December, '13] woLCOTT: west Indian and demeraran notes 443 



REPORT ON A TRIP TO DEMERARA, TRINIDAD AND 

 BARBADOS DURING THE WINTER OF 1913 



By George N. Wolcott.i 



Late in the autumn of 1912, I made a trip to Demerara, Trinidad, 

 and Barbados to investigate certain aspects of the cane insect problems 

 in those countries for the Porto Rican Board of Agriculture, and in 

 the interest of the sugar planters of Porto Rico. 



It would not have been possible for me unaided to have made 

 observations of much value, had I not received the heartiest coop- 

 eration from various persons, particularly the Entomologists of the 

 countries visited. Especial mention should be made of the assistance 

 rendered by Mr. J. B. Harrison, Director of the Botanical Gardens, 

 Mr. G. E. Bodkin, Government Economic Biologist and Mr. J. J. 

 Quelch, Entomologist for the cane growers, of Demerara; Mr. F. W. 

 Urich, Entomologist of the Board of Agriculture at Trinidad; Mr. 

 J, R. Bovell, Director of the Local Department of Agriculture; Mr. 

 Wm. Nowell, the Assistant Director, Entomologist and Mycologist, 

 and Mr. H. A. Ballou, Entomologist of the Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture for the Lesser Antilles, at Barbados. 



The methods of growing cane, and the conditions of labor, soil 

 and climate are different from those common in the southern United 

 States. It will be necessary, therefore, to tell something of them 

 before one can obtain an appreciation of the injury caused by the pests 

 of cane and the effectiveness of the control measures adopted. 



In Demerara, all the cultivated area in cane consists of a strip of 

 land, varying in width from one to three or four miles, running along 

 the coast — sometimes close to the ocean and only protected from it 

 by the barriers, similar to the levees in Louisiana, which protect 

 the fields from the overflow of the rivers, in other cases separated 

 by miles of low marsh land from the sea. Although in recent years 

 there has been a considerable consolidation of the estates, the typical 

 cane estate consists of a narrow strip of land, sometimes only a quarter 

 of a mile wide, which runs back from the ocean into the wild, uncul- 

 tivated and often unexplored interior. The typical arrangement is 

 a road extending from the mill back through the cultivated area, 

 on one or both sides of which is the main canal or ditch — fifteen or 

 twenty feet wide. Each ditch has numerous side branches at regular 

 intervals, leading back between the fields. The estate is entirely de- 

 pendent upon these ditches for the transportation of the cane from 



' Published by permission of J. T. Crawley, Chaii-man of the Science Committee 

 of the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture of Porto Rico. 



