 are chemically bleached, and it is stated that they rot 

 quickly and that their sale is limited for that reason. The 

 American Consul urges that the United States should 

 enter the Hong Kong market with Florida and Bahamas 

 sheepwools. A.s to whether the sponges actually originates 

 from 'i'urkey, as stated in the Report, is open to doubt; 

 but if they do, action ought to be taken to substitute 

 British or else neutral produce in supplying Hong Kong 

 or any other British possession. 



There is but little doubt that sponge cultivation 

 could be developed extensively enough in parts of the 

 British tropics and sub-tropics to supply at least a 

 considei'able portion of the number required within the 

 Empire, and in this connexion reference may be made 

 to an article in theWest Indian Bulletin, Vol. XIV, 

 No. 2, dealing with the subject of sponge growing by 

 means of cuttings. The subject from a West Indian 

 stand-point is receiving attention, as noted in the 

 Agricultural News for June 17, 191() ( Vol. XV, p. 20.5). 



Typist 



Assistant for Publications 



Miss B. Robinson. 



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



^griciilliinil fleiuH 



■Vol. XV. SATURDAY, -JULY 15, 1916. No. 371. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this issue deals with the various 

 reasons why un.satisfactory germination results are some- 

 times experienced with seeds in the tropics. 



On page 22N will be found a continuation from the 

 last issue but one of this .Journal, of the article on the 

 Bay tree as a crop plant. 



The concluding section of the report on the Cotton 

 Conference held last March at St. Kitts, will be found 

 on page 280. 



A review of an interesting book on sub-tropical 

 vegetable gardening will be found on page 2.S7. 



Plant Diseases in this issue (see page 238) concern 

 rink Disease in the West Indies. 



The Measurement of Tilth. 



In a previous issue of this Volume of the A(/ricul- 

 tural News (No. 360, p. 49) attention was drawn 

 editorially to the advantage of the production and main- 

 tenance of a good tilth in soils and, as a consequence, of 

 the ability to compare the tilth ot ditterent soils by 

 physical measurements; and it was suggested that the 

 most likely way of obtaining a useful index of tilth is 

 by means of an appliance described by C. A. le Clair 

 in the Journal of Agricultural Researcli, Vol. V, No. 

 10 (Device for Testing the Compactness of the Soil). An 

 illustration of this appliance was given on page 50 of 

 the issue of the Agricultural News referred to above, as 

 also a description of its construction and manipulation. 



The International Sugar Journal for May 191 (J, 

 reproduces substantially our views on this matter, anJ 

 emphasizes the desirability of making trials of such 

 an instrument on experiment stations and large estates 

 with a view to elucidating the many points that might 

 arise, and which shuuld be settled before the instrument 

 could be standardized and madi> to ser\e any useful pur- 

 pose in agriculture. ( )ne point, fur example, suggested by 

 the .Journal is this: that in stony .soils it would be no 

 easy task to eliminate obstacles to the passage of the 

 spike. But this, and other points brought forward, 

 ought not to be beyond the powers of an\- keen agricul- 

 tural experimentist, and data for using this instrument 

 in specific branches of agriculture would, when fixed 

 on, serve a not unimportant scientific role. 



It might be mentioned here, that this Departmenti 

 is having one of these devices made, antl experiments 

 with the object above stated will be condticted in duct 

 course. 



