386 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



December 23. 1905 



inches. Some remarkable results of a similar nature, 

 brought about by the careful and systematic selection 

 of Sea Island cotton, have been recorded in the Went 

 Indian Bulhtln (Vol. IV, pp. 208-14), where another 

 article by Mr. Webber is reproduced, in which 

 a detailed description is given of the system adopted 

 by the Sea Island cotton planters for improving their 

 cotton by seed selection. 



Reference to this article will show that each 

 grower generally selects several plants each year from 

 which to breed. The seeds taken from these plants 

 are sown in a special plot, from which, in the following 

 year, one or two plants are selected to supply seed for 

 a similar small plot, which is again subjected to the same 

 ti-eatment, and so on year after year. At the same 

 time each small plot supplies seed to plant a larger 

 area, say, 5 acres, fron; which the general crop of the 

 following year is planted. In this way the general 

 crop of any one year has sprang from one or two plants 

 selected from the small plot four years previously ; at 

 the same time there are always under observation 

 a small plot, from which one or two individual plants 

 are selected, and a .5-acre plot for supplying the seed 

 for the general crop. 



At a conference of the Commissioner and officers 

 of the Imperial Department of Agriculture, held 

 recently for the purpose of discussing the question of 

 the selection of cotton seed for the next planting 

 season at Barbados, it was decided to adopt a system 

 based generally on the above lines. The several 

 officers of the Department will be responsible for the 

 selection of the best plants for seed on certain estates 

 allotted to them. 



The plants, after being selected in the field, are 

 to be marked with strips of red cloth and have numbers 

 attached to them. All the seed-cotton produced by 

 these plants is to be specially picked by one picker and 

 placed in separate bags, numbered to correspond with 

 the plants. The several bags, duly numbered and 

 secui-ed, are to be forwarded to the Department in 

 order that the weight of seed-cotton, the length of 

 staple, proportion of weak fibres, and other character- 

 istics may be fully worked out. The seed from the 

 plants which are proved to have produced the largest 

 quantity of the finest and strongest lint will be used 

 next season for planting selection plots. 



It may be mentioned that, in the meantime, for 

 next year's general crop, the seed used will be carefully 

 selected by the Department from estates which have 

 produced the finest lint and obtained the highest prices. 



The proprietors and managers of the estates are 

 invited to co-operate fully with the Department in 

 this matter, and to do all in their power to carry 

 out the arrangements entered into between them and 

 the officers in charge of the selection. 



It is anticipated that these measures, which are 

 proposed to be extended to the other islands, will, in 

 time, ensure the production of a cotton plant pre-emi- 

 nently suited to the special conilitions existing in 

 the West Indies. 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



Some Facts about Seedling Canes B. 147 and 

 B. 208 at Barbados. 



In the course of the statement read at the meeting of 

 the Agricultural Society, held at tlie Planters' Hall on 

 Friday, November 17 last, in continuation of the Report on 

 the Sugar-cane Experiments for the season 1903-.5, read at 

 the meeting of the society held on Friday, November 3, 1905, 

 Mr. Bovell, addressing the meeting, said he would like to 

 make a few remarks with reference to the figures Mr. Cameron 

 had been good enough to give him at the meeting that day 

 fortnight. He had on that occasion mentioned the results 

 obtained on an estate which he would designate as 'A.' both 

 as plant canes for three years and ratoons for two years, and 

 he had shown that, on the average for the three years as 

 plants and two years as ratoons, B. 147 liad given 131 lb. 

 of sugar per acre more than the AVhite Transiiarent. The 

 estate to which he referred reaped something like 130 acres 

 aniuially. At !?2-25 per 100 ff). for dark crystals (about the 

 average [irice for the past three years) the value of the sugar 

 obtained from, say, -430 acres of the B. 117, after deducting 

 £2 10s. as the cost of manufacture, over the 'White Trans- 

 parent, would have been about £b20 per annum. In other 

 words, it would mean that, under the conditions which 

 prevailed, an estate reaping about 430 acres would make an 

 extra profit of £520 per annum, if the estate were planted in 

 B. 147, instead of White Transparent. Mr. Cameron had 

 also been so good as to furnish him with figures from other 

 estates, which confirmed those just given. On one estate, 

 wliich he would refer to as 'B.,' plant caues of B. 147 had, on 

 the average of the past two years, given 5,029 fc. of sugar, 

 while the White Transparent had given 5,023 ft. As 

 ratoons on the same estate for the same two years, on 

 the average, B. 147 had given 4,245 ft. and the White 

 Transparent 3,635 ft. of sugar per acre. So there was 

 a difference in favour of B. 147 over the White Transparent 

 of 616 ft. of sugar per acre on the average as plants and 

 ratoons. On another estate, 'C.,' on the average for two 

 year.s as plants and two years as ratoons, B. 147 had given 

 179 ft. sugar more than the White Transparent. On 

 a third estate, 'D.,'on the average for two years as plants and 

 two years as ratoons, B. 147 had given 3S3 ft. sugar more 

 per acre than the White Transparent. He was very grateful, 

 and he was sure his colleagues also were, to Mr. Cameron foe 



