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THE AGRICULTUKAL NEWS. 



April 22, 1905. 



GLEANINGS. 



Shippers of bananas In Barbados are notified by 

 Mr. J. li. Ilovell that bananas will not be received later than 

 12 noon on the day of the departure of the mail. 



Trinidad's exhibits for the Indian and Colonial 

 Exhibition have been shipjied to England in 123 cases 

 (lie.-^iiles idiout thirty bundles of canes) by the last two mails. 



C)n Tuesday, the Annual General Meeting of the 

 St. T^uiia Agricultural Society was held in the Council 

 Cliimiber, Castries, under the Presidency of Sir George 

 Melville. A sum was voted for establishing a nursery of 

 Chinese banana plants in view of encouraging an exiiort 

 trade in that fruit. 



The last issue of the Jouriial d'Aijrirultnrc Trtqiicale 

 contains a review of recent reports on Andropogons and their 

 essential oils. Special reference is made to the writings of 

 tlie late !Mr. Charles J. Sawer on citronella and lemon grass. 

 An account is also given of the cultivation of these grasses 

 in Java, where lemon grass is commonly grown on the banks 

 between the rice fields. 



lleturns placed before the Board of Agriculture of 

 Hritish Guiana in connexion with rice cultivation in the 

 colony, show that in 1904-.5 the area under rice was 21,916 

 acres, the crop lieing 22,r)97 tons of paddy, and 16,600 tons 

 of clean rice. This is an increase, comiiarcd with the 

 previous year, of 5,247 acres, and an increase in yield 

 amouutinK to 3,660 tons of clean rice. 



Four crates of grape fruit luue been shipped to Covent 

 Garden market from the Dominica Botanic Station. ^Messrs. 

 Finlv it Sons say that they are the best grajie fruit they 

 have handled. 



It is announced that a Stock Breeders' Association has 

 been formed in .Jamaica. Its objects are to encourage horse 

 and stock raising in Jamaica, and to act as an exchange for 

 buyers and sellers both at home and abroad. 



Offers are invited for a 12i Brake horse-power patent 

 Hornsby-Akroyd horizontal fixed Oil Engine, No. 7,925, 

 complete with fittings and spares, the projierty of the 

 St. Vincent Government. Applications to be addressed to 

 th* Agricultur;d Superintendent, Kingstown. 



The Government Entomologists of the Cape of Good 

 Hope and Natal have been commissioned by their respective 

 Governments to visit Brazil to investigate and, if possible, to 

 obtain the parasitic and predaceous enemies of, the fruit fly 

 {Cerafitis cajnlafa), which Compere rejiorts in that country. 



Tlie Ccinimittee appointed by the Govei-nment of 

 Barbados to make arrangements for a rejiresentative exhibit 

 of the island's j)roducts at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition 

 190.5, has i.ssued a ' Handbook comprising Iiistorical, agri- 

 cultural, and general information concerning the colony.' It 

 akso contains a catalogue of the exhibits. 



A new, shallow-draught, twin-screw steamer 'Naparima' 

 was launched on March 7 from the shiii-building yards of 

 Messrs. John I. Thornycroft & Co., Ltd. It is intended for 

 the passenger and cargo service in connexion with the 

 Trinidad Government Jtailway in the gulf of Paria, between 

 San Kernando and Cedros. 



Low -growing trees which do not shed their Ijark should 

 be sslected for supports for vanilla. According tf) a recent 

 bulletin of the Experiment Station, the following trees are to 

 be reconnnended for this purpose in Hawaii: The hog plum 

 (S2Knu!iiiii tiili-ii),corii\ tree {Eri/thrina lit/msp/'r/iKi), calabash 

 (Crescent id Ciiji'te), and St. Thomas tree {Bauliinia toinentoxn) 

 The tree most commonly used as a support for vanilla 

 elsewhere is the physic nut (Jatrophn Ctircas). 



Writing to the Inn)erial Commissioner of Agriculture in 

 regard to the [)rospects of onion growing in the Virgin 

 Islands, ilr. Fishlock says that better results are being 

 obtained this year, the onions ripening more satisfactorily. 

 ' Experience has shown that the best way to grow onions here 

 is to plant the seed in drills in well-prepared seed beds, and 

 then dibble the .seedlings out into rows in well-prepared land 

 duriiii;- showery weather.' 



The Proclamation issued by the Government of Trinidad 

 on June 13, 1902, prohibiting the importation into the 

 colony, from any part of the mainland of South America, of 

 cacao plants, or of any portions of such plants, other than the 

 cured beans thereof from ^'enezuela or Colombia, recently 

 revoked, has now been re-issued. A further exception is 

 made in the case of fresh beans from places in the two above 

 countries jtroved to be free from all disease, any such beans 

 to lie thoroughly disinfected before distribution in Trinidad. 



At a meeting of the liritish Ciuiana Board of Agriculture 

 held on March 31, !Mr. Bartlett spoke at some length on the 

 diseases to which the cacao |)lant is liable. He had 

 I'ccently paid a vi.sit to the cacao estate up the Demerara 

 river, and he illustrated his remarks with specimens of 

 diseased foliage and pods which he had obtained. On one 

 estate he found a plant with what is known as the 

 ' witch broom" disease, which had caused .so much damage to 

 the cacao estates in Surinam. (Demerara Daili/ Chronicle.)' 



The following is extracted from a review in the Wat 

 Inihti Committee Circular on the last half-yearly report of 

 the Colonial Bank : ' The weather generally throughout the 

 West Indies has been too dry for the sugar cro[i, which will 

 be short, but the i)rices now being obtained for both sugar 

 and rum should leave planters a fair margin for profit. 

 According to Sir Daniel Morris, " considerable progress has 

 been made with cotton growing, and he estimates that the 

 crop of Sea Island cotton to be reaped by the end of May 

 will reach some 5,000 bales (of 360 lb. each), of the value 

 of about £100,000."* The banana crop in Jamaica promises 

 well, but that colony is still suffering from the effects of the 

 hurricane of 1903.' 



* ( >vving to severe drought and other causes, the cotton crop 

 will be less than anticijiated, and ni,-iy not i-each 3,000 bale.s. 



