THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Januaky 13, 1917. 



EDITORIAL 





NOTICES. 



Head Office 



'i? 



Barbados. 



Letters and matter lor publication, as well as all 

 specimens tor naming, should be addressed to the 

 Commissioner, Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



All .ipplications for copies of the 'Agricultural 

 News' and other Departmental publications, should be 

 ■addressed to the Agents, and not to the Department. 



The complete list of Agents, and the subscription 

 and advertisement rates, will be found on page 3 of 

 fthe cover. 



Imperial Commissioner of Francis Watts, C.M.G., D.Sc, 



Agriculture for the West Indies F.I.C., F.C.S. 



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



Scientific Assistant an.d 

 Assistant Editor 



Mntomologists 



Mycologist 



W. R. Dunlop. 

 ( H. A. Ballou, M.Sc. 

 IJ. C. Hutson, B.A.. 

 W. Nowell, D.I.C. 



Ph.D. 



CLERICAL STAFF. 



• Chief Clerk 

 Assistant Clerk 



Clerical Assistants 



Typist 



.Assistant Tijphst 

 Assistant for Publications 



A. G. Howell. 

 M. B. Counell. 

 ("L. A. Corbiu. 

 - P. Taylor. 



Miss B. Robinson. 



Miss W. Ellis. 



A. B. Price, Fell. Journ. Inst. 



St. Lucia Agrricultural and Commercial Society. 



The Voice of St Lacii iov December 9 contains 

 a report on the meeting of this Society held on Tuesday, 

 November 2.S. The proceedings were opened by His 

 Honour the Administrator. The first matter discussed 

 were the recommendations of the Paris Econoniic 

 Conference, and a Resolution wa.s passed adopting the 

 views of the Conference. The next matter considered 

 was that the Society should become a member of the 

 Associated Chamber of Commei-ce for the West Indies, 

 the first meeting of which has been fixed for February 

 1917, in Trinidad. A Prize-Holdings Scheme for cacao 

 and limes on the lines of a former scheme was suggested. 

 The members favoured the scheme, and the details 

 were referred to a Committee. A member then brought) 

 up the ([uestion of the scarcity of ground provisions. 

 The view was expressed that the scarcity was due to 

 some extent to want of labour which was called oft' to 

 work on the road scheme. Another member felt it was 

 due in a great degree to the want of better facilities 

 for transport. Lastly, it was moved that the Secretary 

 be instructed to write to the Government, requesting 

 that the agents of the Quebec Steamship Company 

 be asked to forward a request that their ships should, 

 when sufficient inducement offered, say, the shipment 

 of 300 barrels of limes, come alongside the wharf to 

 take in the cargo instead of remaining at the mouth 

 of the harbour, which they now do. The Secretary 

 stated that he was a.sked to bring forward the question 

 of including among the provisions of the Minor Pro- 

 ducts Ordinance, limes, bay leaves, etc. This sugges- 

 tion was agreed to. 



^nriciittiiral llinufi 



Vol. XVI. SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1917. No. 3S4. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this issue deals with the local 

 production of food supplies, and points out that the 

 problems now confronting the West Indian islands are 

 not those of merely making estates pay, but concern 

 vital matters of food to eat. 



An interesting article dealing with expuriments 

 carried out in Antigua in connexion with the baking 

 of bread from flour diluted with sweet potato meal and 

 with corn meal, appears on page 4. 



Insect Notes, on page 10, deal with the spiny 

 cittus white fly — a potential pest of citrus trees. 



Plant Diseases comprise a summary of notes on 

 fungi and plant diseases published during 1910. 



Feeding Value of Vegetable-Ivory Meal. 



The Journal of Agricultural Research for Novem- 

 ber 13, 191<), publishes details and results of experi- 

 ments conducted with a view to determining the chemi- 

 cal composition, digestibility, and feeding value of 

 vegetable-ivory meal. 



Vegetable ivory, or the corozo nut, as it is commonly 

 known in commerce, is the seed or nut of the palm-like 

 plant Pliytelephas macrocarpa. These nuts are used 

 principally for the manufacture of buttons, large quan- 

 tities of them being imported annually by Great Britain 

 and Germany, the United States using about 10,000 

 tons annually. In the process of manufecture a consid- 

 erable portion of the nut is wasted in the form of saw- 

 dust, chips, and turnings. In foreign cotintries this 

 waste has been mixed with other ingi-edients to be 

 used as a cattle food. In the last few years consider- 

 able attention has betn attracted in the United States 

 to the enormous ammmt of waste material produced 

 by ivory button factories, and many attempts have 

 been made to discover a practical use for the material, 

 aside from fuel. The experiments referred to abjve 

 were undertaken with that object in view, attention 

 being directed chiefly to the feeding value of vegetable - 

 ivory meal. Following are some of the importari'. 

 conclusions arrived at: — 



'Analyses show vegetable ivory to be earbohydrat ; 

 in nature, containing about o per cent, of protein, ami 

 7.T per cent, of nitrogen-free extract. Fat and mineri'l 



