Vol. IV. No. 93. 



THE AGPJCULTURAL NEWS. 



345 



West Indian Bulletin. 



The IIW Ivdkui Bulletin. (Vol. VI, no. 3) will 

 be issued in time for distribution by next mail. 



This number contains valuable information in 

 regard to the cotton and cacao industries ; also a paper 

 by the Hon. Francis Watts on the soils of Montserrat. 



An article on the bud-rot disease of the cocoa-nut 

 palm contains all the available information in regard 

 to this disease, which is at the present time causing 

 considerable anxiety all over the West Indies. 



^-^^•-♦-^ — ■ 



St. Vincent Cotton Growers' Association. 



At a meeting of the St. Vincent Cotton Growers' 

 Association, held on October 4, a discussion took place 

 as to the advisability of transforming the association 

 into a general agricultural society. Mr. C. J. Simmons 

 remarked that by extending the scope of the 

 association so as to embody all matters concerning the 

 agricultural and commercial interests of the island, the 

 usefulness of the body would be incieased. 



A motion was thereupon carried that the Imperial 

 Commissioner of Agriculture and the President and 

 Vice-president of the association should be informed 

 that it was the wish of the members to form themselves 

 into a general agricultural society to be styled, perhaps, 

 the Cotton Growers' Association and Agricultural and 

 Commercial Society. 



The Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture has 

 since expressed the opinion that this proposal is likely 

 to extend the usefulness of the association and to 

 ■enable it to deal with several matters of interest to the 

 island. 



Extirpated West Indian Birds. 



The A id- for July 190-5 contains a paper by 

 Mr. Austin H. Clark on ' Extirpated West Indian 

 Birds.' Mr. Clark has brought together all the 

 evidence as to the existence in former years of birds not 

 known at the present time in Barbados, St. Vincent, 

 the Grenadines, and Grenada. Reference to a few of 

 the.se may be of interest. 



The pied-billed grebe, formerly known in Barbados 

 as the ' two-2)enny chick,' is not found at the present 

 time ; the name ' two-penny chick ' is now applied to 

 the sora {Porzana Carolina). 



The West Indian buzzard is recorded as occurring 

 in Barbados by Ligon (1673), when the greater part 

 of the island was still clothed in natural forest. 



The description by Hughes in 17.50 of the 'wild 

 wood pigeon' evidently refers to the ramier {Cohunha 

 squamosa), which, although abundant in the neigh- 

 bouring islands, does not now visit Barbados. 



The quaking thrush is recorded by all the old 

 observers as occurring in Barbados, but has probably- 

 been driven away by the deforestation of the island. 

 At the present time it occurs on all the islands from 

 Guadeloupe south to St. Vincent. 



It is also stated that Allenia alhivantri'i, •\^■hieh 

 became a resident in the Grenadines after the 

 hurricane at St. Vincent in 1898, has now entirely 

 disappeared from these islands. 



Subsidiary Industries in the Seychelles. 



In consequence of the unsatisfactory position of 

 the vanilla industry in the Seychelles, it has become 

 necessary to devote attention to the promotion of 

 subsidiary industries. 



The most promising (jf these at the present time 

 is the cocoa-nut industry. The total value of the 

 exports of cocoa-nut ])roducts in 1904 was £19,666, as 

 against £16,44.5 in the previous year. 



It is mentioned in Vae Annual Report for 1904 

 that the demand for copra and the good price secured 

 have diverted much of the product from the manufac- 

 ture of oil to that of copra, the export of which has 

 increased from 30,458 kilos, in 1903 to 207,200 kilos, 

 in 1904. [1 kilo. = 2-2 lb.] The production of copra 

 appears to be capable of wide development. 



This may also be .said of the production of cacao, 

 the exports increasing from 3,824 kilos, in 1903 to 

 6,122 kilos, in 1904. 



The Curator of the Botanic Station, who was sent 

 to Ce3don in 1902, arranged for the introduction of new 

 varieties of economic plant.s. During 1904, 10,000 

 selected cocoa-nuts, 0,000 nutmeg seeds, 20,000 cacao 

 seeds, and large quantities of Para rubber seeds were 

 received. It will thus be seen that everything is being 

 done to enable the planters to engage in the production 

 of other products than vanilla. 



Jamaican Fodders. 



A short note was published in the Agricultaral 

 N'eu'S (Vol. II, p. 409) reviewing a paper on Jamaican 

 fodders by Dr. H. H. Cousins. Extracts from this 

 paper /were afterwards reprinted in the West Indian 

 Bulletin, Vol. V, pp. 100-13. Dr. Cousins publishes 

 a further paper on this subject in the Bulletin of the 

 Department of Agriculture, Jamaica, for October. 



Jamaica hay gvass {Spo robot us indicus) was found 

 on analysis to present a very favourable composition when 

 j'oung. Stock breeders fully realize the value of this 

 grass when young and succulent : experience has also 

 shown that this value is greatly reduced as it gets old, 

 hard, and wirv. Dr. Cousins suggests that the use 

 of light American horse mowers would secure an 

 enormous supply of valuable fodiler from the large 

 areas of hay grass lands. 



Analyses of bamboo fodder show that this 

 material is highly nitrogenous. Horses and cows eat 

 bamboo leaves with relish, and it would appear that 

 bamboos might affjrd a good stand-by in times of 

 drought. 



The results of the examination of Guinea grass 

 bring out clearh- the necessity for cutting this fodder 

 at the right time, since great deterioration results 

 from the seeding of the grass. Guinea grass, cut 

 when the flowering spikes were being produced, con* 

 tained o'13 per cent, of albuminoids and 3421 per cent. 

 of carbohydrates in the air-dry material, as against 2'00 

 and 2503 per cent, respectivelj', in grass as fed to 

 dairy animals when it was actually seeding. It will 

 thus be seen that, if the grass is allowed to ilower and 

 form seeds, the value of the fodder is reduced to about 

 one-third. 



