A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XVI. No. 396. 



BARBADOS, .TUNE 30, 1917. 



Price li. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Agi'icultuial Recoustiuc- I 



tion in England 205 



Agriculture, High Price 



of 201 



Antigua and St. Kitts 



Central Sugar Factories 197 

 Bay Seed, Transportation 



of to Egypt 197 



Coffee, Shield-Budding of 205 

 Cotton Notes: — 



Cotton Exports from 

 the West Indies ... 198 



Sea Island Cotton Mar- 

 ket 198 



Department News 197 



Drought and Food Sup- 



Ijlies in St. Lucia ... 201 



Farm Tractors 20.'. 



Food Supplies. Local, in 



St. Vincent 194 



Food Supply Legislation 



in Barbados 195 



Foodstutfs, Local Produc- 

 tion of 19:i 



Page. 



Gleanings 204 



Hurricane Warnings ... 198 



Insect Notes: — 



Slugs 202 



Some Soil Grubs in the 

 West Indies 202 



Items of Local Interest... 19t> 



Logarithms 200 



Madagascar Beans in 



.St. Lucia 195 



Market Reports 208 



Molasses as a Fertilizer... 201 

 Mongoose in Barbados ... 20(> 

 Notes and Comments ... 200 

 Potatoes, Sweet, in Eng- 

 land 199 



Pure and Applied Science 200 

 Kats and their Extermi- 

 nation 207 



Stock, A Weed Dangerous 



to .'". ... 203 



Trade Between Canada 

 and the West Indies ... 207 



Local Production of Foodstuffs. 



?N an article in the Agricultural News of 

 'January 13 last, attention was drawn to the 



^ ^t'act that, owing to the high prices being 



obtained for West Indian staple products, and to the 

 absence of superabundance of labour to produce them, 

 there was a tendency to shirk the question of producing 

 food crops. There remained, it was pointed out, an 



undue dependence upon imported foods which might 

 entail unpleasant consequences in the near future. Aa 

 the question was a general economic one bearing on 

 that of the labourers on whom the successful working 

 of the estates depends, and on the welfare of the com- 

 iiinnity, it was necessary, in order to stimulate progress 

 in this direction, to create sound opinion and to make 

 vigorous efforts in this matter. 



Since January events have moved with rapid 

 strides, and there is ample justification for reverting 

 to what is one of the most urgent problems of the day. 

 Even if the submarine menace has not had the paraliz- 

 ing effects upon importations into the Mother Country 

 which were anticipated b}- the enemy, it has, never- 

 theless brought England into measurable distance of 

 compulsory food restrictions. The entrance of the 

 United States into the war will mean, at any rate for 

 the pre.sent, greater difficulties in the West Indies 

 obtaining adequate supplies of imported food, not only 

 on account of the requisition of merchant vessels for 

 war purposes, but also of the greater demand for wheat 

 in other countries. Despite a prospect of more than 

 an ordinary yield of spring wheat, the wheat crop of 

 North America for 1917 will, as forecasted by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, fall far 

 below normal: although the yield, estimated at six 

 hundred and fifty-six million of bushels, will give 

 sixteen million more bushels than last crop, it will 

 not, with the heavy demands from abroad and with 

 practically no reserve store, meet war needs, unless the 

 most rigid economy is practised. 



In England the result of recent experience has 

 been a rapid change wrought in the popular attitude 

 towards land problems. Before the war, most persons 

 were possessed with the comforting thought thai 



