A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OP THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



LIBRA' 



NEW Y( 

 EOT AN J 



Vol. X. No. 250. 



BARBADOS, NOVEMBER 25, 1911. 



Priok Id. 



CONTENTS. 



British Guiana, Agricul- 

 tural Matters in ... 



British India, Agriculture 

 in 



Congo, Agricultural Ex- 

 perimentation in the 



Cotton Notes : — 



Cotton at the Imperial 



Institute, 1910 



St. Vincent, Govern- 

 ment Cotton Purchase 



Scheme 



West Indian Cotton ... 



Department News 



Departmental Reports ... 



Fungus Notes : — • 

 C>l)servations on Root 

 Diseases in the West 

 Indies. Part II 



Gleanings 



Grenada, Recent \griciil- 

 tural work in 



Insect Notes : — 



Notes on the Cotton 

 Worm 



Page. 



379 

 377 

 375 



Page. 



374 



375 

 374 

 381 

 373 



382 

 380 



3«1 



378 



Insect Notes: — 



Some I "seful Insecticides 378 



Lime .Juice, Machinery for 

 Separating and Sti'ain- 

 ing 372 



Market Reports 384 



Niti'ogen, Assimilatii>n of 



by Rice 369 



Notes and Comments ... 376 

 Onderneeiiiing School, 



Agricultural Work at 376 

 Plants, Kxcreticm from 



Foots and Stomala of 377 

 Red Sorrel as a Fibre 



Plant 372 



Rulilier, Drying on Estates 383 



St. Lucia, Trade and Cem- 



merce of, 1910-11 ... 377 

 Seed Sterilization and In- 



ocuhition 371 



I Students' Corner 381 



' West Indian Agricultural 



Conference, 1912 ... 376 

 I West Indian Products ... 383 



The Assimilation of Nitrogen 

 bv Rice. 



^jj^TTENTKJN was given in the Agricultural 

 ^^News, Vol. IX, pp. 97 .ind 328, to recent 

 n^^work that has been done in connexion with 

 the assimilation of nitrogen by plants. It was pointed 

 out that this had shown that nitrogen is not only 

 taken in by green plants in the form of nitrates, but 

 that they can make use of it directly by absorbing am- 



monium sulphate through the roots. In this waj', the 

 old opinion that nitrates alone were available for absorp- 

 tion from the soil by plants has received considerable 

 modification, and it is the purpose of the present article 

 to review investigations that have been undertaken 

 lately in connexion with the matter. 



Some of this work has been done at the Hawaii 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, and is described 

 in Bulletin No. 24 of that Institution. In this, it is 

 pointed out that the usual practice is to refer to the 

 nitrogen in nitrates as being present in a more available 

 form than that contained in ammonium sulphate, dried 

 blood, or hoofs and horns. As regards this, as ia 

 stated, while the application of nitrates is more econo- 

 mical and more stimulating to plant growth than that 

 of ammonium salts, it is not a necessary consequence 

 that nitrates are more easily changed into proteids, or 

 that they are more readily assimilated than the naturally 

 occurring ammonium compounds. The difference be- 

 tween the behaviour of nitrates and that of ammonium 

 salts arises chiefly from the circumstance that continued 

 applications of the latter are likely to cause an unfav- 

 ourable soil acidity, and the fact that the former are less 

 firmly fixed in the soil, and therefore more easily taken 

 up b}- plants. In connexion with the subject, reference 

 is made to the researches of Russell, Hutchinson ai\d 

 Miller, and to that of other observers. The investiga- 

 tions of the experimenters just mentioned, it may be 

 said, receive special attention in the Ar/ricultaral 

 News; Vol. IX, pp. 33 and 98. 



Keturnino to the matter in the Bulletin mentioned, 

 it is pointed out that the soils in which rice is cultiva- 

 ted form a useful means of investigating the question 

 of the direct assimilation of ammonium sulphate, 



