24 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



January 28, 1905. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



Letters and matter for publication, as weU 

 as all specimens for naming, should be addressed 

 to the Commissioner, Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture, Barbados. 



All applications for copies of the 'Agri- 

 cultural News' should be addressed to the 

 Agents, and not to the Department. 



Loixd A(j<'nt>i : BIc.ssrs. Boweii & Sons, Bridge- 

 town, Baibaflos. London Agents: Me.ssrs. Diilau & 

 Co., 37, Soho Square, W., and The West India Com- 

 mittee, 1.5, Seething Lane, E.G. A complete list ol 

 Agents will be found at toot of page 31 of this issue. 



The Agriridtural JVeics : Price 1*/. per number, 

 post free lid. Annual sub.scription pa^^able to Agents, 

 2s. 2d. Po'st free, tis. M. 



Agricultural ^Imufi 



Vol. IV. SATURDAY, .JANUARY 28, 190.5. No. 73. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this issue deals with certain 

 general aspects of the West Indian Agricultural Con- 

 ference of 1905. A brief sunnuary of the proceedings 

 of the Conference is given on p. 22. 



In connexion with the sugar industry a note is 

 published in reference to the position of the industry 

 in the island of Martinicpie, also a sanimary of recent 

 reports of special Counnittees of the Hawaiian Sugar 

 Planters' Association relative to cultivation and manu- 

 facture (p. 18-9). 



A summary of an interesting lecture by Mr. W. 0. 

 Freeman on West Indian fruits is published on p. 20 ; 

 also an announcement relating to a second show of 

 colonial fruit to be held in London. 



Notes in regard to the cotton industry (p. 21) 

 deal with the Sea Island cotton market and Sea Island 

 cotton seed in the West Indies ; extracts are also 

 published from an account in the Manchester 

 GvAirdlun of the great progress already made by this 

 industry in the West Indies. 



A valuable report on the shipnient of bananas 

 from Barbados on p. 23 will be read with interest. 



The ' Insect Notes' in the present issue refer to 

 the identification of the new sugar-cane pest of British 

 Guiana, while an interesting experience with a stinging 

 caterpillar in Trinidad is related. 



Cotton Seed for 1905. 



In connexion with cotton planting during the 

 coming season it is announced that the Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture has made arrangements to 

 procure a further supply of selected Rivers' Sea Island 

 cotton seed to be delivei'ed early this year. Those 

 who desire a suppl}' of this seed, which will bo charged 

 at cost price, are desired to connnunicate, without 

 delay, with the ofKcers of the Agricultural Departments 

 in the colonies in which they reside. 



Mr. J. R. Jackson's monthly report on the London 

 spice and drug market will be found on p. 29. 



West Indian Agricultural Conference, 1905. 



A special conference number of the Went Indian 

 Bulletin has been issued and is being distributed by 

 this mail. It contains a full report of the opening of 

 the Conference, with the President's address, of the 

 proceedings at the Conference dinner, and an abstract 

 of the general proceedings of the Conference. 



The full text of the papers read by the Representa- 

 tives, together with a summary of the discu.ssion 

 following each paper, will be published in the West 

 Indian Bidletin, Vol. V, no. 4. and \o\. VI, no, 1, as 

 soon as possible. 



Elsewhere in this issue will be found a brief 

 account of the proceedings of the Conference and of 

 the excursions to sugar and cacao estates and other 

 ])laces of interest which were organized in cnnnexi(3n 

 with the Conference. 



Development of British Honduras. 



In a recent report on the colon}" of British 

 Honduras Mr. Dale discusses at some length the 

 general principles which should govern the measures 

 to be undertaken for developing the resources of the 

 colony. 



The mineral resources are jiractically an unknown 

 quantity and must be left out of account : the colony's 

 prosperity must be sought in its foi'csts and its agri- 

 cultural resources. Of the latter it is sufficient to .say 

 that for practical purposes they are inexhaustible, if 

 properly workeil. The soil of one part of the colony 

 or an<ither is capable of growing almost an}' kind i>f 

 tropical jjroduce. There are found at present vanilla, 

 the cohune palm, rubber, cassava, tobacco, sugar-cane, 

 cotton, and ginger, some of them growing wild in the 

 forest, some under cultivation at the Botanic Station 

 or elsewhere. 



At present the prosperity of the colony depends 

 upon logwood and mahogany. All its finance rests upon 

 this one industry. When these woods fetch a good price, 

 all goes well : when prices are low, trade and revenue 

 alike fall. The timber trade, moreover, becomes 

 more ditKcidt and less remunerative every year, on 

 account of the increasing difficulty of getting the wood 

 down to the coast as the forests near the rivers are cut 

 out. 



The main efforts of the Government should 

 therefore be devoted to the encouragement ot other 

 industries. With the exception of bananas no such 

 industries have at present reached any considerable 

 development. 



