264 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 



AurtusT 12. 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 Agriculture, 

 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 oaee 3 of 

 the cover. 



page 



Imperial Commissioner of 

 Agricvltwre for the West Indies 



Francis Watts, C.M.G., D.Sc, 

 F.I.C., F.C.S. 



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



■ Scientific Assistant and 



Assistant Editor 

 Entomologist 

 Mycologist 



CLEKICAL 



■Ohief Clerk 

 Assista7it Clerk 



■Clerical Assistants 



Typist 



Assistant for Publications 



W. R. Dunlop. 



H. A. Ballou, M.Sc. 



W. Nowell, D.I.C. 



STAFF. 



A. G. Howell. 

 M. B. Connell. 



L. A. Corbin. 



P. Taylor. 



Miss B. Robinson. 



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



Papers at the Cotton Conference. 



The Cotton Conference number of the West 

 Indian BuLietin (Vol. XV, No. 4) contain.s, apart from 

 a report of the discussions and unprepared statements 

 made by the various delegates, several formal papers 

 which deserve careful study by those interested in the 

 production of cotton on scientific lines. The first of 

 these is a paper entitled. Some Lint Characters of Sea 

 Island Cotton, by S. C. Harland, B.Sc, while another 

 of much technical interest deals with the Diameters 

 of Cotton Fibres, with Some Notes on Their Breaking 

 Points, by F. W. Lamie, M.A., B.Sc, and S. C. Harland, 

 B.Sc. Dr. Tempany also read an interesting note 

 on twists in relation to fineness, while not the least 

 valuable paper was that prepared by I\Ir. W. N. 

 Sands on the Anderson Oil Expeller and Equip- 

 ment, installed at the Government Central Ginnery, 

 St. Vincent. It might be mentioned here that, by 

 a mistake, in the report on the Conference it wiis 

 made to appear that Mr. Harland had prepared the 

 paper referred to, whereas the case is that in the absence 

 of Mr. Sands from the Conference, the paper was merely 

 read by Mr. Harland. The same applies to a statement 

 read, appearing on page 209 of the Bulletin. Readers 

 interested in cotton -should take note of Mr. Nowell's 

 remarks on the habits of growth of the cotton plant, 

 with particular reference to the cultivation of single 

 stalk cotton. 



^griculiurat Deiufj 



ToL. XV. SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 1916. No. 373. 

 NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this number deals with the 

 natural resources of the British Empire, with special 

 reference to those products which are of interest in 

 connexion with the West Indies. 



Ingenious suggestions with 

 construction of a simple still for 

 contained in an article on page 2.59. 



reference to 

 essential oils 



the 

 are 



Useful facts concerning the banana will be found 

 in an article on page 269. 



Under Insect Notes will be fo\ind an account of 

 important observations in connexion with the cotton 

 stainer in St. Vincent: Plant Diseases consist of two 

 articles on diseases in Porto Kico. 



A Fixed Standard of Purity for Milk in St. Kitts. 



The Order-in-Council made in the Presidency of 

 St. Kitts-Nevis on April i:^, 1910, with reference to fix- 

 ing the standard of purity for milk tinder the Sale of 

 Food and Drugs Ordinance Amendment Ordinance, 

 1915, has recently been amended in accordance with the 

 recommendations of the Commissioner of Agriculture. 

 In the original Older of April I'-l the regulations had 

 regard to the aggregate total of .solids in milk, which in 

 the standard adopted was re(iuired to be not less 

 than 11 '5 per cent. The feature upon which 

 analysts largely depend in ascertaining whether 

 milk has been adulterated by watering is that, iu 

 normal milk, the solid matter other than fat is remark- 

 ably constant in amount and ^^ery rarely indeed falls 

 below fSo per cent. The amount of fat may vary 

 largely and may ruii Up too per cent. It is therefore 

 nece.s.sary in stipulating standtirds to have regard to 

 fat and solids-not-fat separately. This has now been 

 done in the Amended Order referred to. Milk sold in 

 St. Kitts must contain not less than .S per cent, of fat, 

 and must not contain not less than 8 5 per cent, of 

 solids other than fat. The Order also provides that the 

 milk mtist not be drawn from any diseased cow, nor 

 must it be diluted with any other litpiid, and provision 

 is made to enforce the production of milk under as 

 sanitary conditiuns as possible. 



