1-20 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Apeil 21, igii 



.EDITORIAL 



Head Office 



NOTICES. 



— Barbados. 



Letters and matter for publication, as Avell as all 

 ■specimens lor naming, should be addressed to the 

 Commissioner, Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

 Barbados. 



All applications 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 

 the cover. 



Imperial (Jommissio'ner of .SirFrancis Watts. K.C.M.G., 



AgricuUure for the West Iiidies D.Sc, F.I.C., F.C.S. 



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



Scietitific Assistaiit and 

 Assistaiit Eiiilor 



Entomologists 



Mycologist 



W. R. Dnnlop. 

 ( H. A. Ballou, M.Sc. 

 I J. C. Hutioi). B.A., 

 \V. Xowell, D.I.C. 



Ph.D. 



■Chief Clerk 

 ■Clerical Assi$taiits 



Typiii 



Assistant Tfipi-tt 



CLERICAL STAFF. 



A. G. HowoU. 



rL. A. Corbin. 

 F. Taylor. 



Ijv. K. ('. Foster. 

 Miss B. Robinson. 

 Miss W. Kills. 



Assistu)d tor F-iiht icalioii!: 



A. B. Price, Fell. Juum. Inst. 



Jigricutliiral ilririi 



Vol. XVI. SATURD.AY, Al'KIL 21, 1917. No. .391. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Pi-esent Issue. 



The editorial in this is.sue deals with considerations 

 concerning the use of waste lands on the e.«tale. and the 

 better management of land already under cultivation. 



Stories in Agriculture. 



For many years ihe Ontario Department of Agri- 

 culture has devoted much attention to the teaching of 

 Nature Study in the schools of that Province. One of 

 the more recent efforts in this c.:;v.ie'--ioi' is to pnpu- 

 larize Nature Study, by means of Agricultural Stories. 

 With this end in view Bulletin No. 243 has been issued. 

 It contains several fvery original accounts of objects 

 of cotintry life. Reference may be made especial I v to 

 Profe-ssor C'heelman s opening dialogue between a Father 

 and Son on Nature Study itself in which the boy 

 displays his knowledge of the subject obtained at; 

 a School Fair and incidentally exposes his Fathers 

 ignorance. The Story of Paindrops by Professor Day 

 in which a number of drops are personified and made 

 to speak is (piite clever, as is also Mr. Reed's 'Autobio- 

 graphy of Tomboy.' Tomboy is a four-year-old fillv 

 who describes her upbringing in a very human-like 

 way, which is i|uite entertaining and instructive. In 

 fact all the stories are good; and the ideas involved in 

 the Bulletin might well be utilized for the purpose of 

 teaching nature study in the tropics. 



A special feature of the Bulletin is the e.xcellenfc 

 Figures illustrating the text. 



On page 11-5, will be found an article explaining 

 how the difficulties of converting pasture to arable 

 cultivation may be overcome. 



Important results of maniual experiments with 

 arrowroot appear suinmanzcd on ^age 12.i. 



Insect Notes in this issue deal with the spread of 

 the pink boll worm; irndor Plant Diseases will be found 

 ii survey of the diseases prevalent during lUKi. 



Pearls in Coco-nuts. 



The best-known home of pearls is the ovster 

 shell, though very fine jjink pearls are found in conch 

 shells.common on West Indian V)eaches. The Queensland 

 Agriciiltuvijl Journal makes reference to pearls in 

 coco-nuts. It says: — - 



'In liJll. the then fjovernor of (^hieensland 

 (Sir William MacGregor) obtained from Mr. T. A. 

 Williams, of Sabai Island, Torres Strait, valuable in- 

 formation on the subject of the diameter of space to 

 which root cords spread out from the base of coco-nut 

 trees, and courteously handed the report to us for 

 publication. This appeared in the October issue of 

 the .lournal. 1!)!]. 



■Whilst discus-ing the root question. His Excellency 

 informed us that in Hawaii (or FijiO he had been 

 handed a coco-nut for his refreshment, and that he 

 found inside it a \alnable pearl. He saw the coco-nut 

 opcne(J, and was quite sure the pearl was not dropped 

 into it. He gave the pearl to a lady present, who 

 afterwards wore it at some Court function in Jjondon. 

 Singtdarly enough, to-day we find in a book on 

 "Tropical Agriculture. " by Dr. H. \. Alford Nicholls, 

 the following remarkable confirmation of the existence 

 of pearls in coco-nuts. The author .says, when 

 describing the various parts of the nut: 'Finally a \'erv 

 singular and highly-prized pearl is found, under \ery 

 rare circumstances in coco-nuts, and a specimen has 

 lately been added to the Museum of the Koval 

 (lard'ens at Kew (1.S92).'' ' 



