478 



NATURE 



[February 9, 191 1 



In the 'nineties then the West Indies had sunk 

 from prosperity to poverty. I heard it publicly stated 

 at a meeting in the City of London that annexation 

 to the United States was the only remedy. On some 

 of the islands the peasantry were clamouring for food. 

 And so things might have remained but for Mr. Cham- 

 berlain, who has never hesitated to cut himself adrift 

 from hide-bound prejudices, and, regardless of them, 

 to apply a practical remedy to an evil. 



In 1897, after obtaining from Parliament some tem- 

 porary relief, he sent out a commission of inquiry, of 

 which Sir Edward Grey was a member, and to which 

 Sir Daniel Morris, then assistant director of Kew, 

 was attached as secretary. The Imperial Department 

 of Agriculture was established the following jear, 

 and Sir Daniel Morris left Kew to take up the duties 

 of conimissioner. In a recent paper before the Royal 

 Colonial Institute (see Nature, January 26) he has 

 given a full, and I think extremely modest, account of 

 what he was able to achieve. That paper will speak 

 for itself. My purpose is to show how success flowed 

 from the patient and persistent application of scientific 

 method. 



The first thing was to see if the sugar-content of 

 the cane could be improved. Like many other plants 

 subjected to long cultivation, it was believed to have 

 lost the power of producing seeds. The Pacific Islands 

 had been ransacked without much success to find 

 more productive kinds which might have arisen pos- 

 sibly by bud-variation. The White Transparent cane, 

 which is regarded as a standard in the West Indies, 

 yields 2\ tons of sugar to the acre. As sugar-content 

 varies, like everything else, in individual plants, it was 

 suggested from Kew that an improved race might be 

 obtained by the process of chemical selection by which 

 the Vilmorins worked up the beet to a high standard 

 and maintain it at it. Some success was obtained, 

 but it was evident that it would be extremely slow. 

 By a stroke of good fortune a more rapid method was 

 discovered. About 1888, Mr. Bovell and Prof. Har- 

 rison noticed the spontaneous occurrence of seedling 

 sugar-canes in Barbados. It was found that the 

 sugar-cane did actually produce seed, though in so 

 small a quantity that it had been overlooked. As this 

 at once opened the door to seminal variation and 

 selection, the attention of the Colonial Office was at 

 once directed by Kew to the importance of the dis- 

 covery. The work was vigorously taken up by Sir 

 Daniel Morris, and from 1908 onwards seedlings have 

 been raised on a large scale by Mr. Bovell, and con- 

 tin uouslv selected from, as well as hybridised. 



The result has surpassed expectation. One seedling 

 c^ne, for example, B. 3405, gave an increase more than 

 the standard of one ton an acre, representing a net 

 profit of ;^8. Dr. Watts, the present commissioner, 

 estimates that the benefit to Antigua and St. Kitts 

 alone would more than cover the expense of the depart- 

 ment. Much light has been thrown on the food require- 

 ments of the cane by carefully controlled experiment. 

 As might be expected, potash is found to be favourable, 

 but phosphatic manures to have involved monetary 

 loss. Dr. Watts, who has been the pioneer in the pro- 

 motion of central factories, has obtained an increased 

 production of 40 per cent, more than the " Muscovado 

 system." Nor is this all. The pests and diseases by 

 which the sugar-cane, like all other cultivated plants, 

 is attacked had to be combated. The Cambridge 

 School was drawn upon for mycologists and entomolo- 

 gists. Mr. Maxwell-Lefroy achieved a notable suc- 

 cess in discovering the means of controlling the 

 destructive moth-borer. 



The upshot is that a moribund industry has been 

 given a new lease of life by bringing scientific method 

 to bear upon it. Laissez faire would say that the 



NO. 2154, VOL. 85I 



planters might have done it for themselves. But they 

 did not, and, in fact, could not ; a scientific campaign 

 can no more be conducted by amateurs than a mili- 

 tary one; the planters would not have known what 

 positions to attack, nor could they have found the 

 necessary men to do it nor directed them if they had. 



Other industries had to be revived or created. Per- 

 haps the most important of these was the production 

 of Sea Island cotton with the generous help of the 

 United States. 



Lastly, but by no means least, an efficient system 

 of rural education has been organised for the negro 

 peasantry. I have no hesitation in saying that it is 

 far in advance of anything which exists in the county 

 where I am writing. 



And thus Sir Charles Lucas, speaking from the 

 perspective of the Colonial Office, is able to say that 

 *' while the eighteenth century saw the greatness of 

 the West Indies, the nineteenth their distress, the 

 twentieth century, he hoped, would witness their re- 

 generation." 



But this is not the end of the story. What has 

 been accomplished in the West Indies has not been 

 without its effect as an object-lesson elsewhere. It is 

 to the credit of the Government of India that it has 

 been, as already remarked, in advance of its time in 

 pioneering work. It deprived China of the monopoly 

 of tea, and, with the help of Kew, it has created the 

 rubber industry of the East. But except as regards 

 forestry it has effected little in intensive cultivation. 



Canning claimed that he brought the New W'orld to 

 redress the balance of the Old. The Department of 

 .\griculture for the West Indies has stimulated a new 

 activity in the East, where some of its trained officers 

 have found a larger scope for work. The recently 

 published " Report of the Board of Scientific Advice 

 for India " shows an awakeness and initiative which 

 would have been looked for in vain a dozen years 

 ago. W. T. Thisfxton-Dyer. 



PICTORIAL NATURAL HISTORY.' 



T N this little book the experience of the expert 

 *• photographer has been combined w'ith that of the 

 keen naturalist ; the result is a volume full of interest 

 to all lovers of the countryside. The publisher, in a 

 special preface, directs attention to the unusually 

 large number of illustrations, which are exclusively 

 reproductions of photographs taken by the author. 

 Mr. Douglas English's success with his camera has 

 been demonstrated on many previous occasions, and 

 in "A Book of Nimble Beasts" he certainly gives us 

 of his best. There are a number of pictures in this 

 volume which are probably unique, and the reader's 

 special attention is directed to the remarkable series 

 of photographs illustrating the life-history of the 

 sand-wasp {Odynerus spinipes). 



The somewhat clumsy title is apt to give the im- 

 pression that Mr. English's book deals in the main 

 with the higher animals ; this is by no means the 

 case, and, indeed, some of the best pictures and 

 chapters deal with the lower forms of life. 



The value of the illustrations is increased by the 

 fact that all are brought closely into connection with 

 the chapters which they illustrate, a somewhat rare 

 quality for a book of this type. 



As m many recent books dealing with nature-study, 

 Mr. English's text consists of a series of short stories, 

 in the course of which the characteristic habits of 

 different animals are brought out with the utmost faith- 

 fulness, and it is a pleasure for the reviewer to record 

 the absence of any irritating zoological errors such as 



1 "A Book of Nimlile Beasts." Bunny Rabbit, Saui'rel, Toad and 

 " tho-ie sort of people." By D. English. Pp. 319. (London : Eveleigh 

 Nash, 1910 ) Price 6s. net. 



