A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. IV. No. 87. 



BARBADOS, AUGUST 12, 1905. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Baiianu Trade of Great 



Britain 244 



Bee Keeping in California 244 



Departmental Reports : — 



St. Vincent 2.53 



Tobago 253 



Department News 253 



Educational : — 



British (iuiana . 



Jamaica 



English Hares at 

 Barliados 



Gleanings 



Goats at Barbados . . . 



Grafting Cacao 



Insect Notes : — 

 Pests at Barbados 

 Wild Bees 



. 251 

 251 



. 249 



. 252 

 . 245 

 ,. 244 



. 250 

 ,. 250 



Page. 



Jamaica at the Colonial 



Exhibition 245 



Java, E,xp<jrts of 249 



Market Reports 25<5 



Notes and Comments .. 248 



Oleanders in the West 



Indies 243 



(3ur Book Shelf :— 



Jamaica Cookery Book 254 

 Souvenirs of Jamaica . . . 254 



Para Rubber Planting ... 244 



Rainfall Returns 247 



Rats and Mice, Extermina- 

 tion of 247 



Rubber Planting in Samoa 254 



Sisal Hemp Cultivation... 250 



Sisal Hemp in British 



Guiana 250 



Sugar Industry : — 



British Guiana 242 



Trinidad 243 



Sugar Plant, A New ... 248 



Tobacco Growing in 



Jamaica 249 



Toljago Planters' Associa- 

 tion 245 



Treatment of Orchard 



Soils 241 



Trinidad Trade Statistics 248 



West Indian Produce 



Stall 255 



West Indian Products ... 255 



Wireless Telegraphy ... 251 



Treatment of Orchard iSoils. 



T is desired to draw the special attention of 

 cacao and lime planters in the West Indies 

 to the question of the treatment of soils in 

 their plantations. This matter, being one of great 

 importance, has received the serious consideration of 



Dr. Francis Watts, C.M.G., the Superintendent of 

 Agriculture for the Leeward Islands, whose notes in 

 this connexion have appeared from time to time in the 

 Agricultural News and other publications of the 

 Imperial Department of Agriculture. 



At the Agricultural Conference of 1901, Dr. Watts 

 read a paper, published in the West Indian Bulletin 

 (Vol. II, pp. 96-9), on the 'Treatment of Soils in 

 " Orchard " Cultivation in the Tropics,' in which he 

 drew attention to some of the problems concerning 

 the treatment of soils which required solution. The 

 practice of allowing the land between the trees to 

 become covered with grass, upon which cattle were 

 pastured, had been abandoned on account of the 

 damage which the cattle did to the trees, and because 

 in wet weather they trod the soil into a compact mass. 

 Forking between the trees was useful where carefully 

 done, but at the same time liable to cause injury 

 unless great care were taken ; and further, hoe- 

 weeding was of doubtful utility. He suggested, 

 therefore, that, at any late, under certain conditions, 

 it might be a good plan to leave the soil until led, the 

 only cultivation being the periodical cutting back of 

 the rank grass and weeds with the cutlass. This would 

 be an inexpensive method of green dressing the land. 

 It would, it may be mentioned, probably not be suitable 

 for the cultivation of coffee, tea, and other plants of 

 a low, bushy habit. 



The practice mentioned has long existed in 

 Dominica, and experiments were conducted by 

 Dr. Watts to ascertain the manurial value of the weeds 

 growing in young cultivations of cacao, limes, etc. The 



