323 



THE AGRICULTUEAL NEWS. 



October 20, 1917. 



EDITORIAL 



Head Office 



NOTICES. 



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 

 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 

 the cover. 



Imperial Commissioner of SixFrancis Watts, K.C.M.G., 



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



SCIENTIFIC STAFF. 



Scientific Assistant and fW. R. Dunlop.* 



Assistant Editor IKev. C. H. Branch, B.A. 



J H. A. Ballou, M.Sc.t 

 tj. C. Hutson, B.A., Ph.D. 

 W. Nowell, D.I.C. 



£ntomulogists 

 Mycologist 



CLEEICAL STAFF. 



A. G. Howell. 



[L. A. Corbin. 

 P. Taylor.* 

 K. R. C. Foster. 

 Typist Miss B. Robinson. 



.Assistant Typist Miss W. Ellis. 



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



*Seconded for Military Service. 

 iSeconded for Duty in Eyyjyt. 



Chief Clerk 

 Clerical Assistants 



gigriculiural liivirfi 



Vol. XVI. SATURDAyToCTOBER 20, 1917. No. 404. 



■,__^ ■_ — ' — ^"^^ ^~- ■ — ■ 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The subject of recent experiments in the making 

 and storing of farm-yard manure is dealt with in the 

 editorial. 



Under Insect Notes on page 330 will be found 

 paper on the subject of white grubs attacking sugar- 

 cane in Porto Rico, and on page 331, a short notice of 

 steps taken to combat locusts in British Guiana. 



On page 334, the article under Plant Diseases treats 

 of the bracket fungus pest of lime trees. 



A notice of the pcssible value as food of the fruits 

 of two widely spread plants is to be found on page 333. 



The Sex Ratio in Poultry. 



At a meeting of the American Philosophical' 

 Society held in Philadelphia in April this year, a paper 

 was read by Dr. Raymond Pearl, of the Maine Agricultu- 

 ral Station, de-scribing the factors influencing the sex 

 ratio in poultry. Any information which would make 

 it possible for the poultry raiser to produce a larger 

 number of pullets to lay eggs, in the place of so many 

 cockerels, would be of great value. Dr. Pearl bases his 

 conclusions on the experiments of eight jears, and of 

 more than 22,000 individual hens. He concludes that 

 the determination of sex in poultry is due to a definite 

 hereditary tendency. At the same time, in certain 

 physiological circumstances, the operation of this 

 tendency may be modified in such a way as to lead to 

 the production of more females in proportion to the 

 number of males. The chief factor in bringing about 

 this modification is the laying ability of the hens used for 

 breeders. The larger the number of eggs which a hen 

 lays before being utilized as a bieeder, the larger will be 

 the proportion of females and the smaller the propor- 

 tion of males produced from her eggs. Some years 

 ago it was shown by Dr. Pearl that the ability to 

 lay a larger number of eggs than usual in poultry 

 is a definite Mendelian inheritance. As a result of 

 this knowledge it is possible to breed strains of hens 

 in which productivity is a fixed characteristic. The 

 present results, taken in connexion with the f arlier ones, 

 show that when poultry is bred along the right lines for 

 increased egg production, a strain will be produced at 

 the same time in which profit-making pullets prepon- 

 derate over the less profitable cockerels. 



The Trade of British Guiana in 1915. 



The report of the Comptroller of Customs relating 

 to the trade of the Colony of British Guiana for the 

 jear 1916, presents an interesting feature in the 

 employment of very clear diagrams representing the 

 fluctuations for ten years: first, of the total exports 

 and imports and the total trade of the colony; secondly, 

 of the fluctuations of the various duties on wines, 

 spirits, etc.; and thirdly, three showing the fluctuations 

 for twenty years of the amount, total value, and price 

 per ton of the exports of sugar. It is seen at a glance 

 from the first diagram that the trade of British (luiana 

 has steadily risen from its low-w-ater level in 1912 of 

 »1.5,267,926 to its high-water-mark of §26,924,385 in 

 1916. With regard to the sugar industry, the diagrams 

 show that although 125,949 tons were shipped in 

 1912 — the record for the period represented — as 

 against 101,650 tons shipped in 1916, the total value 

 of the shipments of 1902 was onlv S5, 001, 710. as 

 against §10,082,005, the value of those of 1916, while 

 in 1902 the average price per ton for sugar was $4164 

 compared with §9918 in 1916. 



To the ordinary layman, who is not a trained 

 accountant, the presentation of financial facts like 

 these by means of diagrams instead of tables of figures 

 is very welcome, as it enables him easily to grasp the 

 salient points of comparison. 



