A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THK 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



HBR 



NEW 

 BOTAl 

 OAR 



Vol. X. No. 239. 



BARBADOS, JUNE 24, 1911. 



Priob Id, 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Page. 



AiUlii'.'ix, Oeiural ( )cciu- 



leiice of -Oo 



Bacteria and Plios]>Uoric 



Acid in tlu- Snil ... 201 



Book Shelf 197 



Calcium Cyanaiiiide, Cuiin- 



ues in the Soil 200 



Candelilla Wax 203 



Ca.ssava from Brazil 201 



Companion to Blackie's 



Tropical Readers ... 201 

 Cotton Notes : — 



Cotton-drowiny Within 



the Empire" 198 



Cotton in Cyjiriis 199 



Cotton in the A'irgin 



Islands 19S 



West Indian Cotton ...198 



Department News 203 



Dominica and the Festival 



of Empire Exhibition 190 

 Effect of Soils in the Dis- 

 tribution of Plants ... 193 



Fungus Notes : — 

 Disease of the \reca 



Palm 206 



Gleanings 204 



Grafting, New Means of ... 201 

 Insect Notes ; — 



Parasitism of the Black 



Scale 202 



Lime Cultiv.ition in 



Mauritius 196 



.Market Reports 208 



Notes and Comments ... 200 

 Plant (irowth, Stinuilation 



of 201 



Rothamsted, Work in 1910 200 



Students' Corner 205 



Sugar IndusU-y : — 



A New iMethodof De.sic- 



catioii 195 



Purilication of Cane 



Juice 195 



T'nited States, Plant In- 

 dustry in 207 



The ]5ffect of Soils iu the 

 Distrihution of Plants. 



'I' does not require much observation to show 

 that different kinds of plants flourish best in 

 (Certain regions and on particular kinds of 

 soil; though in finding a reason lor this circumstance 

 the work of investigation is not as simple as may be at 

 first considered.- Nevertheless, the matter is of prac- 

 tical importance, for if a good knowledge is attained 

 of the requirements of a plant in regard to its surround- 



ings, the agriculturist will not be led to the mistake 

 and waste of time caused by the attempt to grow plants 

 in which he is interested, in places which are entirely 

 unsuited to them. 



The matter forms the subject of two interesting 

 papers delivered as two Masters Lectures of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, by A. D. Hall, M.A.,F.R.S., and 

 printed in the Journal of that Society, Vol. XXXVI, 

 p. 1; it is to these that the following article is 

 indebted for most of its facts. The lecturer drew atten- 

 tion, first of all, to manured and unmanured grass land, 

 at Rothamsted, which has borne this crop continuously 

 since 1856. With regard to this land, the fiicts that 

 the manured parts have received the same manurial 

 treatment since the beginning of the experiment, and 

 that a redistribution of the jjlants on the land, which is 

 being fully investigated, has taken place, make it possi- 

 ble to draw interesting deductions from the experiment. 

 It is easy to understand why certain plants have increas- 

 ed in number as the result of definite kinds of treat- 

 ment;^for instance, why leguminous plants have increased 

 where there has been no addition of nitrogen, or why, 

 on account of its retention in the upper layers of the 

 soil, shallow-rooted plants have ousted other kinds to 

 a great extent where ammonia has been used, whereas 

 the op2:)osite is the case with the less readily retained 

 nitrate of soda. It is also easy to account for the 

 abundance of plants having an acid sap, containing 

 potassium oxalate, where potash has been applied. 

 There are, however, associations of plants and defin- 

 ite habitats which cannot be accounted for in this 

 simjile way. It might be thought that an explana. 

 tion can be found in the circumstance that the soil and 

 the plant, where they are associated, contain some 

 special substance in common. This, however, is shown 



