101 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 



March 30, 1912. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



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 Commissioner, Im{)eiial Department of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



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 will be found on page 3 of the cover. 



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Vol. XL SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1912. No. 2-59. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Oontents of Piesent Issue. 



In this number, the editorial gives attention to the 

 subject of the Amount and Effect of Sterility and of 

 Cross-fertilization in Cotton. It reviews the results of 

 interesting and important work that has been carried 

 out recently in regard to the matter, in India. 



An account is given, on page 99, of the proceed- 

 ings that took place at ihe opening of the St. Kitts 

 {Basseterre) Sugar Factory. 



Page 101 may be consulted for an interesting 

 article dealing with the cultivation and uses of sesamum 

 seed. 



An article of some interest in countries where the 

 tamboo grows plentifully is given on page 103, and 

 contains suggestive facts in regard to the useful employ- 

 ment of bamboo leaves. 



The Insect Notes,, on page 106 of this issue, are of 

 particular interest on account of the circumstance that 

 they contain information as to the outbi'eak of the 

 cotton leaf-blister mite in Barbados, in view of the fact 

 that this pest is, as far as is known, new to that island. 

 The same page also contains an article on pests of the 

 mango that are found in the Philippines. 



A description and some details of the recent 

 8t. Kitts Agricultural and Industrial Show are pre- 

 sented on page 107. 



On page 110, the Fungus Notes contain a .second, 

 and concluding, article on the bud rot of the cocoa-nut 

 palm. 



The Rainfall of Antigua, 1911. 



An account pf this is published in the Leeward 

 Islands Gazette for March 14 1912, the information 

 being furnished by Mr. H. A. Tempan}', BSc, Super- 

 iiuendent of Agriculture for the Leeward Islands. 



Tli-^ first of the tables given deals wioii the average 

 m uiihly lainfiill nt the stations during the year, and 

 shows that the wettest months were September and 

 October, with 534 and 5' 18 inches, respectively, and 

 that liie diie-t months were March, April and June, 

 during which the fall was 0'76, 18.5 and 098 inches, 

 respectively. 



The t jtal of the monthl}' averages is o647 inches, 

 and, as is pointed out by Mr. Tempanj', this, like 

 the precipit-ition in the previous year, is very deficient^ 

 it is 8 33 inches below the average for the thirty-eight 

 years 1834-1911. The dry period from March until the 

 end of August caused the outlook for the crops and 

 water-supply in the island to be very serious, but the 

 conditions were improved by the receipt of well distri- 

 buted rains in the last four months of the vear. The 

 fact, however, that two years of drought have been 

 experienced is a matter fir some consideration. This 

 is particularly true in view of the circumstance that, as 

 is shown by the returns, the average annual rainfall 

 for the last ten years has been considerably lower thaa 

 for the corresponding previous periods during the past 

 thirty-eight years. 



Influence of Manures on the Constituents of 

 Seeds. 



Experiments have been conducted recently, at the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station at Rome, with haricoti 

 beans of different varieties (Phaseolus vulgaris), ia 

 order to determine the effect of various systems of 

 manuring on the constitution of the seeds. These are 

 given attention in the Bulletin i if the Hureau, of Agri- 

 cultural Intelligence and of Plant Diseases for July 

 1911, p. 1619, and the following results are stated to 

 have been obtained. 



Where the-smallest amounts of manure were used, 

 haricot beans were obtained that were richest in nitro- 

 genous matter 6f a non-proteid nature. On the other 

 hand, these constituents were lowered in amount by 

 superphosphates, and even to a greater extent by nitro- 

 genous manures, the quantity being, in this case, abouti 

 one-third of the proportion obtained in unmanured soil. 



These facts seem to show that the reduction ia 

 quantity of nitrogenous substances of a non-proteid 

 nature was due to the presence of nitric nitrogen, which 

 favours the formation ofproteid substances. It musb 

 be concluded in any case, that the nitrogen in manures 

 exercises a specific effect on the composition of seeds. 



The facts adduced also afford an explanation as to 

 why, in the cultivation of medicinal plants, nitrogenous 

 manures give products less rich in alkaloids, for the 

 latter are, of course, of a non-proteid nature. In this 

 connexion, it is of interest to compare the informatioa 

 given in articles which appear in this volume of tha 

 Agricultural News, on pages 21 and 63. 



