A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES, 



Vol. X. No. 247. 



BARBADOS, OCTOBER 14, 1911. 



Li 



Pkick Id, 



CONTENTS. 



Pagk. 



Page. 



Agricultiual Investig;itifin, 



Tlie Spirit of 321 



British Honduras, Agricul- 

 ture in, 1909 329 



Cacao, Production and 

 Consumption of, in 

 1910 325 



Calcium Cyanamide and 



Nitrate of Lime ... 328 



Coco-de-Mcr in the West 



Indies, Trials (.f ... 324 



Cotton Notes ; — 



Introduction of Cotton- 

 Growing into Nvasa- 



land ■ ... 326 



West Indian Cotton ... 326 



Department News 322 



Eui;aly|)tus Trees, Condi- 



tiVms Best Suited to 327 



Fermented Milk 331 



Fungus Notes : — 



Wounds in Plants and 



Their Treatment, 



Part I 334 



Gleanings 332 



Grenada Land Settlement 



Sclienie 329 



Indian Manyo Juice 327 



Insect Notes : — 



Locouiolion of Younsi 



Scale Insects ... "... 330 

 The House-Fly and Man 330 

 Lime and Nitrification in 



Wet Soils 329 



Litehi in Dominica 325 



Market Reports 33G 



Notes and Comments ... 328 

 Nutmeg Tree, Fruitir.g of 



•Male' .324 



Pen Manure, Preservation 



of ... 333 



Pine-A])ple Exportation 



from Natal .335 



Pollen, New .Method of 



Handling 324 



r'rotoz'aand Soil Sickne.ss 335 

 Soil Bacteria, Studies of 328 

 Soils, Lime and Magnesia 



in 328 



Students' Corner 3.33 



Sugar Industry : — 



Sucro.se and Potiish in 



Cancluice ... , .323 



Sugar-cane Seedling 



D. 11.35 in New South 



Wales 323 



Tobacco, Sheds for Curin? 329 



The Spirit of Agricultural 

 Investigation. 



rHOSE who are responsible for agricultunil 

 investigation and e.xperitnentation at the 

 , present time are faced by the fact that the 

 field over \Thich their energies may be expended has 

 largely widened in recent years. Agricultural problems 

 arc no longer regarded as being comparatively small in 



their scope and simple in their nature. They require 

 the assistance of many of the .so-called branches of 

 science. The help of the chemist, the botanist, the plant 

 pathologist and physiologist, the entomologist, the 

 geologist and the physicist, large as it is, does not 

 exhaust the amount of aid that is needed by the agri- 

 cultural inve.stigator. 



This circumstance has led to the existence of the 

 worker who specializes in one or two of the many 

 matters that must receive attention for the elucidation 

 of agricultural problems. He does not necessarily go 

 into the field, nor need he be an agriculturist, in the 

 ordinary sense of the term. His work may be purely 

 academic: nevertheless, it is required by the practical 

 experimenter, who has not the time, and probably does 

 not possess the knowledge, to enter into specialized 

 scientific investigations. Further, the attitudes of the 

 two kinds of workers are different: the specialist directs 

 his gaze towards what is waiting to be found out, while 

 the maker of agricultural experiments gives his atten- 

 tion to residts already obtained, in order that they may 

 be endowed with a practical value. 



While the latter kind of investigator is a user of 

 existing results, it is the purpose of his work, as has 

 been indicated, to employ these for obtaining others 

 that are applicable on a larger scale. He must, thrtc- 

 fore, be in possession of a definite scheme of working. 

 It is his duty, also, thoroughly to master the necess.try 

 preliminaries before he proceeds to put any scheme 

 into operation. An important matter among such pre- 

 liminaries is the gaining of an adequate knowledge of 

 what has already been discovered in relation to the 

 subject. It is too often the case that ground is covered 

 by one investigator, in ignorance that it has been 

 traversed already and to an adequate degree, by 



