248 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



August 11. 1917. 



EDITORIAL 



Head Office 



NOTICES. 



— Barbados. 



Letters and matter for publication, as well as all 

 specimens for naming, should be addressed to the 

 Commissioner, Imperial Department of Agriculture 

 Barbados. 



All .-ipplications 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 

 bhe cover. 



Imperial Commissioner of Sir Francis Watts, K.C.M.G., 



jLgriculhire for the West Indies D.Sc, F.I.C., F.C.S. 



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



Seienti/ic Assistant and 

 Assistant Editor 



( W. R. Bunlop.* 



\F. H. Watkins, L.S.O. 



( H. A. Ballou, M.Sc. 



\J. C. Hutson, B.A., Ph.D. 



W. Nowell. D.I C. 



CLERICAL STAFF. 



A. G. Howell. 



rL. A. Corbin. 

 P. Taylor.* 

 [K. R. C. Foster. 

 Typist Miss B. Robinson. 



Asiistant Typist Miss W. Ellis. 



Ataistant for Publications A. B. Price, Fell. Journ. Inst. 



♦(Seconded for Militarij >'eji'!c<. 



Entomologists 

 Mycologist 



Chief Clerk 

 Clerical Assistants 



^gricullural lleiufi 



Vol. XVI. SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1917. No. 399. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this issue discusses the dangers of 

 transmission of disease by Hies. 



Insect Notes, on page -.50, refer to the principal 

 natural enemies of hard-back grubs in Porto Rico. 



The Plant Disease Note, on page 2.5'!, deals with 

 the control of damping-off in seedlings, due to their 

 infection by certain soil-inhabiting fungi. 



On page 253 is to be found an epitome of the 

 Annual Report of the Agricultural Department of 

 Dominica for 1916-17. 



Agricultural Commission in British Honduras. 



A Commision has, it is reported in the Clarion of 

 June 7, 1917, been appointed by the Acting Governor 

 of British Honduras to inquire into matters concerning 

 the production of foodstuffs Avithin that Colony, 

 and generally to investigate the needs of agriculture 

 and the means best calculated to secure its develop- 

 ment, and the conditions obtaining amongst the 

 farming class. If the commission results in the adoption 

 of measures broad in conception and flexible enough in 

 application to fit them to a neccessarily limited 

 beginning while allowing free scope for safe and sound 

 expansion as the beneficial effects of their working 

 warrant an increase of facilities for that end, its 

 appointment is one of the most important steps ever 

 taken for advancing the interests of the Colony. 



Advances upon Agricultural Produce. 



An Ordinance No. 14 of 1917, published ni the 

 Trinidad Royal Gazette of June S, 1917, repealing the 

 Agricultural Produce Ordinance 1906, has been passed 

 by the Legislative Council of that island to make 

 provision for securing advances on agricultural produce. 

 By section 4 of the Ordinance when any land together 

 with any crop growing or to be grown thereon and the 

 produce to be reaped or gathered therefrom and the 

 product or article to be cured made or manufactured 

 from such crop or produce are mortgaged or charged by 

 any instrument in writing as a security for the payment 

 of money, such crop and produce upon severance from 

 the land and the product or article to be cured made 

 or manufactured therefrom shall not be deemed to be 

 personal chattels but shall be deemed for all purposes 

 to be lawfully mortgaged or charged. It is also made 

 lawful for the owner of any sugar factory to mortgage 

 or charge sugars made or manufactured from canes to be 

 purchased by such owners from farmers or others. 



Ari instrument in writing may piovide that the 

 whole or any portion of the sum advanced shall be 

 devoted to specific purposes, or that the whole or any 

 portion of the crop shall be delivered to the mortgagee 

 or that any money received by the mortgagor in respect 

 of the crop shall be paid or applied in the manner 

 specified in the instrument. 



Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition in 



Trinidad. 



In the repi^rt of the Joint Executive Committee of 

 the Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition held at Port- 

 of-Spain in March, it is said the value of spraying cacao 

 was shown by an exhibit of the actual pods from one 

 picking from equal numbers of sprayed and unsprayed 

 trees, and of the total dry cacao yielded from the two 

 plots during one season, while on the entomological 

 side a useful display was made of the beetles of 

 cacao estates. The Department of Agriculture, as is 

 related in the report, which is reproduced In the 

 Proceedinys of the Agricultural Society of Trinidad 

 and Tobago, Vol. XVII, p. 190, also focussed atten- 



