A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



(seW YORK 

 BOTANICAL 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES, q^^^bn- 



OF THE 



Vol. V. No. 112. 



BARBADOS, AUGUST 11, 1906. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Agricultural Instruction, 



Value of .240 



Agricultural Soliouls : — 



tit. Lucia 253 



St. Vincent 253 



Agriculture in Ashanti ... 254 



Bamboos, Durability of ... 254 

 Brooms, Manufacture of, 



from Broom Corn ... 253 



€ocoa-nuts, Desiccated ... 248 

 Cotton Notes : — 



Cotton as a Catch Crop 



in St. Kitt's 246 



Cotton Growers, Season- 

 able Notes for 246 



Feeding Cotton Seed 



Meal to Swine 247 



West ludian Cotton ... 240 

 West Indian Sea Island 

 Cotton Industry ... 247 



Department News 255 



Donkey Stallion for 



St. Vincent 248 



Forestry in Grenada ... 255 



Gleanings 252 



Hurricane Insurance ... 250 

 Improvement of Cotton by 



Seed Selection 241 



Incubator Trials in 



Dimiinica 245 



r-AGE. 

 Insect Notes : — 



Black Bliglit on Cacao 



in Grenada 



Cotton attacked by 

 Rocit Borer of Sugar- 

 cane 



Lemon Market 



Mango Breeding 



Market Reports 



Martini(iue, Exjjorts of... 

 Notes and Comments ... 

 Porto Ifico, Agriculture 



in 



Rubber Planting in 



Trinidad 



Science Notes : — 



Mangosteen 



Physic Nut 



Sugar Industry : — 



Seedling Sugar-canes in 



St. Lucia 



Sugar-cane Diseases in 



Antigua 



Tobacco Cultivation in 



Porto Rico 

 United States, Introduc- 

 tion of Tro|)ical Plants 251 

 West Indian Bulletin ... 249 

 West Indian Products : — 



Canada 255 



Drugs and Sjiices in the 

 London Market ...255 



250 



250 

 244 

 244 

 256 

 249 

 248 



249 



249 



251 

 251 



248 

 242 

 243 



Improvement of Cotton by Seed 

 Selection. 



^^ HE new number of the Wci^t Indian 



)l Bv.Uetin (Vol. VII, no. 2),issued to-day,con- 



tains an interesting paper, by Mr. Thomas 



Thornton, A.R.C.S., on the ' Improvement of Cottou-by 



Seed Selection.' 



The importance of seed selection in connexion 

 with the cotton industry is being recognized in almost 

 ever\' cotton-growing country. The lead in this direc- 

 tion has been taken in the United States, and in the 

 Sea Islands seed selection and cotton planting have 

 long been regarded as insepai-able ; but the matter has 

 also been taken up in the West Indies, in Egypt, and 

 in Africa, and now on a very extensive scale in India. 

 A detailed account of the methods adopted by growers 

 in the Sea Islands for improving their cotton was 

 published in the West Indian Bulletin (Vol, IV, pp. 

 208-14). 



Experience has shown that cotton is much 

 influenced by change of environment, and the cotton 

 plant varies very considerably in the way in which it 

 responds to the influences of its environment. As 

 a consequence, it is found that the cotton produced in 

 the various West India Islands differs very much in its 

 characters ; not only that, but the cotton grown in 

 various parts of the same island also differs considerably. 



It will readily be understood, therefore, that there 

 is much danger of producing a very mixed crop. Mixed 

 cotton in the spinning factory is disastrous. One of 

 the most important things that the spinner notes in 

 buying cotton is uniformity — uniformity in colour, 

 length, fineness, and silkiness. It is essential, therefore, 

 that every effort should be made to secure this 

 uniformity. At the same time, in selecting cotton 

 seed for propagation purposes, attention has to be paid 

 to the matter of yield. Some plants will be found 

 to produce four or five times as much seed-cotton as 

 others : as it is probable that this character of produc- 

 tiveness will be passed on to the offspring, efforts are 

 made to select seed from heavy-yielding plants. 



