A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. ■^■^""'^ 



eOTANi 



Vol. Y. No. 120. 



BARBADOS, DECEMBER 1, 1906. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Agricultural Shiiw at 



Muntserrat 



Anthrax, Prevention of, in 



St. Vincent 



Ai'bor Day at Antigua . . . 

 Bahamas, Exports of the... 

 Chrysanthemums, How to 



growinthe Westlndies '. 

 Cocoa-nuts in the Malay 



States 



Cotton Notes : — 



Antigua Cotton Factory 

 Pollination of Cotton ... 

 Sea Island Cotton 



Blarket 



Seasonable Notes 

 Dominica, Agricultural 



Eftbrts at 



Educational : — 



British Guiana 



Grenada 



Gleanings 



Gold Coast Agricultural 

 Department 



Insect Notes : — 



Food Plants of Cotton 

 Stainers 



Thrips on Cacao 



LeuK.m and Orangd Syrup 



Market Reports 



Notes and Comments 

 Palms, I' couomic Uses of... 

 Parasitic Fungi 



Sugar-cane Experiments in 

 Barbiiclos. 



T a meeting of the Barbados Agricultural 

 Society, held on November 16, Professor 

 d'Albuquerque and Mr. J. R. Bovell 

 u_ presented a summary of the more important and 



interesting results in connexion with the sugar-cane 

 experiments carried on in Barbados under the direction 

 of the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the 

 West Indies during last crop season. 



One of the most important branches of this work 

 is to endeavour to obtain seedling canes which shall 

 afford each planter the means of selecting a variety, 

 which, under the conditions of soil and climate existing 

 on his plantation, shall give him an average j'ield and 

 profit substantially in advance of what he obtains 

 at present with the standard variety, the White 

 Transparent. To this end, during the past nine years, 

 some 30,000 canes have been raised from seed, and 

 these 30,000 varieties have been studied in the pot, 

 in the field, and many of them in the chemical 

 laboratory, in order to select, and afterwards propagate, 

 the varieties which possess the most desirable agri- 

 cultural and chemical characters. The main points 

 to which attention has to be paid in this selection 

 process are : germinating power, tonnage, resistance co 

 disease and drought, richness and purity of juice. 



In the season under review, the selected canes 

 have been grown on eleven black-soil estates and two 

 red-soil estates, representing every variety of soil 

 and climate in sugar cultivation in the island. On the 

 whole, the weather conditions during the season were- 

 fairly favourable. 



Taking the average muscovado sugar yield of the 

 chief varieties grown on black soils as plant canes for 

 the six years 1900-6, the results show that, while White 

 Transparent gave 5,221 !b. per acre, B. 208 gave 

 .5,.5.51 lb., B. 147, 5,634 ft., and B. 1,529, 6,578 lb. The 

 increased value of the sugar per acre, compared with 

 White Transparent, was : B. 208, $4-29 ; B. 147, $5-37 . 



