Vol. IV. No. 87. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



247 



ST. VINCENT COTTON CROP. 



Sands, Agricultural Superintendent, 

 the following; notes on the cotton 



Mr. W. N 

 has forwarded 

 industry in St. Vincent : — 



At the cotton factory the total amount of selected and 

 disinfected cotton seed distributed to date is 21,967 It)., of 

 -which amount 10,-534 Ih. were for local planting, the 

 remaining 11,433 lb. being exported. 



I find that the seed sown has germinated extremely 

 well, and the young plants are growing rapidly under the 

 favourable climatic conditions e.xperienced during the past 

 three or four weeks. Practically all planting operations are 

 completed, at least all the chief growers have finished, but 

 one or two smaller growers have still a little more to do. 

 The land selected is much better than last year, and more 

 attention has been paid generally to the selection of suitable 

 lands. 



The account sales of the last shipments of cotton cams 

 to hand by the mail and they were quite satisfactory. You 

 ■will be pleased to hear that the Petit Bordel cotton fetched 

 the highest price so far recorded from the West Indies, viz., 

 Is. 6(/. per lb. Other growers obtained prices from 13(/. to lid. 

 per R. The stained cotton brought Gl'l. 



I cannot yet obtain the area planted, but three chief 

 growers, Messrs. Hazell, Mr. C. J. Simmons, and Mr. Alex. 

 Smith, have between .500 and 600 acres planted. 



EXTERMINATION OF RATS AND MICE. 



In the Rochelle district of France, crops of all 

 kinds were severely injured by the depredation of 

 a kind of large field mice or small field rats. In view 

 of the e.xperiments that have been carried out in the 

 West Indies with the Liverpool virus for exterminating 

 rats, interest attaches to the following account of the 

 methods adopted in the Rochelle district, as given in 

 the Consular Report for 1904 : — ■ 



^[any methods of extermination have been tried, but 

 the only two which have given any appreciable results up to 

 the present are nux vomica and a special virus prepared at 

 the Pasteur Institute in Paris, rolled oat grain being used as 

 a bait in both cases. The objections to the use of nux 

 vomica have been found to be numerous (poisoning of 

 small birds, game, domestic fowls, and animals) ; and up till 

 lately the Danysz virus has not proved very efficacious. 

 Now, however, that it is understood that the virus must be 

 distributed -n-hile fresh, and protected from the action of 

 light by preparing the bait in feebly lit sheds and spreading it 

 in the fields in the evenings, it is claimed that the 

 mortality induced by it in the field mice, as the result of 

 recent experiments, is as high as 98 per cent, within fifteen 

 days, as not onlj' those ' campagnols ' which have eaten the 

 bait die within five days, but the others are infected by the 

 disease and die in their turn. The contagious malady 

 induced by the Danysz virus resembles typhoid, but is 

 innocuous to all living beings except rats and mice, to which 

 animals it is fatal. There is a special service attached to the 

 Pasteur Institute in Paris for the preparation of this virus, 

 ■which is prepared in combination with a tempting broth, and 

 is sent down to the Charentes in bottles on receipt of 

 requisitions from the mayors of the communes affected. 

 The inhabitants of many communes are marshalled by the 

 mayor in semi-military formation, and the bait spread 

 methodically in such a manner as to leave no p-Drtion of 

 ground without its share of poisoned grain. 



RAINFALL RETURNS. 



St. Vincent. 



In the Annual Report on the Botanic Station at 

 St. Vincent for 1904-.5, Mr. W. N. Sands makes the 

 following observations on the rainfall of the island : — 



The rainfall for the year recorded at the Botanic Station, 

 which is near Kingstown, amounted to 97-74 inches, and 

 although this is 12-41 inches below the average for the last 

 fourteen years, it was well distributed, and no heavy Hoods or 

 washes were recorded. 



Except at the Agricultural School (also near Kingstown), 

 there are no other stations on the island where records of 

 rainfall are kept, and it would be highly desirable to establish 

 stations in the country districts, in order that the oflicers of 

 the Department might be better able to give advice when 

 questions relating to the establishment of new industries arise. 

 The records would also be of great value to planters 

 themselves, in showing to what extent the rainfall affects the 

 quality and quantity of their produce, and serve as a guide 

 to the proper localities for planting different crops. 



It will be observed that the average monthly rainfall of 

 the months June, July, August, September, and October is 

 well over 11-00 inches, so that the period from June to 

 October may be considered as constituting the wet season, 

 although the rainfall during the months January, May, 

 November, and December is considerable. The dry season, 

 as .shown in the average, is from February to April. 



Dominica. 



The rainfall ut the Botanic Station for 1904 was 72-45 

 inches or 7-45 inches below the average for the past eleven 

 years. The following table shows that April is the driest 

 month ; then there is a rapid rise to July the wettest month 

 of the year, and afterwards a gradual fall to April. The 

 mean yearly rainfall for twelve years is 79-28 inches: — 



The mean rainfall for the whole island for the year, 

 based on returns from twenty-nine stations, is 102-48 inches. 



