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I returned to Kingston on the 2nd of January, and took my passage to 

 Barbados, for which I left the following day, meeting on the steamer 

 Messrs. Williams, Faucett, and Savage, the three delegates to the Imperial 

 Agricultural Conference to be held in Barbados on the 14th. We arrived at 

 Colon, on the Panama Canal, on the 6th, stopping there two days, one of which 

 I spent at Colon and Panama markets, where the most striking commodities 

 were the number of yams, Jamaica mandarins, Martinique bananas, and the 

 small yellow thick -set banana, known as the Chinese banana. 



On the 1 3th we anchored off Trinidad, where we were under strict quaran- 

 tine with the shore, for a number of people had died from yellow fever only 

 a few days before, and Trinidad was plague-stricken. The following morning 

 we sighted Barbados, and anchored off Bridgetown at 2 o'clock. The 

 delegates from Jamaica introduced me to the officers of the Agricultural 

 Conference, who very kindly placed me on the same footing as the official 

 delegates, and when I went ashore with them met the Imperial Commissioner, 

 Sir Daniel Morris, who, next morning, had me elected an honorary member 

 of the Conference, with all their privileges. 



At this Conference I was enabled to meet the leading officials from all the 

 West Indian islands and British Guiana, and could learn what it would have 

 taken me months to do if I had had to travel over the islands. From the 15th 

 to the 20th instant I attended all the meetings of the Conference at Bridge- 

 town, and at the request of the Chairman gave an address to the members 

 on our work in Australia. 



Here I met Mr. H. A. Ballou, Entomologist to the Imperial Department 

 of Agriculture of the West Indies, and we went into the question of cosmo- 

 politan insect pests, the diseases of plants, and the value of parasites. 

 Among some of the interesting problems dealt with at the Conference, the 

 following might be noted : Barbados is noted for its experimental work in 

 seedlings of sugar-cane, and 25 plantations have an acre set aside as an 

 experimental plot for seedlings. The crushing of the cane till recently has 

 been done after the old fashion, with windmills, and I was informed that at 

 present nearly 75 per cent, of the cane is still crushed with vertical or 

 horizontal rollers worked by windmills. Several companies have now started 

 on a co-operative basis, and are installing modern machinery at Carrington 

 and Bulkley sugar mills. The growing of cotton is one of the most flourish- 

 ing industries in Barbados, as they can grow the best Sea-island vaiieties, 

 worth from Is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. per Ib. Nearly 7,000 acres are now under 

 cultivation, estimated to be worth 120,000. A co operative cotton factory 

 was opened in 1903 and completed in 1907. The management buy anything 

 from 100 Ib., gin and bale it in 500 Ib. bales. They claim that this is the 

 largest Sea-island cotton mill in the world. There is a considerable acreage 

 of cotton at the islands of St. Vincent, Montserrat, Nevis, and Anguilla, 

 where it is a, very valuable crop, but at Demerara and Trinidad it will not 

 thrive. 



The pests of cotton are numerous. Four different moth caterpillars attack 

 the crop; the two cotton worms, Aletia argillacea and Aletiu, lusidula, are 

 common species; while the cosmopolitan boll moth, Heliothis armiger and 

 Laphygmi fruyiprrda, attack the cotton bolls. Egg parasites at tack the first 

 two, but are never in sufficient numbers to do much good. The general 

 treatment is to use Paris green dry, in bags of ticklingburg, dusting it over 

 the foliage. They also use tin shakers and powder guns, but have not tried 

 liquid sprays or spray pumps. Several of the large paper-nest wasps 

 (Polistes, sp.), popularly kno'.vn in the West Indies as " Jack Spaniards," 

 and aground C-irab beetle (Calasoma, sp.), are known to ki 1 a good number 



