Vol. V. No. 107. 



THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. 



169 



Burning Cacao Leaves. 



Mr. R. D. Anstead, B.A., the Agricultural Super- 

 intendent at Grenada, has issued a timely warning to 

 agriculturists in connexion with the practice of burning 

 the cacao leaves. It has been found that this is 

 commonly done b}' the peasants i)n their holdings, and 

 it is proposed to dissuade them from such an undesirable 

 practice. 



As Mr. Anstead points out, the fall of leaves has 

 Ijeen excessive this year on account of the drought: 

 the burning of them therefore means a very consider- 

 able loss of plant food, especially nitrogen. Vegetable 

 matter is much needed in the cacao fields, and if the 

 leaves are dug into the land they will add a large 

 amount of humus. 'By burning the leaves, instead 

 of disfsring- them in, this is lost, and the ashes obtained 

 are of comparatively small value.' 



Apart from the question of soil fertility, there is 

 also the danger, owing to the extreme dryness of the 

 surrounding vegetation and the prevalence of high 

 winds, of the fires getting out of hand and doing 

 much damage to the cacao trees, which would receive 

 -a set-back and probabl}^ not bear for some time. . 



I 



Notes for Cotton Growers. 



Many planters have an impression that there are 

 practically no scale insects on cotton plants in Barbados 

 this season. This impression is, however, not correct. 

 In certain fields, at the present time, the plants are 

 practically covered with the black scale, and in almost 

 every field there are individual plants attacked by the 

 white scale. Planters are recommended to be most 

 careful about these pests ; every field ought to be 

 examined, and diseased plants should be taken up at 

 once and burned. 



Now that the old cotton plants arc being taken 

 up, planters are again recommended not to pick the 

 seed-cotton from the bolls which open after the plants 

 have been removed from the field. Most of the unde- 

 veloped bolls will open after the plants have been taken 

 up, but the seed-cotton from them is necessarily poor 

 and must not, under any circumstances, be shipped 

 with the rest of the cotton. The mixing of this with 

 even the second-grade cotton will be likely to injure 

 the market value of the latter to a considerable extent. 

 This matter has already been dealt with at some length 

 in the Agricultural A^eivs (Vol. V, p. 39). 



All land which is to be planted in cotton this 

 season should be prepared as soon as possible. Thorough 

 preparation of the soil is ver}- important, and it is also 

 important that the land should be allowed to ' cool out ' 

 for some time before the seed is sown. Minor details 

 such as these have a great infiuenee on the quality and 

 quantity of the crop produced. 



Reference has been made in the Agriculturcd 

 Neivs to the practice of growing other crops, such as 

 yams, sweet potatos, and corn, between the rows of 

 cotton. It is hoped that this year there will be 

 no planter so unwise as to continue this practice which 

 has been everywhere a failure. 



Curious Oranges. 



Mr. A. W. Bartlett, B.A., B.Sc, Government 

 Botanist, British Guiana, recently forwarded to the 

 Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture three curious 

 oranges which are said to have been produced by 

 grafting the sweet orange on to the rough-lemon 

 stock, and which afford an interesting example of the 

 influence of the stock on the scion. The fruits had an 

 external appearance rather of a citron, viz., a thick, 

 coarse, rough skin. The pulp portion was also coarse. 

 The largest fruit might, in this respect, almost have 

 been taken for a shaddock. The flavour and texture 

 of the pulp of the smaller fruits were like those of 

 the orange, though poor. 



Such instances do not seem to be unknown, and are 

 regarded as exceptions to the general rule that the 

 scion and stock both retain their individualities. 



An analogous instance is apparently- afforded by 

 the following quotation from Bailey's Nursery Book : 

 ' Graftage may influence the flavour of fruit. There 

 can be no question but that apples often derive 

 acridity from the stock when worked upon the wild crab 

 or upon the Siberian crab.' 



In the case of these oranges such an unusual 

 modification might also have been brought about by 

 adverse conditions or by e.xcess of nitrogen in the soil. 



The grower states that ' the constant result of 

 grafting on the rough-lemon stock is to produce 

 coarse-skinned fruits.' It would be interesting to 

 know if similar results have been met with by readers 

 of the Agricultural jVew><. 



m I ■■ 



Rubber in French West Africa. 



The question of improving the rubber industry in 

 French West Africa has been energetically taken up by 

 the Inspector of Agriculture, who has visited all the 

 European rubber markets. A review of these efforts 

 appears in the Consular Report for 1904.-.5. An 

 Ordinance was published in February 1905, applicable 

 to the whole of French West Africa, whose object is 

 to secure the following results : (1) the suppression of 

 adulteration ; ^2) the preservation of existing rubber 

 trees ; (3) the creation of new plantations ; and (4) the 

 creation of schools of instruction in the methods of 

 cultivating and gathering rubber. 



That the intervention of the Administration has 

 resulted in an improvement in the quality of the 

 rubber exported is shown by the higher prices obtained 

 on the Bordeaux market during flie last few years. 



Unfortunately, irreparable harm had been done to 

 the existing rubber plants before the Government 

 interfered, so that attention is being principally devoted 

 to the creation of new plantations. It has been found 

 that in many districts it is more advantageous to plant 

 rubber trees, such as Hevea, Funt\miia, Ceara, and 

 possibly Castilloa, than the rubber vines. The latter 

 are most successfully propagated by sowing at the foot 

 of the trees which will ultimately serve as their supports. 

 Encouraging results have been obtained with all the 

 trees mentioned above. The system of training native 

 monitors, who subsequently go to teach in the Circle 

 schools, has also given good results. 



