•296 



THE AGKICTJLTUIIAL NEWS. 



September 22, 1917. 



fiDITORIAL i^ 



Head Office 



• .^-Jgl NOTICES. 



vJfef^at': 



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 applications for copies of the 'Agricultural 

 Uews' and other Departmental publications, should be 

 •twldressed 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 

 •the cover. 



Imperial Commissioner of .'iir Francis Watts. K.C.M.G., 



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



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



•Seienti/ic Assistant and t W. R. Dunlop.* 



Assistant Editor \Rev. C. H. Branch, B.A. 



„ , , . , ( H. A. Ballou, M.Sc.T 



AUomologists i J. C. Hv.tson, B.A., Ph.D. 



■Mycologist W. Nowell, D.I.C. 



CLERICAL STAFF. 

 •Chief Clerk A. G. Howell. 



fL. A. Gorbin. 



■Clerical Assistaids 



P. Taylor.* 

 Ik. R. C. Foster. 



Typist . Miss B. Robinson. 



Assistant Typist Miss W. Ellis. 



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



*Seconded fur Militartj .^ejiicf. 



1'Secnided for Duty in Ef/iijit. 



Agricultural lleiuij 



I'oL. XVI. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1917. No. 402. 

 NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial deals with the question of the 

 increase of the production of local food crops as a sound 

 agricultural policy. 



On page 204 a rt^sumi' is given of the efforts made 

 in the West Indies and British Ouiana up to the 

 present to produce more food crops. 



The conclusion of the article on some insect pests 

 in Jamaica appears under Insect Notes, on page 298. 



Under Plant Diseases, on page '402, there will be 

 found an important article on the Porto Rico cane 

 disease. 



Extension of Cultivation in St Kitts. 



The south-eastern end of .St. Kitts is a small 

 peninsula, known as Salt Ponds, because of a large 

 lagoon from which in the early days of the colony and 

 even up to recent times a supply of salt was obtained. 

 The land was under cultivation not so very long ago, 

 but foi some years past the whole district has only been 

 used as a stock run. 



Lately, however, under the direction of ilr. H. 

 Wildy, the cultivation of cotton and coco-nuts has been 

 begun in this long neglected portion of the island. His 

 Honour the Administrator of St. Kitts-Nevis accom- 

 panied by the Superintendent of Agriculture, recently 

 visited Mr. Wildys new cultivation, and from the 

 report forwarded by Mr. Shepherd, the Superintendent, 

 to the Commissioner of Agriculture, the enterprise is 

 likely to be attended with success. 



The chief difficulty in the way was the supply of 

 labour. This has been admirably met by the erection 

 on the spot of houses for the labourers, and of a small 

 store for the purpose of supplying them with food and 

 other necessaries. 



At the present time there are about 100 .acres 

 cleared, 4o acres of which were planted in cotton about 

 May and are most promising, the plants being healthy 

 and vigorous, and boiling plentifully: it is proposed to 

 plant 4o acres more in cotton during the present season. 

 It may be noted that the seed used for this planting is 

 of pedigree seed Xo. 342 from the Experiment Station 

 at La Guerite in St. Kitts. 



There is much more land at Salt Ponds suitable 

 for cotton growing, which it is intended to put into 

 cultivation in the future — not only in cotton, but also 

 in coco-nuts, a nursery of young coco-nut trees having 

 been already established which will soon be fit to 

 be planted out. 



It is pleasant to learn of waste and neglected lands 

 in these islands being reclaimed by cultivation, and of 

 labour difficulties being wisely provided against. Every- 

 one who has at heart the prosperity and a<ivancement of 

 agriculture in the West Indies will watch with interest 

 this e.xperiment, and hope that succe.ss may attend this 

 and any other similar schemes of development. 



The New Economies. 



As has been noted in recent issues of tht 

 Agrlcultwral 2\ev.is, experiments have been made, 

 more or less successfully, in several of these islands of 

 mixing other meals with flour to make bread, in order 

 to economise ni the use of imported flour. From the 

 Louisiana Phuiter for Juh" 14, 1917, the following 

 report of similai experiments is taken. At Audubor» 

 Park Sugar Experiment Station, in June, there was 

 exhibited bread made from various materials not 

 commonly used for that purpose. Conspicuous among 

 these was bread made largely from cotton-seed meal 

 mixed with other meal or Hour in a sufficient quantity, 

 and in such a manner as to reduce the unpleasant 

 flavour of cotton-seed meal to a negligible point. In 

 the Shulenberg, Texas, oil mill they have been 

 manufacturing cotton-seed meal by a process of their 

 own, and it is called Addison flour. This experiment 

 has been goinrj on there for seven vears, and bread 



