ToL. V. No. Hi. 



THE AGKICULTUEAL NEWS. 



281 



Exports of Dominica. 



The West India Committee Circular (August 8) 

 publishes tables showing the exports from Dominica 

 during the years 190-i and 1905. The tables are of 

 considerable interest as showing the progress being 

 made by this prosperous island. 



The total value of the exports during 1905 was 

 £78,03.5, as compared with £03,00(3 in 1904, or an 

 increase of £15,029. There appears to be an increasing 

 tendency to ship the products of the island to the 

 United 8tate.?. 



Practically all the principal exports participate in 

 the increase. The value of the output of cacao rose 

 from £21,325 to £25,554 ; that of lime products from 

 £28,986 to £38,901. Green limes were responsible for 

 an increase of £1,890. There was a decrease in the 

 output of raw lime juice, but a large increase in the 

 concentrated product. 



Tobacco in the Bahamas. 



The Bulletin of flte Agricultural Department, 

 Bahamas, for July, contains an article by the Curator 

 on tobacco culture at the Experiment Station. 



The results of the experiment show that a very 

 fine grade of tobacco can be grown and cured in the 

 Bahamas. The reports from local cigar manufacturers 

 who examined the leaf were very satisfactory as regards 

 both cultivation and curing. 



It is suggested that tobacco growing will jjrove 

 a lucrative industry. 



The seed used was obtained from Havana, ] acre 

 being planted with it. This I'esulted in a crop of 

 195 lb. of ' carpa ' wrapper or binder, 111 lb. of ' tripa' 

 filler, and 1 lb. of ' fongue,' or at the rate of 1,228 lb. 

 per acre. 



One of the local manufacturers pronounced these 

 leaves to be ' equally large, and the quality as good, as 

 those I generally import from Havana, Cuba.' 



Cotton Industry in the Virgin Islands. 



With a view to encouraging the cultivation of 

 cotton in the Virgin Islands, and in view of the fact 

 that there is no person who could undertake the work, 

 arrangements have been made by which the cotton 

 grown by the peasantry is bought at the Experiment 

 Station, where it is ginned and shipped to England. 

 It was very desirable that the growers in the 

 Virgin Islands should have a ready-cash market. 



From August 1, 1905, to May .31, 1906, the sum 

 of £147 14.'!. lid. was paid for seed-cotton. At the end 

 •of May 6,975 lb. of clean lint had been shipped ; this 

 was valued at £205, the cotton being of only medium 

 <]uality. These returns show an increase of 14 bales 

 -over last year's shipments. Some headway is being 

 made, though slowly. The Agricultural Instructor 

 finds it difficult to get the growers to realize that only 

 the very best qualities of cotton fetch high prices, and 

 that great care is necessary in producing first-rate 

 •cotton. 



Cane Farming. 



His Excellency Sir Henry Jackson, Governor of 

 Trinidad, has circulated among sugar estate proprietors 

 in Trinidad some notes on the cane-farming systems of 

 Fiji, Mauritius, and Hawaii. 



With a view to meeting the scarcity of the labour 

 supply in Trinidad, it is desirable to induce the East 

 Indian immigrants to remain on the estates. Means 

 of securing this have been successfully devised else- 

 where by the share system, as worked by cane 

 companies in the countries mentioned. 



In Fiji the land is divided into blocks of 60 acres, 

 prepared and planted by the estate, and then handed 

 over to cane companies, composed of free or indentured 

 labourers, which carry on the cultivation under 

 the supervision of the estate's management. An 

 advance of Is. is made to the members of the cane 

 company for every day of nine hours worked. When 

 the canes are cut and taken to the mill, the cane 

 company is credited with the amount per ton agreed 

 upon beforehand, and from this are deducted the 

 advances made during cultivation and the cost of any 

 work done by the estate after handling. The actual 

 payments to the cane companies work out at from 2.s. 

 to 3s. per head per day. 



This system has had the effect of inducing the 

 indentured labourers to remain on the estates after 

 their agreements have expired, and Sir Henry Jackson 

 is of opinion that some such system would be advan- 

 tageous in Trinidad. 



Insects and Diseases. 



In his inaugural address at the York meeting of 

 the British Association, Professor Ray Lankester, F.R.S., 

 mentioned that another feature of the progress of our 

 knowledge of disease was the recent recognition that 

 minute animal parasites were the causes of serious and 

 ravaging diseases, and that the bacteria were not alone 

 in possession of this field of activity. 



Major Ross had discovered that the malarial 

 parasite passed a part of its life in the anopheles 

 mosquito, not, as he had first supposed, in the culex, 

 and that malaria could be lessened if these mosquitos 

 were got rid of, or if they could be prevented from 

 sucking the blood of malaria patients. 



Following this great discovery. Colonel David 

 Bruce had proved that the tse-tse fly conveyed by its 

 bite the trypanosome, which produced the deadly 

 ' Nagana ' horse and cattle disease in South Africa, 

 from wild big-game animals to the horses and cattle of 

 the colonists. Colonel Bruce had also shown that the 

 big-game were tolerant of the parasites, while the 

 introduced animals were poisoned by the chemical 

 excreta of the trypanosomes. Another species of 

 trypanosome, also carried by a tse-tse fly, had been 

 proved by Colonel Bruce to be the cause of sleeping 

 sickness in Uganda. Trypanosomes were now being 

 recognized in the most diverse regions of the world as 

 the cause of disease. In all such cases a knowledge of 

 the carrier of the disease was extremely important, as 

 well as the knowledge of the reser\'oir-hosts, when such 

 exist. 



