WEST INDIES AND BERMUDA 24fl 



died out from disease, were replanted with Governors ; one 

 was treated as described, and the other was simply re- 

 planted ; the first shows scarcely any signs of disease, while 

 the other has had to be banked and replanted. 



" From a field of Governors of five acres planted in 1904, 

 which had received a dressing of 40-50 tons of pen manure 

 per acre in 1908, the heavy return of 4596 stems was reaped 

 or 919 per acre, and as our stems shipped for the past year 

 netted the low average of 21 J cents each on the market, 

 even this small price will show a return of nearly $200 per 

 acre, while our average expenditure for the year was 

 slightly under $40 per acre. 



" Since the planting of the Gros Michel has been entirely 

 substituted by the Governor variety, the yield per acre 

 has very much increased. The Governor can be planted 

 as close as 9 by 9 ft., or even closer, where a plentiful 

 supply of pen manure can be had. Of late I have tried 

 the rearing of cattle in open pens in the cultivation, and 

 while the stock so penned show every sign of improvement, 

 this very much lessens the cost of pen manure, and opens 

 up a possibility of combining stock raising for the market 

 in conjunction with the cultivation of bananas. . . . 

 Twenty tons per acre of pen manure applied every second 

 year supply the soil with sufficient plant food for the 

 growing of bananas." 



Professor Carmody, Director of the Department of 

 Agriculture, Trinidad, gave * the following information 

 on bananas in Trinidad at the Agricultural Conference in 

 1912 : " Bananas form the bulk of exported fruit. The 

 cultivation has been hampered in various ways, but not- 

 withstanding this the value of the exports has risen to 

 about 20,000. Local experience has shown that for 

 cultivation on a large scale the Canary banana ( 4 Governor ' 

 banana) possesses many advantages over the Gros Michel, 

 which was first tried here on account of its profitable 

 cultivation in Jamaica and elsewhere. The Government 

 has for several years made field experiments on a fairly 

 * Bull. Dept. Agric. Trin. and Tob., xi. 19 (1912). 



