A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THK 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XI. No. 260. 



BARBADOS. APRIL 13, 1912. 



Pbiok Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Page. 



Agriculture in Jiiiiiaiea, 

 1910-11 



Bacteria in the Soil, Recent 

 W.akon 



British Honduras. Trade 

 and Agriculture of, 

 1910 121 



Candle- wood Tree, Jamaica 123 



Cofl'ee-Growing in Mada- 

 gascar 



Cotton Notes : — 



Injury to Cotton Fibres 



in Spinning 



West Indian Cotton ... 



Department News 



Formalin on Rubber Plan- 

 tations, Use of 



Fruit, Forced Curing of... 



Fungus Notes : — 



The Panama Disease of 

 Bananas, Part I 



Funtumia Elastica, A By- 

 product from 



Gleanings 



.. 127 



113 



117 



118 

 118 

 117 



125 



116 



126 



121 

 124 



Grenada, Trade and .\^'ri- 



culture of, 1910... \.. 123 



Insect Notes : — 



A New Method of Con- 

 trolling; Termites 



International Rubber Ex- 

 hibition 



Japanese Isinglass, i ir 

 Agar-agar ... 



Laboratory Crucibles, 

 Metliiids of Marking 



Market Reports 



Notes and Comments ... 



Rice-Growing in Java, 

 Native 



Rubber Cultivation in 



Mexico 



Rubber fnuii Dominica ... 



Sea Island Cotton in Cuba 



Silk Cottciii in Commerce 



Students' Corner 



Sugar Lidustry: — 

 Sugar Trade of tlie 

 United Kingdom, 1911 



122 



119 



120 



119 

 128 

 120 



116 



120 

 121 

 121 

 117 

 12.5 



115 



Recent Work on Bacteria in the SoiL 



t'HE recognition, in recent years, of the large 

 Uind important part taken by bacteria in those 

 [changes occurring in the soil that may be 

 fa\ourable, or detrimental, to the plants growing in it, 

 has led to an increasing amount of work, on the part 

 of investigators, designed for the purpose of determining 

 the conditions under which such bacterial action takes 

 place, and in what ways it may be influenced in the 



interest of the agriculturist. A review,* published 

 recently, of the chief matters pertaining to such work 

 that have received attention during the past year, 

 affords an opportunity of presenting its chief results, 

 and of indicating the ways in which the results are 

 likely to have application in relation to agricultural 

 practice and investigation in the West Indies. 



The chief difficulty^ that has been encountered in 

 the investigations, so far, has arisen from the fact that, 

 under the artificial conditions of the laboratory, the 

 results obtained concerning the extent of bacterial act- 

 ivity in the soil are not in agreement with those indi- 

 cated in trials conducted under natural circumstances, 

 on a large scale: in the former case, the amotint of this 

 activity is much smaller than that which appears to 

 take place in the soil. In regard to tropical conditions, 

 the difference is likely still to be greater, because of the 

 circumstance that almost all the important investi- 

 gations are being conducted in laboratories in the 

 Temperate Zone, in relation to the soil constitution and 

 temperature that obtain in those latitudes. The most 

 important requirement at present therefore, is the dis- 

 covery of a method that will enable experiments, on 

 a small scale, in regard to the activity of micro-organ- 

 isms in the soil, to be conducted in a way to give results 

 comparable to those obtained in the field; and further, 

 that the work of investigation shall be extended in the 

 direction of affording increased attention to the subject, 

 in its relation to the conditions that exist in the warmer 

 regions of the earth. 



The general bacterial activity in the soil has been 



*A. D. Hall, on Agricultural Chemistry and Vegetable 

 Physiology, in Annnal Beports on the Progress of Chemistry, 

 1911, issued by the Chemical Society. 



