

^^ 



A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 





Vol. XVI. No. 399. 



BARBADOS, AL'GUST 11, 1917. 



Peicb Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Advances upon Agi'ieul- 

 tura! Produce 



Agricultural Commission 

 in Britlsli Hondura.s ... 



Agi'iculture in Barbados 



Agriculture in Britisli 

 Guiana 



Alcohol, Industrial 



Book Shelf 



Cacao, Storage Room and 

 the Price of.. 



Cassava, Rotation for ... 



Chiggers or Chiggoes ... 



Cotton Notes: — 



British Cotton Growing 



Association 



Sea Island Cotton 

 Market 



Department News 



Departmental Reports ... 



Flies 



Gleanings 



Horticulture, University 

 Degree in 



Industrj', Higher Direc- 

 tion of 



Page. 



248 I 



248 

 244 



244 

 247 

 243 



245 

 245 



24! t 



Page. 



24ti 



246 

 24H 

 25a 

 241 

 262 



24!i 



249 



Insect Notes: — 

 White Grubs Injuriou? 

 to Sugar-cane in Port i • 



Rico — ... 25*1 



Juvenile Education and 

 Employment 249 



Market Reports 280 



Notes and Comments . . . 248 

 Pellagra in Barbados ... 245 

 Plant Diseases: — 



Tlie Control of Damp- 



ing-ofl' 254 



.Solar Ovens 251 



Sugar Industry Agi'icul- 



tural Bank in Barbados 247 



'I'rinidad, Agrioultural 

 and Industrial Exhibi- 

 tion in 248 



Trinidad, Protection of 

 Fisheriei* in 251 



Turkn and Caicos Islands, 

 Salt Industrj- of 255 



West Indian Products 255 

 Wisley Laboratory, The 255 



Flies. 



VERY 



year as tlic trade uiaJs die o;i' M\d 

 sthe sugar crop conies to an end, the annoy- 



^^ jance caused by flies in West Indian houses, 



wg well as the danger of infection from those diseases 

 in which the fly acts as the mechanical transporter of 

 an infective agent, is appreciably increased. In the 

 same manner as bees are of inestimable service to man 

 in aiding in the fertilization of plants, so flies, on the 

 other hand, being instrumental in the dissemination of 

 disease, become a standing menace to public health. 



Pasteur discovered that many diseases are caused 

 by the presence in the blood of tiny living creatures, 

 fai- too small to be seen l>y the eye, called bacteria, 

 and since his discover}' many kinds of such creatures 

 have been observed and classified .so that they can 

 readily be recognized under microscopic examination. 

 After some years it was further discovered that these 

 tiny creatures are carried about by insects of several 

 kinds, and, during the .South African war, when 

 enteric or typhoid fever wrought such havoc 

 among the British troops that it has been esti- 

 mated that more soldiers succumbed to disease 

 than bullets, it was discovered that the germs of 

 this disease, the tiny blood invaders causing it, were 

 transmitted by ordinary house-flies which carrv them 

 sticking to their legs and bodies. In the present 

 Mesopotamia campaign flies have played a role equally 

 sinister, with such dire results that a commission of 

 entomological experts, including Professor H. Maxwell- 

 Lefroy, was sent out last year to report on the 

 best methoils for their destruction. 



Careful investigation has proved that flies, bred 

 in garbage teeming with the germs of disease, cover 

 themselves with filth which they carry about and drop 

 on such articles of food as they touch, thus trans- 

 mitting typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis and ophthalmia, 

 and perhaps diphtheria and smallpo.x. They are 

 especially active in spreading enteritis by milk pollution. 

 Although the general rate of mortality has, in mosb 

 countries, thanks to improved sanitation and advances 

 in medical science, steadil}' decreased during the last 

 generation, infants under one year of age, who are 

 largely dependent on milk or liquid food, have not shared 

 in the benefit. From the first to the fourth month of 



