IJlM . 



A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OP THK 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



HGR 



^E\v 1 

 botan 



ttAJOl 



Vol. XI. No. 259. 



BARBADOS, MARCH 30, 1912. 



Pbiok 14. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Page. 



Bamboo Leaves as Fodder 



and Litter 



Cac.'io in Kcuador, in 1910 



Cntton, AniDinit and Efi'ect 



of Sterility and of 



( 'ri iss-Fert il iz.it i i m in 



Ootton Notes : — 



Cotton Ex])ort.s from tlie 

 West Indies in 1911... 

 Cotton in Northern Ni- 

 geria 



West Indian Cotton ... 



Department New.s 



Erythrina [ndica, Uses of 

 Fungus Notes : — 



15ud Rot of tlie Cocoa- 

 nut Palm, Part 11... 



Gleanings 



Gi aft Hybrids, Nature of 

 Insect Notes : — 

 Mango Pests in the 



Philippines 



Tlie Cotton Leaf- Blister 

 Mite in Barbados ... 



iManures, Intluence of, on 

 103 Constituents of Seeds 104 



lO.o Market Reports 112 



Notes and Comments ... 104 

 Prize-Holdings Oonipeti- 

 97 tion in St. Lucia, 



! l!tlM2 100 



Rainfall of .Antigua, 1911 104 

 102 Rubber, Machine for Ex- 

 tracting 105 



102 St. Kitts .Agricultural and 

 102! Industrial Show ... lOr 

 101 Sesiiinuui Seed, Cultiva- 

 105 j tion and Uses of ... 101 

 jSilk Industry in France 



and Brazil 107 



110|Students' Corner 109 



108 Sugar Industry:— 



105 ' Opening of the St. Kitts 



Sugar Factory 99 



iTobacco, Curing of 102 



106|Trees, IWetliods of 



Planting lOS 



100 Wtst Inai.in Products ... Ill 



Amount and Effect of Sterility and of 

 Cross-Fertilization in Cotton. 



'N experimentation having for its object the 

 production of good types of cotton for ciilti- 

 (vation, two of the most important matters 

 that require consideration in regard to their results 

 with respect to the nature of the product obtained are 

 the degree of sterility that may bo produced in plants 

 subjected to artificial self-fertilization for a series of 



successive generations, and the extent to which cross- 

 fertilization takes place under normal field conditions. 

 These subjects receive attention, frono the point of view 

 of work with cotton in India, in a publication* issued 

 recently by the Imperial l)ei)artment of Agriculture 

 in India. The subject-matter of this has formed the 

 basis of what follows in the article below. 



In the first stage of experimentation, a number of 

 individual plants has to be protected artificially, in 

 order to prevent access to the Howers of foreign pollen 

 of unknown origin. In the next stage, the number of 

 plants in the experiment has become too great for 

 such artificial protection. It results that in the first 

 stage, the most important matter is the extent to 

 which sterility may arise through continuous self- 

 fertilization; and in the second, the extent of cross- 

 pollination that may take place is the circumstance 

 that requires the most careful consideration. In regard 

 to this, it is hardly to be expected that it; is possible 

 to determine ex.actly the amount of cross-fertilization 

 that is taking place under certain conditions. It is for 

 this reason that the matters that are being reviewed 

 have not arisen as the outcome of a carefully planned 

 series of experiments, but rather of the collection of ob- 

 servations made during investigations with another 

 definite purpose. As has been indicated, the subjects 

 comprise the occurrence of sterility, chiefly through 

 repeated self-fertilization, and the frequency with which 

 crossing takes place in cultivation — two phenomena 

 that need separate treatment. 



The study of the cotton flower does not lead to any 

 specific indications that it is normally either cross- or 



*Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India, 

 Botanical Series, Vol. IV, No. 3. 



