JAMAICA 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



Vol. IX. DECEMBER, 1902. Part 12. 



EDITORIAL NOTE. 



The first number of the " Bulletin of the Botanical Department" 

 appeared in April, 1887, three months after my arrival as Director. 



The Botanical Department, or according to its official title, the De- 

 partment of Public Garden ■< and Plantations, has always been con- 

 cerned with the agricultural development of the Colony, and the 

 Bulletin has been an index, or outward sign, of the kind of work that 

 is being carried on. 



Fifty numbers of the old folio series appeared at irregular intervals 

 to December 1893, and in January, 1894, a new octavo series was 

 commenced, which has been published ever since once a month. 



It has been decided dow to adopt it as the organ of the Department 

 of Agriculture which was established by His Excellency the Governor 

 last year, with the Honourable the Colonial Secretary as Chairman. 



With the wider outlook, and to mark that attention will not be 

 confined to the planting side of Agriculture, it has been thought well 

 to alter the name, and it will henceforth be known as the " Bulletin 

 of the Department of Agriculture, Jamaica." 



W. Fawcett. 



COTTON CULTIVATION IX JAMAICA. 



L— By Bryan Edwards 



Extract from The History, civil and commercial, of the British Oolonies 

 in the West Indies, 1793. 



The plant is raised from the seed, the land requiring no other pre- 

 paration than to be cleared of its native incumbrances, and the season 

 for putting the seed into the ground is from May to September, both 

 months inclusive. This is usually done in ranks or rows, leaving a 

 space between each, of six or eight feet, the holes in each row being 

 commonly four feet apart. It is the practice to put eight or ten of 

 the seeds into each hole, because some of them are commonly devoured 

 by a grub or worm, and others rot in the ground The young sprouts 

 make their appearance in about a fortuight, but they are of slow 

 growth for the first six weeks, at which period it is necessary to clean 

 the ground and draw the supernumerary plants, leaving two or three 

 only of the strongest in each hole. One plant alone would be sufficient 

 to leave, if there was any certainty of its coming to maturity; but 

 many of the tender sprouts are devoured by the grub. At the age of 



