Vol. XVI. No 397. 



AGRICULTURAL 

 PORTO 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



211 



PROGRESS 

 RICO. 



IN 



The fifth repat of the Board of Commissioners of 

 Agriculture of Porto Rico for the year ended .June 30, 1916, 

 contains much intere;ting reading matter and is a record, on 

 the whole, of substantial progress in that island Conditions 

 have been such as to make for very high prices for sugar, 

 with the result that there has been a great extension of the 

 area planted in cane. This has had one bad result in that 

 the extensive plantings have made impossible intensive 

 cultivation methods, and it is becoming apparent that in 

 many cases the increise in area will be offset by the decrease 

 in yield. Intensive nethods are necessary to obtain satis- 

 factory crops from the average Porto Rican soil. 



Molasses and alcihol, by-products of sugar manufacture, 

 have shared in the pi?vailing high prices. As a still further 

 by-product one firm is making a fertilizer ingredient from 

 potash of the molasses residue left after distillation. 



The outbreak of the European war temporarily destroyed 

 the Porto Rican coffee market because of disturbed shipping 

 conditions. While there has been partial recovery in that 

 direction, the situation has served to make the coffee growers 

 more anxious to secue a larger outlet for their product in 

 the I'.iited States tlemselves. The Coffee Growers' Asso- 

 ciation has taken thi; matter up vigorously and is being 

 assisted by the local Bureau of Information, the Department 

 of Commerce of the Federal Government, and by various 

 commercial agencies. 



Experimental ric; work is beinj carried on under 

 private enterprise near Canovanas, and two crops have been 

 harvested. It is hoped that this experiment will lead to 

 extensive planting of what is one of the principal foods 

 consumed by the peoph of Porto Pvico. 



Conditions in the fruit industry have not been as satis- 

 factory as could be wished. A heavy crop in Florida and 

 fruit rots attacking es wcially the pine-apple, which resulted 

 in thousands of boxes l.eing left to rot in the fields or packing 

 houses, forced down prices. In consequence of these and 

 other difficulties the fruit growers, as a whole, have shown 

 more inclination to co-ODerate, a state of affairs most necessary, 

 if the industry is to be profitable. The experiences of fruit 

 growers in other regions, particularly California and Florida, 

 have shown this most emphatically. Organization is neces- 

 sary not only for securing better prices, purchasing materials, 

 etc., but for the purpose of carrying out advertising campaigns 

 and of properly taking care of problems of packing, trans- 

 portation, and relations with Federal authorities. 



With regard to tie work of the Station, the year under 

 review was a profitable one, progress havine been made along 

 all lines of experimental work. The exchange list of publica- 

 tions has increased so that at present the station library is on 

 the mailing list of practically all agricultural stations, while 

 the local mailing list has been practically doubled. In 

 addition to 50 acres under canes, plantings of grape-fruit, 

 pine-apples and vegetables have been made. A grape-fruit, 

 mango and avocado pear nursery has been established and the 

 best varieties of mangoes and avocado pears have been 

 ordered. 



During the time the station has been developing its own 

 varieties of cane from seed and has sent out to the sugar estates 

 for trial new foreign varieties— mainly seedling canes- 

 recommended by foreign stations and tested in the experiment- 

 al plots. In general, these varieties are more vigorous and 

 healthy than the local varieties, which they also excel, as a 

 rule, in the percentage of sugar in the juice. In the past 

 year B.20S has caused greater interest than any other 



variety. The demand for it has been greater than could be 

 supplied. Its popularity is due to the fact that it 

 yields a juice of higher sucrose content than other c^nes. 

 •Since, however, it suffers badly in case of drought, lack of 

 fertility or poor cultivation, it will probably be a failure 

 unless favourable conditions can be supplied. The variety 

 D. 117 has also received some appreciation but not to the 

 extent ic deserves. It is one that does well under most 

 conditions and might almost be considered as a general 

 purpose cane. B. 3412, Sealy Seedling, and D.109 are 

 other varieties which are being grown on an estate scale in 

 the island and which deserve especial mention because they 

 have succeeded much better than their appearance might leid 

 one to suppose. The variety B.347 is another which ia 

 finding favour in certain localities, though not as yet grown 

 on an extensive scale. At one of the factories a mill test 

 was given to this variety, sixteen cars of canes being 

 analysed. The analysis showed about 1 percent, sucrose and 3 

 per cent purity above the average of the other juice extra ted 

 during the day. 



The work in plant pathology and botany continued along- 

 the lines indicated in the previous report. While, however, 

 much was accomplished in the direction of a plant disease 

 survey of the island, equal progress was not made in 

 the important studies of the fungi concerned. It i& 

 expected that the work on the most pressing of these 

 problems will be tiken in hand at no distant date when 

 additional assistance will be available. Citrus diseases have 

 been prevalent, and in pirticular, fruit rots and shipping rots. 

 L^irge numbers of cultures have been made in connexion 

 with studies of these disease?, and much laboratory work 

 remains to be done. 



Satisfactory progress has been made in building up the 

 station herbarium, both by addition of specimens collected 

 in the course of the work of the department and by acces- 

 sions from other .sources. As heretofore, the herbarium has 

 made possible the making of many determinations in plant 

 disease work not only for the members of the staff but for 

 scientists and planters who have visited the station. The 

 library has also been materially increased chiefly through' 

 the medium of exchange with the station's publications. 

 A number of press bulletins and field reports, mostly dealing 

 with citrus cultures and citrus diseases, have been prepared 

 and published in the different newspapers of the island, both 

 in Engli-sh and in Spanish. 



In the entomological section the life-histories of some of 

 the more important anddestructive of the insectsof Porto Rico 

 have been worked out, so that methods of control have been 

 considered and those applicable to the conditions of the 

 island can be recommended. To prevent the introduction of 

 plant diseases and destructive insects the regulations in respect 

 of the inspection and fumigation of plants made by the 

 quarantine service have been vigorously enforced. 



From the report of the Chemist it appears that the work 

 of the Department was conducted on the following lines: — 



1. Fertilizer control. 



2. Study of the acid and sugar contents of citrus 



fruits. 



3. Analysis of seedling canes. 



4. Miscellaneous tests and analyses of soil, fertilizers^ 



insecticides, etc. 



At the beginning of the shipping season for citrus fruit 



the question arose as to what constituted ripe fruit and the- 



/ relation of artificial colouring or sweating to the acid and 



"^ sugar content, and a great number of fruit analyses w.;re- 



made which included fruit picked at all seasons of the year 



and handled in various ways as to its treatment preparatory 



to shipping. 



