Vol. XI. No. 262. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



155 



DOMINICA: REPORTS ON THE BOTANIC 

 STATION, EXPERIMENT PLOTS, AND ACRICUL- 

 TURAL SCHOOL 1910-11. 



As has been announced in the Agri'ullural News, the 

 work of the Agricultural Department in Dominica has been 

 re-organized to the extent that the agricultural pupils will 

 be trained in future at the experiment plots, under the 

 Botanic Garden stall"; this change is noted in the report on the 

 Botanic Station. The latter report shows that the garden 

 and experiment plots have been maintained in good order, 

 and interesting details are given concerning striking orna- 

 mental and economic plants that are in permanent cultivation 

 at the former institution. The statistics presented concerning 

 the distribution of plant.s show that the total number sent 

 out during the period under review was 69,295, among which 

 may be noted more particularly: limes 46,112, Para rubber 

 11,664, cacao 4,856, spineless limes 1,500, shade trees 1,265, 

 vanilla 1,162, and grafted cacao 574. The seed that was sold 

 included 600 Para rubber seeds and 7 1 7 packages of vegetable 

 seeds, as well as quantities of seeds of Castilloa elastica, 

 Congo coffee, avocado pear, ordinary and spineless limes, 

 papaw, fodder grasses, and of green dressings. 



In the notes on economic plants, it i.s stated that a con- 

 tinuation of the investigation in regard to the acidity of the 

 juice of spineless limes .still indicates that this feature is more 

 or less constant in individual trees. Failure has been expe- 

 rienced with soy bean.^, and the roots have formed no nodules, 

 notwithstanding the fact that seeds have been sown several 

 times in the same soil. The notes in this section of the 

 report, after giving information concerning Eucalyptus and 

 grafted cacao at the station, proceed to deal with experiments 

 that are being conducted with grafted Alligator and Forastero 

 cacao, which show that grafted cacao benefits, in Dominica, 

 by the provision of light shade during early growth. With 

 reference to samples of Alligator ca.ca.0 {Theoli'mma pcntayona) 

 sent to the firms of Messrs. J. S. Fry & Co., Kowntree & Co., 

 and Cadbury Bros., Ltd., in England, and to the Pennsylvania 

 Chocolate Company in the United States, the reports agreed 

 in stating that the product possessed a peculiar flavour, and it 

 seems that its only use in commerce would be' of a very special 

 kind ; it does not appear that it would be a source of profit, 

 either to growers or manufacturers. Samples of the cured 

 beans of Tiger cacao ( Tlieobronm Itii-uhr) submitted to the 

 three English firms mentioned above elicited the unanimous 

 opinion that this is of practically no value. It may be said 

 that further details concerning these reports have appeared 

 in the West Indian Bidletin, Vol. X, No. 4. In regard to 

 rubber, samples of Ficus elastica rubber produced at the 

 station were examined at the Government Laboratory in 

 Antigua, and it was shown that some improvement is 

 needed in the preparation in order to obtain a product with- 

 out stickiness. It is recommended that this plant should be 

 utilized for planting ridges and protective belts, rather than 

 in systematic cultivation. Observations on Para rubber at the 

 Botanic Station, and in parts of the island, have shown that 

 the conditions at the station are not compl6fcely suitable for 



its successful cultivation, and that the growth of Hevea trees 

 in the wet districts is satisfactory, so far. This part of the 

 report concludes with interesting information concerning 

 fruit trees of various kind.s that have been imported recently, 

 for trial. 



The meteorological returns show that the rainfall at the 

 Botanic Station during the year LdlO was 90-64 inches, 

 which is the heaviest annual rainfall since 1893, with the 

 exception of that in 1903, when it measured 9072 inches. 

 As is pointed out in the report, the weather conditions in the 

 island appear to have entered upon 'a wet period, following 

 a series of years that were fairly dry. The means for eighteen 

 years indicate that, in Dominica, April is the driest month 

 and July the wettest. 



The next subject of more general interest that is dealt 

 with in the report has reference to the testing of lime juice, 

 which might well be taken up on a larger scale in Domi- 

 nica. An improvement in lime juice manufacture in the 

 island, that has taken place in the past few years, 

 is signalized; this consists in allowing the juice to 

 settle in vats, and boiling the clear juice instead of 

 the juice mixed with the .sediment. With respect to 

 limes, again, among the more important results that have 

 been elucidated by experiment are the facts that the smaller 

 limes are usually more acid than the larger ones; the 

 acidity of the fruits increases as the trees attain maturity; 

 different trees growing under identical conditions show dis- 

 tinct vaiiation in the acid content of their fruits; and that in 

 crushing the largest amount possible of juice should be extract- 

 ed from the limes. An interesting account follows, of observa- 

 tions en the pollination of cacao flowers. 



Details concerning the Permanent Exhibition Committee 

 show that Dominica was represented during the year under 

 review at the Colonial Fruit Show and at the Dominion Exhi- 

 bition at St. .John, N.B. With regard to other means in 

 connexion with the encouragement and direction of agricul- 

 tural ettect there should be mentioned the collection of econ- 

 omic products at the Victoria Museum, and the Prize-holdings 

 Competition, the latter of which receives a detailed account. 

 The lime crop increased by 85,000 barrels, being 369,000 

 barrels; the exports of green limes have increased steadily from 

 13,564 barrels in 1905 to 27,427 in 1910. The export of 

 citrate of lime continues to increase, being 5, 1 94 cwt. value 

 £16,880, in 1910, as compared with 3,447 cwt. value 

 £11,203, in 1909. The recent exports of cacao have been as 

 follows: 1908, 9,820 cwt; 1909, 10,844; 1910, 11,272 cwt. 

 The experiments in the manuring of cacao, conducted at 

 the Botanic Station, still exhiljit the large benefit that is 

 received from mulching. As is stated in the report, the yields 

 from the mulched plot continued to show a considerable excess 

 over those obtained from the plots receiving other forms of 

 manurial treatment, and it will be of interest to see how long 

 the yearly increase of productiveness will continue; these 

 results are supported by experiments that have been com- 

 menced more recently at the station, in plots some of which 

 are situated on the hill-side. As regards cacao experiments in 

 country districts, those at Picard maintained the super- 

 iority of treatment with pen manure, and supported the 

 conclusions that are reached in the trials at the Botanic 

 Station. Other interesting matters in this part of the report 

 refer to further experiments with cacao, and with citrus plants. 

 The series of reports concludes with information of the 

 usual kind concerning the Agricultural School, the work of 

 which, it has been stated already, has been re-organized. The 

 experiment plots at this institution included cacao, rubber 

 and grafted cacao, ground nuts, and trials of different 

 methods of tree-planting. ^ 



