

.y^Ts , :-:\ 





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A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW library 



OC THE I^EW YORK 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. TardeT 



Vol. XL No. 269. 



BARBADOS, AUGUST 17, 1912. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS 



M'lj.ira- 



British As.sociation, 1912, 



Agriculture and the 



Bulletin of the Imperial 



Institute 



Oalciuni I yanainide. Care 



in Storiuj; 



Camphor in India's Wet- 

 test I'istrict 



Coir, Machine foi S 



tinu 



Cotton Notes : — 



Cotton-Growing in Ha- 

 waii 



Cotton-Growing in Por- 

 tuguese East .\frica 



Cotton in Siam 



West Indian Cotton ... 



department News 



Fertility in Pastures, 



Causes of... 

 Fodder Plant, An Indian 

 Fungus Notes : — 



Miscellaneous Informa- 

 tion 



Fuutimiia in Dominica... 

 Geimination, Using Sul- 

 phuric Acid in 



Gleanings 



Page. Pagb. 



Insect Notes : — 

 269 A Weevil Enemy of 



Caravouica Cott(m ... 266 



261 Caterpillars Eating the 



Glass of Lawns ... 2(JG 

 20.0 The Cotton Worm [■> 



the I'nited States in 



26.3 1911 2(;(j 



International Ruhber Con- 

 265 gress and Exhibition 20:5 



Market Reports 272 



I Notes and Comments ... 204 



262 Ramie, Exploitation of ... 264 

 St. Kitts and the Cana- 



262 di.in National Exhibi- 

 262 tion 203 



262 Soil Bacteria and Evapo- 

 259 ration 265 



Soursop and Related 

 257 , Plants. Budding of 260 



263 ' Students' Comer 269 



Trees, Cement for Cavi- 

 ties in 259 



270 Turmeric 271 



271 Vanilla, World's Produc- 



tion of, 1911-12 ... 261 



264 ! Ventilation, Some Con- 

 268 siderations Regarding 267 



The Causes of Fertility in Pastures. 



STUDY of the conditions which may cause 

 an area of pasture land to show fertility and 

 ^the power to fatten aniinals grazing upon it, 

 while a neighbouring area, subjected to similar circum- 

 stances, is greatly inferior to it, is given in a recent 

 article* which presents an account ot valuable investi- 

 gations that have been carried out on pastures in 



* A. D. Hall, M.A., F.R S., and E. J. Russell, I^Sc, in 

 tlie Jdiinial of Afj)'icnltiiral Science, .Tune 1912, page 339. 



marsh land, in the south-east of England. Although 

 the conditions of the experimentation are greatly 

 different from those obtaining in the West Indies, 

 certain matters regarding the work are of significance 

 with respect to the subject of pasturage in general, and 

 are suggestive in relation to siiiiilar obsprvHtioiis that 

 iiiay be cmidncteil in other places. 



Thi> arcMs upon which the experimenters worked 

 contaitied, as has been indicated, fields having 

 a rppiitatioti for fittening animals well, which were 

 contiguous to fields that were only capable of keeping 

 the animals in a growing condition; the former are well 

 referred to as 'fatting' fields, and the latter as 'non- 

 fatting fields-. Work had already been done on 

 soils, in the south-east of England, representing rich 

 and poor pastures; but as the chemical and mechanical 

 analyses did not show any corresponding differences 

 between the soils, it was decided to give the matter 

 a more thorough investigation. With this object, the 

 fatting and the poor fields were chosen where they 

 adjoined closely, and a portion of each pasture was 

 railed off, from which the grass was cut from time to 

 time for the purposes of observation, this observation 

 consisting in weighing the grass and analysing it both 

 botanically and chemically. Soil samples were also 

 taken to the depth at which standing water was found, 

 and chemical and mechanical analj'ses of these were 

 made. Other samples, obtained by boring, formed 

 material for the determination of the water-content. 

 Further, the depth of the water table, the level of the 

 water in the adjoining ditches and the temperature of 

 the soil were noted regularly. 



Dealing definitely with some of the results, observa- 

 tions were made to determine the floral type: that is 



