A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XV. No. 377. 



BARBADOS, OCTOBER 7, 1916. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Agricultural Prospects in 



Montserrat 328 



Agricultural Returns in 



Great Britain :«!• 



Agriculture in the Nortli- 



ern Grenadines S'M 



Antigua, New Agricultural 



Instruction Work in, ... .'JSo 



Bookshelf 333 



Cacao, Cultivation of ... 320 

 California Grape Fruit and 

 Its Future 324 



Cotton Notes: — 



Cotton in Fiji 33<> 



Department News .524 



Sea Island Cotton Market 320 

 Cuba, Progress of Sugar 



Production in ... ... 331 



Page. 



Dmiiinica, Green Dre-sing 



Trials in .". 327 



Fiji, Crop Experiments in 333 



Gleanings 332 



House Fly, in Relation to the 



Pen Manure Heap 321,331 

 Insects as a Source of 



Human Food 329 



Logwcpod Industry, Future 



of ... 330 



Market Reports 336 



Notes and Comments ... 328 

 St. Lucia, Exports from... 331 

 Sugar-cane, Growth of the 323 

 Sugar Industry of Cuba, 



Notes on 323 



Transf<irraations in the 



Sweet Potato 327 



We.-t Indian Products ... 335 



The House-Fly in Relation to the Pen 

 Manure Heap. 



ERIODICALS recently come to hand con. 

 ' tain|in several instances important information 

 i relating to the house-Hy problem. Some of 

 this has already been noted in the Agricultural Aeu's 

 (see last issue, p. 314). The whole subject, however, 

 seems to have a sufficiently important agricultural 

 aspect to justify a more general and lengthy treatment 



At the outset one may justly emphasize the fact 

 that agriculture, or rather the maintaining of live stock, 

 is responsible almost entirely for plagues of flies. If 

 manure, in which flies breed, were rigorously destroyed 

 there would be but few flies. Being indispensable for 

 the maintenance of soil fertility, manure far from being 



destroyed must be conserved, and so one is forced 

 to attack the problem in oDher directions. It is 

 the duty of planters, and all those who keep animals, 

 either in the town or country, for business or for 

 pleasure, carefully to consider what ways and means 

 of control there are. 



In the first place it should be mentioned that 

 recent work tends to show that the house-fly breeds in 

 manure or refuse heaps near to dwellings to a far 

 greater extent than in manure heaps in the open 

 country, for the flies are attracted to the dwellings in 

 search of food. The methods of control in relation to 

 the pen manure heap, therefore, which are described 

 below are more particularly important under domestic 

 conditions rather than under those purely agricultural. 

 On the other hand, pen manure under field condi- 

 tions breeds large numbers of stable flies, Stomoxys 

 calcitrans, which are dangerous both to equines and to 

 man. The problem of controlling the breeding of flies 

 in manure is, therefore, a very general one. 



In regard to methods of control, recent work 

 in South Africa* has indicated the practical value 

 of poison bait. The bait employed consisted of 

 1 lb. arsenite of soda, and 2 gallons of molasses in 10 

 gallons of water. Its exposure in open receptacles was 

 not found desirable on account of danger to children 

 and animals. A safer method was devised based upon 

 the well-known fact thac when branches are removed 

 from certain trees that have firm foliage, the leaves, 

 although they wither, remain flat, fairly smooth and do 

 not drop easily. Such branches were used as- 'carriers 



♦C. W. Mally, M.Sc, in the South African Journal of 

 Science, .lune 1915. 



