300 



THE AGEICULTURAL NEWS. 



Sei'temder 2;3, 1905. 



GLEANINGS. 



The Agricultiirnl Instiuctor at St. Lucia reports that 

 at Dennery Jlr. Ward has .some 150 colonies of bees, and his 

 apiary is conducted on niridel line.s. His queens are nearly 

 all pure Italians. 



A shipment ot 28 dozen Tere Louis' manj^os was 

 recently sent from 8t. Lucia to Messrs. W. Pink & Sons, 

 Plymouth. The fruits were packed in wood-wool in specially 

 imported cases and arrived in good condition. The price 

 obtained for the shipment was equivalent to 2|(7. per fruit. 



Mr. J. 1!. Kovell announces that he has for free 

 distribution in Barbados some 250 plants of the Barbados 

 supple jack (Paiininin har'jadcnsh). A note on this 

 attractive and interesting climlnng .shrub appeared in the 

 A'jriruUimil Neirs (Vol. R', p. U-f). 



During the fortuiglit ended August 24, 68 bales of 

 AVest Indian cotton were impc>rted into the United Kingdom. 

 Medium fine is (juoted in Liverpool at 6"35(7. per lb. ; West 

 Indian Sea Island, medium fine, 1.3(^. ; fine, Hrf.; and e.xtra 

 fine, 15.U?. per lb. [Wist India Conanittee Circular.) 



The Agricultural Instructor at Nevis reports that the 

 mungoose has so increased in numbers in that island as to 

 be a menace to all feathered stock and is even reported to 

 attack lambs and small goats. Monkeys are another pest to 

 sugar and cacao planters ; nothing is safe from their attacks 

 near the mountain. 



There is considerable demand in some of the West 

 India Islands for seeds and plants of CustiUoa elantica. 

 Care should be taken to .save all seeds for raising young 

 plants for distribution. It would be of interest and economic 

 importance if readers would report localities in which this 

 tree is found to thrive. 



:Mr. E. L. Oliver, writing to Dr. Watts in reference to 

 •A small shipment of Nevis cotton, .saj-s : 'I think it well to 

 draw your attention to a specially good lot as well as the 

 faulty lots, to enable you to comjilinient the grower of these 

 3 bales, as I never e.xiiected Nevis could approach such 

 a high standard of excellence.' 



The Inqierial Commissioner of Agriculture has received 

 a packet of excellent ]>icture post-cards showing views of the 

 West Indian Court at the Colonial E.xhibition as follows : — (1) 

 The West Indian Court ; (2) the Barbados Trophy ; (3) a corner 

 of the Barbados Court ; (-1) the Trinidad Court ; (5) the 

 Jamaica Court ; (6) part of the Grenada Court. These cards 

 are published by Geo. P. Osmond, 15, Seething Lane, 

 London, E.C. 



Samples have been received by the Inqierial Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture of a new sweetmeat placed on the 

 market by the firm of Pascal & Co., London, under the 

 name of 'West India Mola.sses Candie.' 



The 7'i.iti/e Mercury states that the hopes entertained 

 that Cuba might become a large cotton-producing country 

 liavc been entirely destroyed by the appearance of the 

 boll weevil in almost every place where experimental cro[is 

 have been raised. 



The licfcree, referring to Trinidad l;iananas, says : — • 

 ' The new, red-skinned bananas from Trinidad are delicious. 

 They have the delicate, jargonelle pear-drop flavour, and have 

 only to become known to be highly a}ii)reciated by fruit 

 lovers. But while they are 3f^. each, they are too expensive 

 for the prevailing epidemic of "no money.'" {I'ort-of- 

 S}iain Oa:et1c.) 



It has been suggested that Barbados and Anguilla ."-ea 

 moss, to the utilization of which reference has already been 

 made in the Ar/ricultural Neics (Vol. IV, pp. 8 and 152), might 

 serve the same purpose as the agar-agar made from Japanese 

 sea-weed, which is largely used for culture media. Samples 

 are being forwarded to the bacteriological laboratory at 

 Cambridge to ascertain whether it would be suitable and 

 what its value w<">uld be. These trials will be reported on 

 in due course. 



It i> important that ripe cotton should not be alh.iwed 

 to remain on the plants after it has properly develoiicd, for if 

 it is allowed to remain, e.specially during showery weather, 

 the seeds will germinate in the bolls, splitting open the seed- 

 coat and sending fait a primary root. When in such 

 a condition it will be most difficult to gin ; the young roots 

 will be broken, and there will be a great danger of the seed- 

 coats being torn oft' and passing with the broken roots 

 through the gin and mixing with the lint. 



The Curator of the Botanic Station at Dominica reports 

 that there is a large demand for plants of the spineless lime. 

 'This lime produces very few seeds, usually only one or two 

 in each fruit, hence there is a ditficulty in raising a large 

 stock of plants. A number of young trees are now coming 

 into bearing at the station which will help to increase our 

 seed supply.' It may be mentioned that 1,672 spineless lime 

 plants were distributed from the station during the year 

 190-1-5. 



The Local Instructor at Montserrat reports : ' The bay 

 trees planted at Harris' Station serve as an excellent object- 

 lesson as to the possibility of these trees being planted os 

 a large scale. These plants were got from the " bush" about 

 two years ago. They were watered and only a few failed to 

 grow. They are now flourishing young trees : some leaves 

 were picked from them late last year. Planted in convenient 

 places about 6 feet square, they can be controlled and kept as 

 a bush liy topping occasionally.' 



A writer in the Bulhtin of tin Depart inent of Agri- 

 culture, Jamaica, suggests the use of the guango or saman 

 {Pitlucolohiura Scuiian) for shading cacao. Its wood is 

 useful for furniture and makes nice flooring. Its beans are 

 al.>o valuable and for them there would be an opening for 

 a trade with Canada. In banana cultivation it was found 

 that good fruits could be grown under its shade, but as in 

 wet situations the branches decay, the writer has had to cut 

 out the trees from his banana walks. 



