136 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWfe. 



May 



lai' 



EDITORIAL 



Head Office 



NOTICES. 



— Barbados. 



Letters and matter for publication, as well 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 ;-> of 

 the cover. 



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



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



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



Scientific Assistant awi 

 Assistant Editor 



Entomologists 



Mycologist 



W. R. Dunlop. 



I H. A. Ballou, M.Sc. 



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



W. Nowell, D.I.C. 



CLERICAL STAFF. 



Chief Clerh 



Clerical Assistants 



Typist 



Assistant Typist 

 Assistant for Publications 



A. G. HoweU. 



fL. A. Corbin. 

 - P. Taylor. 



Ik. E. C. Foster. 

 Miss B. Robinson. 

 Miss W. Ellis. 

 A. B. Price, Fell. Journ. Inst. 



^OJ^i^i^t^i^i^i^t l^^'i^'-j 



Vol. XVL SATURDAY, MAY 5, 1917. No. 392. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial in this issue deals with the subject 

 of resistance to disease, and indicates new lines along 

 which entomological and mycological research might 

 usefully be conducted. 



On page 131 will be found an interesting article 

 describing the plants and animals of New Caledonia, 

 one of the South Pacific Islands. 



Scientific Exploration in Central America and 

 the West Indies. 



The expedition which the American Museum of 

 Natural History has maintained fur the last six months 

 in Nicaragua has returned to New York, according to 

 Nature, bringing with it a collection of 1,.500 fishes 

 and 2,000 reptiles, together with a large series of 

 photographs and unusually complete tecological notes. 

 The material thus obtained is said to be of special 

 value, as no specimens of reptiles had ever before been 

 brought out of this region, although it has a reptile 

 fauna of no ordinary interest, not only because of the 

 great diversity in the typographical features, but also 

 because the isthmus to-daj' forms a transition tract 

 between the two continents, and is supposed in the 

 past to have had land connexion with Cuba and Jamaica. 



In connexion with the above, it may be stated that 

 a party of marine biologists in the United States con- 

 template visiting Barbados in 1918 for the purpose of 

 studying coral reefs and other shallow-water forms 

 of life. 



The Report on Sugar-cane Experiments in the 

 Leeward Islands, 191.5-16, will be found reviewed on 

 page 141. 



Under Insect Note.s, on page 138, will be found a 

 survey of the prevalence of pests in the West Indies 

 during 1916. Plant Diseases deal with citrus diseases 

 in Cuba. 



Open-air Pig-keeping. 



It has been suggested in connexion with proposals 

 to establish a bacon factory in the West Indies, that 

 it might prove profitable to keep pigs in herds on 

 pasture laud, or on sweet potato fields rather than in 

 sties. It has also been suggested that pigs might be 

 raised on coco-nut estates provided adequate protec- 

 tion could be given to the trees. Concerning these 

 ideas, an article oa open-air pig-raising appearing in the 

 Journal of the Board of Agriculture of England and 

 Wales (^March 1917) is of interest. 



It is stated in this article that the increase in the 

 number ot pigs which can be maintained on pasture as 

 compared with the number which can be maintained 

 in sties on an equal quantity of food is rather over 

 30 per cent. This figure is based on the results of 

 a considerable amount of practical experience, which 

 tends to show that a pig fed in a sty requires an addi- 

 tional quantity of" at least 200 lb. of barley meal to 

 attain an equal weight to a pig running on grass. 

 Assuming that one million pigs could be grazed, the 

 quantity of barley meal thereby rendered available for 

 other purposes, compared with a million pigs fed in 

 sties, would be approximately 100,000 tons — a consider- 

 ation of great importance. (Barley meal is here taken 

 as an illustration; the corresponding quantities of other 

 foods may be calculated on their feeding values.) 



The advantages of open-air, as compared with sty 

 feeding, may be shortly stated as follows: — 



(1 ) The capital expenditure is small, being for hut 

 and hiH-dles approximately £1 per pig. 



(2) The grass substituted for the 200 tb. of barley 

 meal remains at pre-war price (say 3s. per pig, on the 

 average). 



(3) There is no waste of manurial constituents. 



(4) There is less risk of disease. 



(.5) The number of pigs usually maintained can 

 be materially increased. 



