24 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



January 27. 1917. 



EDITORIAL If/ 



Head Office w 



NOTICES. 



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 Commissioner, Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

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All applications for copies of the 'Agricultural 

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The complete list of Agents, and the subscription 

 and advertisement rates, will be found on page 3 of 

 the cover. 



Imperial Commissioner of Francis Watts, CM. G., D.Sc, 



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



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



SeieiUific Assistant and 

 Assistant Mditor 



Entomologists 



Mycologist 



W. R. Dunlop. 

 I H. A. Ballou, M.Sc. 

 ,.\J. C. Hutson, B.A., Ph.D. 

 W. Nowell, D.I.C. 



CLERICAL STAFF. 



■Chief Clerk 

 Assistant Clerk 



Clerical Assistants 



Typist 



.Assistant Ti/pid 

 Assistatil for Publications 



A. G. Howell. 

 M. B. Connell. 

 ("L. A. Coibin. 



P. Taylor. 



Miss B. Robinson. 



Miss W. Eliis. 



A. B. Price, Fell. Journ. Ins 



^Inricuttural lleiufi 



Vol. XVI. SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1917. No. 385. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this i^sue deals with the subject 

 of green manuring, and describes recent investigations 

 conducted in India. 



An article of present interest dealing with the 

 organization of local food supplies will be found on 

 page 23. 



Insect Notes, which will be found an page 26, 

 comprise a cornprehcnsixt' account of cacao thrips, 

 their significance, and their control. 



Under Plant Diseases, on page 30, appears v.i 

 article on the control of bud-rot disease in coco-niits. 



The Food Supply Question in British Guiana. 



The merchants of Water Street have sent a letter 

 to the Hon. Nelson Cannon, the senior member for 

 Georgetown, of the Court of Policy, on the subject of 

 the high prices of food. The letter, which has been for- 

 warded by the (-!overnment,is published in the Demerara 

 Daily Chronicle (Mail Edition) for December JS. 191(). 



It calls attention principally to the need for restrict- 

 ing the export of rice. It refers to the possibility of a 

 Hour famine, and to the present high prices of food- 

 stuffs in general. In connexion with this movement it 

 is stated in a more recent paper from Demerara, that 

 a special foodstuffs committee has been formed, which 

 includes Professor Harrison, Director of Science and 

 Agriculture. The first object of the committee is to 

 rind substitutes lor Hour. 



Root Systems of Plants in Reference to Selec- 

 tion and Drought Resistance. 



In a previous issue of the Atjricidtural Xeios 

 (Vol. XV, No. 381, p. 3!)4), reference was made to 

 experiments which had been conducted in the United 

 States, to determine the fundamental characteristics of 

 sorghum plants (Guinea corn, for example), that enable 

 them to withstand severe climatic conditions better 

 than Indian corn (maize). In the International 

 Review of the Science and Practice of Agriculture, 

 for .July 191G, are described experiments on ditferences 

 in the dimensions of the root system in different types 

 of cultivated plants. 



Remarkably little study having been devoted to 

 the underground portions of plants as compared with 

 the parts above ground, the writer of the article 

 referred to undertook a series of methodical investiga- 

 tions of the root svstems of herbaceous plants, culti- 

 vatei] and wild, in the laboratories and experimentnl 

 Stations of the Agronomic Institute of Moscow, with 

 the assistance of the Department of Agriculture. The 

 starting point in these enquires was the fact that there 

 is a relation between the depth to which plants 

 extend their roots and their resistance to drought. 

 Assuming, theiefore, within the limitations of a given-' 

 species, the plants most resistant to drought are tho.se 

 which possess, among other things, a root system 

 carried to a greater depth, stress is laid on the' need 

 for the following: (1) Statistical investigations of 

 the depth reache.j by the roots of all plants, culti- 

 vated and wild, of' interest to agriculture: (2) inves- 

 tigations into the 'metric differences" (i.e. in length 

 ■^nd weight) of the root systems of the different 

 .species and varieties of cultivated plants; (3) inves- 

 tigations into the fixation ar.d the increase bv 

 .selection of the power of deep root growth. Upon these 

 lines investigations were undertaken of the root 

 systems of oats, wheat, tiax, and peas. The seeds were 

 taken exclusively from the pare lines obtained at the 

 selection Station of the Agronomic Institute of Moscow, 

 because the pieliminary studies carried out with 

 commercial oat seoifs had given very divergent results 

 as regards downward growth of the root system. The 

 Jests show that there is a synchronal constancy in 



