A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XVI. No. 391. 



BARBADOS, APRIL 21, 1917. 



Price Id. 



Waste Land and Wasted Land. 



CERTAIN proportion of the land on every 

 restate adds little or nothing to the estate 

 {income. Some of this non-productive land, 

 known as waste land, can be rendered productive by 

 a sufficient outlay of capital and labour. Many waste 

 areas, however, owing to natural conditions, can never 

 be profitably reclaimed or utilized, no m.itter how 

 efficient the management. 



Other areas ma}^ be termed wasted areas; that is, 

 misused or inadequately utilized, so that they bring 

 in little or no real return. At the same time areas 

 which do not bring in a direct income in money may 

 not necessarily be regarded as waste or even wasted 

 areas. 



A consideration of these facts is important in the 

 West Indies. 



In the mountainous islands the unproductive land 

 on estates is generally forest land. From the point 

 of view that this land yields little or no direct return, 

 it may be regarded as waste On the other hand, the 

 beneficial effects of forest in the matter of checking 

 soil wash, and in conserving the rainfall may not be 

 disregarded. Forest land belonging to and adjoining 

 estates is often left untouched because the situation 

 occupied possesses untavourable features as regards 

 transport, but it is thought that in many places some- 

 thing might be done to substitute trees yielding econo- 

 mic products that can be conveniently collected and 

 transported at leisure. In this connexion rubber and 

 bay trees. Kola and logwood may be suggested. Very 

 often clearings are made for the cultivation of provision 

 crops by the peasantry. This is to be particularly 

 encouraged at the present time. 



In the islands which are not mountainous the 

 waste land belonging to estates is characterized by 

 a very dry, thin or unfertile soil, generally with 

 the underlying rock exposed in places. In 

 the \olcanie islands this land may also occur, 

 often strewn with boulders which render sys- 

 tematic cultivation difficult, if not impossible. Such 

 land, which generally possesses a scanty covering of 



