7” GOVERNMENT BOTANICAL GARDENS ) LIBRARY. | | |
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WEST INDIAN BULLETIN
9
Lhe Journal of the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies.
VOLUME. VI.
ISSUED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE
_ COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE
FOR THE WEST INDIES.
Barbados : Messrs. BOWEN & Sons, Bridgetown.
London: Messrs, DuLAU & Co., 37, Soho Square, W. West InpIA CoMMITTEE, 15, Seething Lane, E.C.
1906,
CONTENTS.
ae
Agricultural Conference, 1905 (Contd.) :—
PAGE. SUGAR INDUSTRY (Contd.) :— Cane Farming in British Guiana and Trinidad ra | 1 Review of the Fungoid Diseases of the Sugar-cane, | : /
By L. Lewton-Brain, B.A., F.L.S. ee se af 33 Review of the Insect Pests affecting the Sugar-cane,
By Henry A. Ballou, B.Sc. a eee oe an) 37 Field Treatment of Cane Tops for Planting Purposes... 48 The Polarimetric Determination of Sucrose,
By the Hon. Francis Watts, C.M.G., D.Se., and
H. A. Tempany, B.Sc., A.I.C. fe ee rn 52 The Central Sugar Factory in Antigua, By the Hon. Francis Watts, C.M.G., D.Sc. ... se. 60
CACAO INDUSTRY. Experiments in improving the Health and Productiveness
of Cacao Trees moe af ee a er my 65
*
iv. The Fungoid Diseases of Cacao,
By L. Lewton-Brain, B.A., F.L.S. aD Le es 85 Insects attacking Cacao in the West Indies, By Henry A. Ballou, B.Sc. Ss ey ea ay, 94 GENERAL. The Fruit Industry at Barbados, By JcRe Bovell, <1. L.8:, EOS. ae. a ag ra 99
Results of Experiments in the Cultivation of Cotton
in the West Indies shes % rie aon Gx J09
Fungoid Diseases of Cotton,
By L. Lewton-Brain, B.A., F.L.S. a bes ae ache
The Insect Pests of Cotton,
By Henry A. Ballou, B.Sc. =: a th ae 123
Raiffeisen Agricultural Banks,
By the Hon. Wm. Fawcett, B.Sc., F.L.S. a Bee 129 Rubber Cultivation in the West Indies ast Las ae 139
The Cocoa-nut Industry of Trinidad,
By W. Greig
149 Anthrax, By Henry A. Ballou, B.Sce., and C. W. Branch, M.B., C.M. 156
Rice Cultivation in British Guiana and Trinidad...
v. The Special Qualities of Plants, By J. H. Hart, F.L.S.
The Importance of Selection in Vegetative Propagation,
By W. R. Buttenshaw, M.A., B.Sc.
Butter Making in Trinidad,
By C. W. Meaden ...
Barbados Woolless Sheep, |
By W. R. Buttenshaw, M.A., B.Sc.
Teaching the Principles of Agriculture in Colleges and
Schools in the West Indies
School Gardens and School Shows in Trinidad, By J. H. Collens
Agricultural Education in Grenada and St. Vincent,
By John Harbin
Popular Agricultural Education in Jamaica,
By J. R. Williams, M.A. ...
Arbor Day in the West Indies
Manurial Experiments with Cotton in the Leeward
Islands,
By the Hon. Francis Watts, C.M.G., D.Sc.
Mauurial Experiments with Cacao at Dominica, By the Hon. Francis Watts, C.M.G., D.Se., and
Joseph Jones
181
187
LOT
vi The Soils of Montserrat,
By the Hon. Francis :*Watts, C.M.G., D.Se., and H. A. Tempany, B.Se., A.I.C.
Grape Fruit and Shaddocks Cacao Experiments in Geune Cacao Disease in Ceylon
Para Rubber in Ceylon
Bud-rot of the Cocoa-nut Palm
Naudet Patent Process for extracting and purifying
Cane Juice Sugar Industry in Jamaica Sugar-cane Experiments at Barbados
Manurial Experiments with Sugar-cane in the Leeward
Islands
Review of the Sugar Industry in Antigua and St. Kitt’s-Nevis during 1881-1905,
By the Hon. Francis Watts, C.M.G., D.Se. ...
The Fermentation of Cane Juice,
By the Hon. Francis Watts, O.M.G., D.Se., and Harold A. Tempany, B.Sce., A.I. C.
The Improvement of the Sugar-cane by Selection and Hybridization,
By F. A. Stockdale, B.A. ...
263 284
293 ©
297
802
B07 ©
o22
5295
341
361
378
387
304
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AGRICULTURAL CONFERENCE, 1905. (CONTINUED. )
CANE FARMING IN BRITISH GUIANA AND TRINIDAD.
.
BRITISH GUIANA.
The Hon. B. HOWELL JONES (British Guiana): The subject of cane farming received considerable attention a few years ago in British Guiana, and the labouring classes in villages near the sugar estates took it up at first with a certain amount of zeal, but difficulties came in the way. First, the extreme difficulty in transporting canes from one estate to another which were not joined together by aqueducts. Again, — there was, and is, the difficulty of not being able to weigh the canes before they go into the mill; and at the first starting of the industry there was a certain amount of suspicion on the part of the labourer that he was not being fairly dealt with when his juice was being bought and paid for by the gallon according to polariscope test. On some estates, instead of paying for the juice by the gallon, the canes were bought by the punt load, as in British Guiana all canes are conveyed to our mills by punts. That also created a great deal of suspicion and managers of estates complained that the labourers did not load the punts up in the way they should. These difficulties have been in some measure overcome, chiefly because it is now clearly and fully understood by the villagers that the cane juice is bought by the gallon according to polariscope reading and paid for according to the market price of sugar of the day. A table was prepared by Mr. Scard (a gentleman whose name must be well known to nearly every member of this Conference, and whose very serious illness I am sure every one of you regret) for the Royal
1
a
‘ Agricultural and Commercial Society as to the value of cane juice, and that has been adopted as a standard, by which cane juice should be bought and paid for, except In cases where canes are brought to the mill in very small quantities. The scale starts from a value of 2c. with a polariscope reading of 1°50 hb. per gallon, and valuing a gallon of cane juice at 150¢. ; sugar valued at 2°05c. per tb. of juice polarizing 5° higher would be worth 1°54c. per gallon; and so it goes on down to the point where sugar is valued at 8c. per tb., giving a valuation of cane juice at 1°50c., adding ‘05 to every degree. IT am not sure whether that table has been published by the Imperial Department of Agriculture, but I will be happy to give it asa basis which might be adopted in other colonies.
D. C. Sugar selling Price to be paid per in Georgetown at gallon Juice. Cents. Cents. 2:00 Juice shown by 150 2°05 polariscope to 1°54 2°10 contain 1°50 tb. cane 1°58 2NS sugar per gallon. 1°62 2°20 1°66 js ive 4 2°30 1:74 2°35 LG's) 2°40 1°82 2°45 1°86 2°50 1:90 2°55 1:95 2°60 2:00 2°65 2°05 2°70 2°10 2°75 215 2°80 2°20 2°85 2°25 2°90 2°30 2°95 2°35 3°00 2-40
‘For every ‘05 degree that juice polarizes below 1°50 tb. cane sugar per gallon ‘05c. to be deducted from price paid, and for every ‘05 degree that juice polarizes above 1°50 tb. cane
sugar per gallon ‘0dc. to be added to price as shown by these tables.’
This table is adopted in British Guiana, and the suspicion, which originally existed, and which is not perhaps altogether done away with in the present day amongst the labourers, is being gradually swept away, because they find that several planters of experience have taken up land near to sugar estates and are cane farming on their own account, and they are having their cane juice valued and bought by the neighbouring estates exactly as they themselves would have it done. Thus both growers and manufacturers are satisfied with the system now adopted, and I hope ina few years’ time the difficulties which confronted us at the beginning will entirely disappear
3
and we shall see a steady improvement. There is one point in connexion with cane farming which I think you in Trinidad more or less feel, and that is, that if cane farming is carried on on an extensive scale you will be confronted with the difficulty of obtaining labour for the cultivation of your own estates. That has been a very serious matter in Demerara where rice cultivation is being taken up on a large scale, and I hope when the matter comes to be considered by the various Governments, they will see that extensive cane farming and rice growing involve the question of labour supply on the sugar estates, and will not lose sight of the important question of immigration, and the increase of the labour population.
TRINIDAD.
Professor CARMODY (Trinidad): The conditions of cane farming in Trinidad at the present time are practically the same as they were in 1900, which were described in the paper read before the Agricultural Conference in 1901. <A glance. at the following statistics will show that it has progressed considerably, and is now an established and important branch of the sugar industry :—
CANE AND SUGAR PRODUCTION—TRINIDAD.
Cane Farmers. | Total Sugar |Estate-grown - ae
production. Canes. anc ee af eee reay he Tons. Tons. Tons, oles We Beeld: 1895 535,000 no return 35,000 1896 59,000 :. TO000;3 82 rea Pe 1897 | 55,000 : | 1898 58,000 es 105,000 203,000) 38,824 | 2,326 1899 58,800 ~ 426,000 106,000, 219,000) 3,870 g826 1900 46,000 364,000 | 106,000) 228,000) 8,591 | 2,826 1901 61,000 434,000 170,000, 369,000) 4,737 | 38,819 1902 57,830 338,000 185,000) 327,000) 4,850 | 4,506 1903 47,000 337,000 166,000 348,000, 4,440 | 4,448 1904 48,000 385,000 172,000 360,000 4,685 | 4,646
ne EID NOSIOESNS nT OL a
4
The most striking features of this return are :—
(1) That nearly 14 million dollars have been paid for cane farmers’ canes since my previous paper was read.
(2) That the yearly production since 1901 is not far short of double the production of any year previous.
(3) That the number of cane farmers has increased from 6,300 to 9,800. q
(4) That the proportion of estate-grown to farmers’ canes is approximately 2 to l.
(5) That since 1901 the quantity of canes grown by cane
farmers has been fairly regular, and this is a strong
indication that an equal or even greater quantity may under similar conditions be relied upon for the future.
(6) Thatthe area under cultivation by cane farmers probably exceeds 10,000 acres.
When the extremely depressed condition of the sugar industry during the period under review is taken into consideration, the progress in cane farming must be regarded as extremely satisfactory.
It may be that the progress in cane farming is the direct result of the low prices obtainable for sugar during that period ; but in any case, there can. be no doubt that farming came opportunely to the relief of the sugar industry of this colony at a time when, after several successive years of low prices, that industry seemed unable to hold out any longer against the unfair competition to which it was subjected.
This timely aid in the maintenance of an industry of so much importance to this colony will not be forgotten now that the price of sugar has risen to an extent which, if maintained at or near its present level, leaves no uncertainty in our minds as to the future prospects of this industry. And it is not altugether a digression to record a respectful tribute of this colony’s deep gratitude to the distinguished statesman whose persistent and eventually successful efforts on behalf of the West Indies, against the unfair competition originating in national bounties and trusts that threatened the ultimate -annihilation of this old-established local industry, have restored hope and confidence to the thousands of cane farmers and labourers who find congenial employment in an industry which has become by long years of association and t ‘aining almost indispensable to them as a means of subsistence.
The evidence in this return is very strong in support of the view that cane farming isa system well adapted to our requirements, It must be remembered that it has sprung up under no compulsory conditions. No special legislation has been necessary, and it is creditable alike to the planters and cane farmers that the harmonious relations between them remain undisturbed.
There Is evidence in it that cane farming must be remunerative to the industrious tak . 3 Saige =r istrious even at the _prices that have
een paid for canes ‘ing 3@ venra atieleernees Se pi g during these years of depression, otherwise
5
there would be.no increase in the number of cane farmers or in the quantity of canes produced by them.
And there is presumptive evidence that the farmers can be relied on to contribute a considerable proportion of the total sugar crop of the colony, for even under present conditions they are producing one-third of the total crop.
And there could be no better evidence of the soundness of the system than the fact, which is not shown in the table, that two comparatively small factories have recently ceased to make sugar, the proprietors having found it more profitable to rank as cane farmers than as manufacturers.
These are good reasons for regarding with earnest sympathy the steady growth of this new branch of a local industry in order firmly to establish it on a sounder basis; and it is more in my province to deal with this subject from the agricultural than from the financial aspect.
From one point of view we find there are four classes of farmers. Some farmers grow canes on their own land, and among these now are a few who own large areas. This is undoubtedly the best system. It is to their interest to work their lands properly and they sell their canes to the highest bidder. Others, again, rent at $5 an acre lands which do not belong to the manufacturers, and sell their canes to whichever adjacent estate offers most advantages. Of this class there are now about 350, holding from 1 acre to 5 acres each, on the St. Augustine estate, which a few years ago was bought by the Government. Another class rents lands belonging to the estate under contract to supply the canes to its factory only, and a fourth class pays no rent for estate lands but contracts to supply the factory with canes at a slightly reduced rate.
Whichever system of tenancy is considered, it must be evident that a period of land tenure so short as a year is agriculturally unsound, and it seems peculiarly inapplicable to cane which may occupy the ground advantageously for a series of years and certainly could not be limited to one year. Under present conditions it does not operate disadvantageously to the farmer, for practically he may remain in occupation as long as he pays the rent or works the land. The method of working the land has been left almost entirely to him. This may have served a useful purpose in the early stages of the industry, but any one looking round cane-farming districts cannot fail to observe a number of instances of the bad effects of this system. Cane plots may be seen which cannot give a yield of 10 tons per acre. These neglected plots distinctly show that there have been no serious attempts at tillage, or the application of manure. The return to the farmer isso small that he murmurs at its insufficiency, declares that cane farming does not pay, and spreads discontent among others as indifferent as himself. These men have not yet realized that a crop of the same kind cannot be profitably grown year after year on the same soil without the aid of pen manure regularly and freely applied at
the proper time. On the other hand, one may see plots that have evidently
6
been cultivated with care, well manured and certain to yield over 20 tons of rich juicy canes to the acre. It is not reason- able to believe that these good farmers would expend so much labour and manure if present conditions did not give a guar- antee which practically amounts to continuous occupation of the land, which every one must admit is a necessary condition for successful cane growing. To prevent the agricultural misfortune of exhaustion of the soil, which is a risk attending the system of yearly tenancies, it seems to me desirable that the period of occupation should be extended to five or ten years and coupled with the condition—which is not unreasonable—that manure should be applied every year in stipulated quantities. This proposal would only apply to cane farmers of good stand- ing and respectability, for we must realize, sooner or later, that bad and indifferent farmers are not a permanent factor in the system. They must gradually disappear.
Another means by which cane farmers can be assisted is by agricultural education. The colony has already done much in this direction, first in the primary schools, in every one of which agriculture is now taught with promising results; next by employing two itinerant Agricultural Instructors, and now by introducing higher agricultural education at the two eclleges. It will be some years before the effects of these systems will reach cane farmers generally. But the most ready way in which useful agricultural information could be brought to the cane farmer is by establishing a scientifically conducted experiment station where the results of manures and unmanured plots, of good tillage and bad tillage, and similar object-lessons could be seen and compared, and by the widest publication of the results obtained and at what cost. Fifty acres of Government land have already been set aside for the purpose at a most convenient centre, but unforeseen accidents have, up to the present, prevented the allocation of the neces- sary financial aid. Of field training and experience the cane farmer has sufficient for his requirements ; but something more than this knowledge of routine field work is necessary in this age of keen competition.
An important point on which the extension of cane farm- ing must necessarily depend is the cost of transference of the canes from the field to the factory. The present cost of cutting and transmission is very great in proportion to the value of the canes ;so much so that it becomes unprofitable to grow canes beyond a certain distance from the factory. Even within present short distances, it is agreed that 6s. represents the value of canes on the field and 9s. at the factory. This single item of expenditure increases the cost of the canes by 50 per cent. The profitable working of any large industry now depends so much on the cost of labour that any reducible item of this magnitude deserves most serious attention. The estate owners are doing much to reduce this cost by extending their system of railways along cane-farming districts. The Government Railway might also assist by giving special facilities to cane farmers for transmission of canes at a fixed and low rate over reasonable distance on their lines. The present usual rate is Is. a ton on the Government Railway, which does not include
7
loading or unloading. Itis impossible for the Railway to do much for very small farmers; but if one farmer could be selected to represent a district, so that large quantities could be regularly handled, something might be done. Cane-cutting machines and cane loaders are beginning to be used in other countries, and if they are found to work satisfactorily, their introduction here is only a question of time. At present the small cane farmer usually delivers the canes at the factory or estate raiiway, and so gets the benefit of the 3s. Some cane farmers cut the canes, which are then taken to the factory by estate carts at an average cost of 2s. per ton, which is equiva- lent to 26s. per ton of sugar:
Some other improvements of smaller importance are required in the present system of cane farming; but notwith- standing existing defects, the progress made has been very satisfactory. It is only just to the estate owners to say that this success is largely due to the facilities they have given for the use of the land near the factories at a small rental, to the generally adopted system of advance payments by them to the poorer farmers who have no eapital of their own, and to the readiness with which they have accepted the canes even when they have been of inferior quality. It would be difficult to conceive any conditions more favourable than those in which both land and capital are provided to start a new industry among poor but industrious men who supply only the third requisite of production, viz., labour ; and it is no less satisfactory to me to be in a position to show that the industrious men have responded in a manner which is creditable to them and to the colony. The prospects of cane farming are so bright at the present time, that if it should be my privilege to be permitted to read a further paper on the same subject at one of our future Conferences, I look forward to a magnificent record of a large extension of the system permanently established as a branch of the sugar industry and based on the co-operative efforts of the manufacturer,and of an intelligent and industrious class of cane farmers.
The following paper was handed in by Mr. PETER ABEL of the Usine, St. Madeleine. It contains a few facts and figures in connexion with cane farming in the Naparima and Pointe- a-Piérre districts between 1883 and 1904 :—
8
Cost oF FARMERS’ CANES, 1883 to 1904.
Group I.
Year. Tons of Canes purchased. Tons. ewt. qrs. 1883 4388 0 O 1884 pelea ts tae lf (Mase 1885 2.100. 4 20n ee 1886 2,244 11 2 1887 seeps a Yer ts: 1888 SB OAL: PB eR 1889 65226 lin tes 1890 5,548 38 38 1891 Ds sul les 1892 dUoL., Oeee 18938 1,524 ik 1 1894 LUGS Ea °F eee 1895 26042 Sel 1896 14,023. 8 1 1897 A as es ee 1898 L2j01 Ot Orne 1899 14,202 ot i 1 1900 S: 10d Sia 1901 9,858 15 1 1902 8,209 Oios 1903 L008 2e eae 1904
11,903 18 3
Cost per ton
in truck on Kstate.
‘ : : 4°43 4°43 2°83 3°19 3°09 3°38 312
9
Cost oF FARMERS’ CANES, 1883 to 1904.
_ Tons of Canes purchased, |
Group II,
7830 3 2,073 7 2,011 17
Tons. cwt. qrs.
:
|
}
;
Cost per ton
in truck on Estate.
S ¢,
10
Cost oF FARMERS’ CANES, 1883 to 1904.
Group III. De ean ne SI ST Cost per ton Year. Tons of Canes purchased. in truck on Estate. ees Tons. ewt. qrs. $ @. 1883 1884 1885 28 Lie 2°84 1886 PAA Need nha or 3°22 1887 o02 8 ae 3°07 1888 14. Sse 3°10 1889 2,0822% 24 =O 3°07 1890 21Ga— 2Ote o 2°97 1891 P88 Te 03 4:00 1892 O87 ak 3°19 18938 | oO2. Uz see | 3°29 1894 37 a eU 3°76 1895 Sl Sata al 3°36 1896 1,866. 14> 14 3°05 1897 Lo22e 12 0 2°82 1898 1,860" 7 a0 2°63 1899 065; 12-33 2°93 1900 | 689-0) 3°31 1901 | D004 I) ces 3:07 1902 3020 ee O 2°64 1908 0,280.0. 0 2°85 1904 1,588.7. -3 ae 8°44
1]
DAILY RECEIPTS OF FARMERS’ CANES AT 14 LOADING PLACES ON 7 ESTATES FOR CROP 1904, SHOWING THE FLUCTUATIONS IN THE DELIVERIES AT THE INDIVIDUAL STATIONS
AND AT THE FACTORY,
| Estate Number. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total. foe Pies tap skill Bx, i Aca LA Ps ee p= Bolruavy teh €50\ 23) on) hs ela sheet acu ‘ 16 Se a ee aed ea cy, Cee 34 St hae hz] 47| 164 : 18 87| 53 26) 60 226 2 19 95 54| 19| ... | 44] 51 262 20 ..{118! 39} 84]... | 57| 84]... | 282 : 29 ./184]127/ 81]... |140] 54/ 44) 580 : 23 ... 101/102) 91) 6/182) 65) 57| 695 | : 24 ...{807| 85/128] 12/191|128) 78| 918 ‘ 25 256! 99/140] 6/195] 95/127] 919 | z 26 ...(297| 85/106} 12/125] 85| 97| 808 | i 27 {1271 69| 97) 5| 90] 44/150] 583 | | | i 29 [115] 79] 65] ... [134] 49/203! 646 March 1° _,,./109} 89/185} 45|146| 73/240] 888 (ae 2 | 82! 82/183) 14/189| 66/154} 720 | ‘ 3 ../129| 56/1388] 8|206/102|212| 845 | 4 ../182| 98/101] 13/163] 76|204| 788 | : 5 94| 67| 40] 8|118| 68| 32| 428 ‘e 7 ...,| 83} 96| 68 37 134| 56/192] 666 : 8 ./192| 54} 64| 20/174] 20/254] 779
DAILY RECEIPTS OF FARMERS’ CANES, ETU.—(Contd.)
Estate Number. | 1 ane 1904. 5 Ss March 9 ceo Lene 9 105 115 : 11 {178 ” 12 mek!) 9 14 134 9 15 ..| 162 : 16 ..| 166 9 iB .| 1387 ” 18 |. 829 ” 19 ..| 165 9 21 ..| 214 3 22 . | 180 23 . | 224 3 24 dent 99 25 ..| 201 , 26 57 3 28 % 29 26 ” 30, 114 3 31 BP ee. | April tan. 1
12
73 |
a2 86
69
oO” 6 ore Ser | Tons. | ou)
dl
22
19
23
.|Goo|d Friida y.
|
20 41
27
40 43
7 |Total. f| & a A PAYG Bee oF |) Sa B22 128; 698 245| 688 137| 487 148] 552 82| 654 206| 762 259| 900 275) 769 157| 679 6&8| 610 258| 993 284| 911 82| 545 153 15 148 337 27| 3812
13
DAILY RECEIPTS OF FARMERS’ CANES, ETC.—(Contd.)
Estate Number.
1904.
April
2
bo
7 |Total ace = | ie) leet 46| 205 66) 293 71| 466 238) 88s 173| 907 190| 896 183| 867 135| 976 278 | 1,122 239 810 435 1,324 145| 813 179 664 201| 734 166| 677 426 1,047 187 916 231 888 874 192| 476 74| 248 |
14
DAILY RECEIPTS OF FARMERS’ CANES, ETC.—(Contd.)
fc Re en nT Bit TL af PRT ea a eee
Estate Number. 12 Bal 4 ROA as ohh aes April -27 21 7/116| 10 154 : 28 43| 26| 10/129) 20! 96) 325 F 29 113| 45| 48| 24/166] 81| 62| 489 . 30 197} 38} 12| 24/117) 82) 42) 468 May 2 42| 39| 8| 6| 86] 30 211 ‘ 3 142, 61 7\/127|} 30) 31| 398 f 4 Poe 53) BB 94 89h 81 1884. 2a olOneened
i 5 .{141| 59|-19| 48/126] 28] 48] 459 |
6 163| 72| 18| 38| 94| 18|165| 568 | a 7 54 62 6} 22/100, 19/148) 410
| ee |
; r b4| 48| 12/12] 78| 12] 81| 297 | 5 10 103' 76| 12} 7| 51} 16/1838] 398 % 11 91; 55| 6| 24] 86] 16] 83| 31 i 12 ..| 90) 78] 38]... "| 21] 15/146] 387 2 13 57 98 20| 28] 7 205 . 14 a7) apie | (Peet 8 ae ee x 16 66 18} 28] 7 110 - 17 18| 60 21) 18) 9)... | 121 : 18 .. | 64| 80]... | 88] 82] 8] 80] 256 i 19 49| 70|... | 18] 21 153 ;. 20 io) aera se | ie ae peace 4 Paps
15
DAILY RECEIPTS OF FARMERS’ CANES, ETU.—(Concluded.)
—_—_—_———
Estate Number. oS viel 4 pee Per otal: nH wn w w Dh Ww a uw) tos ee peeks Sela eel ae Si eB | Hl &e | Re) a |e a May 21 | 35 | 24 4 Sa Ne: nga . 23 | 19 | 26 18 | 18 76 > 24 | 46 | 19 64 2 25 | 24 | 61 23 45 | 158 2 26 | 11 | 58 69 z AT ea 67 52 | 124 ¥ 28-22.) 310 20 be : Speed Se Ss coe pe ees ROU alee wt eas = 31 10 10 June ae 1 FA hy 45 94 ORG ie betel aie SARA ap Gs ow 20 : 2 a SS OP accoiee OM bona kh coh cae hes 26 . 4 | 62 62 Normal delivery per day Fr .{120°| 58 | 34 | 27 | 79 | 83 1102 | 458 | Range of Deliveries. From ... ...405 |127 |185 251 |247 {123 [485 | 1,324 To a pier ae LO Oe) bo ort kOs | 207 Number of complete failures ... sh | Pir il | 2a deh sO ek a ee os W 45
16 FARMERS ON ESTATES’ LANDS.
No. I. 1896. Hast Indians. Creoles. Number of farmers aot na 18 16 Aeres of land held ns Bex 56 48 Cane grown nas ieee On 79 tons 220 tons t: s per acre we “a 4°3,, i be (es », price paid in field... ute $1:50 1904. Kast Indians. Creoles. Number of farmers av aN 160 105 Acres of land held rape ae 761 421 Cane grown ie Fay bd 8,924 tons 4,256 tons = per acre Be eG 1326-7, 10ers », price in field a < $1:74 es ,» at factory or A $3°16
In 1902 estates’ canes fell below those of farmers’ by 28 per cent., and the time lost by the factory waiting for canes was 6 per cent.
In 1913 estates’ canes were less than farmers’ by 76 per cent., and the time lost by the factory was 19 per cent.
Between 1900 and 1904 a large sum was spent in enlarging the factory to enable it to deal with farmers’ canes.
In 1904 there were no estates’ canes, and irregularity of supply lost the factory 40 per cent. of time and added that to its working expenses.
The crop of 1905 is not expected to be over one-half of the crop of 1902, and cultivation by the estate and further importations of immigrants have been resumed.
RKARMERS ON ESTATES’ LANDS.
NG:
1884-5 FOR CROP 1886.
Hast Indians. Creoles. Number of farmers ne ed 3 38 Acres of land held ... AK ae 3 125 Canes grown od Bx 0 tons 508 tons af sf tons per acre dus Oa. ati
» price in field (all taken in field) wat a. ES Mee $2°16
17
1904. East Indians. Creoles. Number of farmers ... z ae ie AOS 235 Acres of landheld _... ae =p ms 1,758 Canes grown Fis a ree vo 8,906 tons = 7 tons per acre "Tt aa 5'08_,, » price in field ... eA 2a. r $1°68 re » atloading stations ... = $2°16 Total number of farmers from 1885 to 1904 inclusive FP i #2 a, 20,327 Total number of acres held for 20 years ... 9,650 acres,
a ES , tons of cane delivered in
20 years 55,638 tons.
Average weight delivered per annum per acre held ... =e a ? .. » tons 15 ewt. 1 qr.
DISCUSSION.
The Hon. S. HENDERSON (Trinidad): In 1894, that is about ten years ago, when cane farming in this island was in its infancy, the Agricultural Society of Trinidad appointed a com- mittee to inquire into and report upon the best means for eucouraging the then struggling sugar industry. I had the honour to be the chairman of that committee. I convened a meeting of all the sugar planters in the island and one or two gentlemen who represented the interests of the cane farmers. At that meeting it was unanimously agreed that, as a means of encouraging the cane-farming industry, the sum of 6s. a ton should be paid to the farmers for standing canes, and 9s. a ton for canes delivered at the mill. The report was adopted by the Agricultural Society, and the seale of payment recommended became the current prices in the colony. That these prices were remunerative to the farmer was distinctly proved by the rapid increase in the area cultivated, which resulted last year in the cane farmers producing fully one-third of the entire sugar-produc- tion of the colony. This, on the surface, would appear to be a satisfactory state of things; but underlying it is a serious question which will affect not only the farmers but the sugar industry of the colony, and that is, the question of an adequate supply of labour. In this direction the situation has been rendered more acute year by year with the increase of cane farming. Cane farming cannot now be considered as an adjunct, but as a large competitor in the labour market with the estate owner. Mr. Abel who represents the largest interest in the sugar industry of this island has prepared a paper on the question which will be submitted for publication in the West Indian Bulletin. From this it will be clearly seen what effect this competition in labour is likely to produce on
18
the sugar estates in Trinidad. Up to 1896 a district in which I am interested produced 5,000 tons of sugar as the average output; from that year up to the present time, the output has fallen to 3,000 tons, and I confidently state that under the existing labour conditions it will scarcely be possible to raise more than that crop. Indeed, the area of sugar cultivation in this district has decreased not less than 25 per cent. On the other hand, there has been an increase in the quantity of land held by farmers. Over 1,700 acres of land belonging to the Colonial Company, Ltd., are in the hands of farmers, and Mr. Abel’s return, which covers a period of twenty years, shows that the average return from those lands is only 5 tons 15 ewt. of canes per acre. It must be evident, therefore, that the prospect of the successful carrying on of cane farming in Trinidad is not encouraging. No one regrets that more than I do. Two conditions are requisite for the successful cultivation of sugar, namely, labour and an intelligent knowledge of the treatment of soil. The first affects sugar estates more than cane farming; but both are sadly wanting among the fariners. With regard to the second, I might remark that education is a force which cannot be kept under. The Government has shown a _ good deal of interest by introducing into the primary schools the teaching of agriculture, and I have not the least doubt that, as years go by and people come to recognize that there is something in the treatment of the soil, and that it is wrong to reap crops every year without replacing in the soil what those crops take out of it, better results will be obtained. In conclusion I must endorse the sentiments of the Hon. Mr. Howell Jones, namely, that extensive cane farming is pregnant with danger in the future unless steps are taken to provide an adequate supply of labour. To make cane farming successful in Trinidad two things are necessary: labour, and an intelligent treatment of the soil— and I may add a third, and that is, the rescue of the cane farmer from the rapacious money-lender, who is not satisfied with lending at less than 10 per cent. interest.
His Excellency Sir HENRY JAcKSON: I should not have presumed to address such an audience on any subject con- nected with agriculture, but for the fact that this morning Sir Daniel Morris, in talking over the question of cane farming, told me he thought my knowledge of a system which does not at present exist in the West Indies might be of some interest to you, and possibly of some use. Among my duties in the last colony to which I was attached was the management of native affairs, which the Governor is always required to keep in his own hands. In Fiji there is native taxation amounting in round numbers to £20,000 a year, which is paid in kind, and the cultivation of cane was the easiest and best way for many of the natives to pay that tax. The fields were cultivated by the natives themselves, under the superintendence of government overseers, and the produce of the fields was handed over to the Government, who contracted with the mills for its purchase. Hence it became necessary for the Governor to make himself thoroughly ac- quainted with the systems obtaining throughout the country,
19
so as to secure the best results for the people dependent on him. In Fiji cane farming is carried on to a very considerable and rapidly increasing extent. Three systems exist there. First, the free coolies plant on their own small lots, as they do here, and sell the canes to the mill. That has not been found altogether satisfactory, for the same reasons that have made it a partial failure in Trinidad. It has led to a certain extent of overproduction, and the coolies have been unable sometimes to sell their produce, with the result of much loss and of a dangerous amount of discontent. The second system is that carried on by the large cane farmers among whom are included the native proprietors. ‘There are a very fair number of white settlers who grow canes on areas of from 1,200 to as much as 7,000, up to nearly 10,000 acres in extent, by the use of indentured labour; and these sell their canes to the mills under contracts extending over a term of years. This system is succeeding admirably ; the land is being worked to the very best advantage, and considerable fortunes are being made. But there is also a third system which does not exist here, and which to a certain extent removes some of the disabilities, which have been referred to by some of the previous speakers. In his interesting paper Professor Carmody refers to one very grave drawback, namely, that the small cane farmers do not take care of their land, manure it properly, and put back into it what they take from it, and so it falls into bad condition. Another fertile cause for complaint is that cane farming, as carried on in Trinidad, attracts labour away from the estates. The other system which I shall briefly describe, is called the share system or the cane company system, and not only removes these drawbacks, but also provides for labour on the estates. This system was first introduced, I believe, in Hawaii where it has practically taken possession of the entire community. In 1902 the Commis- sioner of Labour of Hawaii in his annual report stated that there was only one large plantation in the Hawaiian Islands where the cane company system was not in use, and that was close to a large town, and enjoyed special advantages in the way of local labour. From Hawaii that system has spread to Mauritius, where, I am told, it is in considerable use, but I do not know precisely to what extent. The information at my disposal, however, shows that it has succeeded very well, and although it met with a great deal of opposition at first from some estate owners, they are now rapidly adopting it. It was introduced into Fiji in 1901. The figures which I shall give you were drawn up at the end of 1903, when three crops had been taken off the land’and the result of the system could be fairly judged. I may mention here that the sugar industry in Fiji is practically entirely in the hands of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company of Sydney—-a very large corporation which has immense refineries in Queensland, in New South Wales, and in New Zealand. It has large estates in Queensland and New South Wales, and has an output from the Fiji Islands alone which this year should reach over 60,000 tons. Kvery effort is being made by that compiny to extend the share system throughout the whole of their Fiji estates. The system consists in the
20
division of the estate into blocks, a block of 60 acres having been found a convenient size. That is put into the hands of a cane company, which as a rule numbers one man to every 5 acres of the block. The estate prepares the land and plants it before handing it over to the company, which then does the whole work of cultivation that is subsequently required until the cane is fit for cutting, their work being earried on under the direction and supervision of the estate. During that time they receive an advance of 1s. a day each, with which they are duly debited. When the cane is fit to be cut, it is reaped by a cane-gang, the transport being done by the mill by means of a system of light railways, but the cane company is debited with the cost of cutting and transport. When cut, the cane is paid for at the rate of 4s. a ton. I have | here the actual return of a block on an estate a few miles from where I lived in Fiji, and which I know very well. The block consisted of 60 acres, and the cane company of ten men, the yield per acre was 30°7 tons, which I am sorry to see is rather in advance of the figures supplied from Trinidad. Those 30°7 tons per acre gave 1,848 tons to the block, and were paid for at the rate of 4s. per ton, giving £368 to the cane company. That was the gross payment by the mill to the cane company, but the latter were debited with the advances made them during cultivation, which amounted to £141 19s. lld.; for cutting and earting the cane to the mill they were charged £66, and £8 8s, 1ld. for loading and other work done by the mill. So that from their total of £368 the three preceding debits, amounting to £216 18s. 10d., were deducted, leaving a net profit to the coolies of £151 138s. 2d., which worked out at ls. 2d. per diem for every day they had worked, in addition to the ls. aday which they had already received. Therefore, they made 2s. 2d. a day besides what they earned in cane-gangs or as mill hands or by private work. The preparation and plant- ing of the land by the estate worked out at 3s. a ton. Therefore, these 1,848 tons were put into the mill at a total cost of 7s. per ton—a result highly satisfactory both to the labourers and the estate. I have here a return showing the cost of each opera- tion, but I am unable to give you’the exact figures in this return, as it was given me for private use. But you who know well what the cultivation of cane means will thoroughly under- stand how carefully the items are worked out, when I say that in that return all the items incident to the preparation and planting of canes, such as ploughing, ridging, replanting, manuring, cost of laying tram line, transport, and cost of scoops, etc., are included. In the total cost of 7s. per ton, there is also included a charge for the wages advanced to the cane company, the cost of horse labour, mule labour, and bullock labour : a charge of 30s. an acre is made for maintenance and supervision; and there is also included a charge of 5d. per ton to cover cost of introduction and hospital expenses of the indentured labour- ers, and finally the cost of cutting and transport. It works out that the whole cost of that 60 acres to the estate was £645 7s. 3d., and from it they got 1,848 tons of cane at 7s. per ton. This system was taken up by the Sugar Refining Com- pany because they believed, from the results which it had
21
already given, that in course of time they would be able to work estates without indentured labour. At the expiration of two years after the introduction of the system they were able to reduce the indentured labour on one estate by more than 10 per cent. I omitted to mention that when the cane companies are formed, both free and indentured coolies are employed in them, and the experience on this particular estate to which I have referred was that the indentured coolies having once taken up the share system and found it so profit- able, remained on the estate when their time had expired; they were accustomed to the work, and there was every induce- ment for them to settle, and the Government was applied to for grants of land for villages for these people, close to the estate, which they were glad to make because this system kept tbe coolie labourers in the island as contented and prosperous settlers after their term of engagement had expired. So satisfactorily has the system worked that the General Manager of the company in a recent letter stated that he looked forward to a time, not immeasurably distant, when they would be able to reduce very largely, if not entirely dispense with, indentured labour. The system has been pushed with all the strength of this great company which has never paid less than 10 per cent. dividend, and at the last meeting of the share-holders, after payment of the dividend and writing off of depreciation on the machinery, they were able to carry over £90,000 to the reserve fund. I think, therefore, that if a company of that magnitude has succeeded with a system of that sort, and when it has met with even greater success throughout Hawaii, and toa large measure in Mauritius, it is worthy of consideration whether a similar system might not to be usefully tried elsewhere. At first it was not altogether popular in Fiji, as, since the whole of the work of the cane companies is carried on under the direc- tion and supervision of the estate, the overseers considered it gave them extra trouble, but they very soon found that the not having to measure up the tasks daily and not having to be continually driving the people to complete them made their work much easier and pleasanter. To the contention that the cane company might idle, I can only reply that the reverse has been found to be the case, as the magic of working for his own profit leads the Indian to bestir himself. A report on the working of the cane companies in Fiji by the chief manager of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company states that the coolies were doing nearly double the task per day that any indentured man ever attempts to perform.
Professor P. CARMoDY: I should like to ask Mr. Abel whether that unsatisfactory return of 5 tons to the acre, extending over a period of twenty years, applies to cane farmers, or what were called contractors, before the system of cane farming became fairly established. I understand that the con- tractors were given a certain area of land from which the plant canes had been reaped by the factory and the ratoons handed over to the contractors to keep in good order and then sell to the factory.
Mr. ABEL said that only on one estate had ratoons been given out to the farmers and that was in small quantity in 1902.
22
The discussion on cane farming was continued on Friday, January 138.
The PRESIDENT: We have met this morning to take up one or two subjects still left on the agenda. Before we proceed with these, however, I should be glad, with your permission, to afford Mr. Henderson an opportunity for making some further remarks with regard to cane farming. It is possible that, in this matter, a little more light might tend to place the subject in a fuller and clearer manner not only before this Conference but the people of Trinidad. There is evidently some misunderstanding in regard to this question, and while not impugning the figures presented by Mr. Abel, which I believe are accurate as far as they go, we may be able to draw our own conclusions from them and make a fresh start in order to try and place the cane- farming industry in this colony on a satisfactory footing.
The Hon. S. Henperson: As far as I am personally concerned I would not take the trouble to refute the statements made in the newspaper article to which I have drawn your attention, but as it is probable that some of the members of the Conference live in places where misrepresenta- tions and the imputation of base motives are not familiar methods, and may therefore accept, to some extent, the assertion that Mr. Abel and myself can scarcely be acquitted of a deliberate desire to mislead the Conference on the subject of cane farming, I deem it due to you to reply to this charge. On January 5 I took part in the discussion which followed the papers read by Mr. Howell Jones ahd Professor Carmody on cane farming, but in doing so I never at any time stated that 5 tons of canes was the average production per acre of cane farming in this island, nor did I give expression to the hope that it might increase 20 per cent., as I am reported to have said in the Port-of-Spain Gazette of January 6.: I quoted certain figures from the paper presented to the Conference by Mr. Abel which showed that 5 tons 15 ewt. was the annual average production per acre from lands before referred to in the districts of Naparima and Point-a-Piérre, and held by farmers, and the object of this quotation was to support my contention that cane farming had not accomplished what was at one time expected of it. I also expressed regret that I could not take such asanguine view of its future as Professor Carmody did, and I stated the conditions under which alone (in my opinion) cane farming could be successfully prosecuted —first, an adequate supply of labour, which unhappily does not exist, and, second, an intelligent knowledge of the treatment of soils and of the value of manures which is not exhibited by the cane-farming class of this island. As it has also been suggested that some obscure, but of course base, motive was at the bottom of the position taken up by Mr. Abel and myself in this matter, I will at once state that my chief object in speaking on this subject was to impress on the Conference and therefore attract additional attention to the seriousness of the labour question in Trinidad. I am unable to furnish, even approxi- mately, the acreage under cane farming in this island, but I state confidently from my knowledge of it, that the average yield of canes per acre from this ‘source is an annually
28
decreasing one. It is absurd to suppose that either Mr. Abel or I desire to weaken the cane farmer in any way; what we really wish to do is to strengthen his position, if possible, by showing him that if he persists in his present methods of cane growing the inevitable result must be ruinous. I fail to see how the statements made in a letter signed ‘Farmer Jones’ relating toa state of things in 1895 bear at all on the cane-farming question of to-day, except to cause deep regret that such a flourishing condition does not now exist. One would think there could be little difficulty in refuting Mr. Abel’s figures, if incorrect, but this has not been attempted, I think it will be admitted that no man in this island can be more safely trusted in statistical matters than Mr. Abel, and I am sure that he would not place at the disposal of this Conference a paper that was not absolutely correct.
Mr. PETER ABEL: You are perfectly right, Mr. President. The figures presented by me refer to acreage held, the greater part of which is cultivated with canes.
The PRESIDEN’: You insist that it should be all in canes ?
Mr. PETER ABEL: Not necessarily. Sometimes the farmers complain of canes, and they have been permitted occasionally to put one-third of the acreage in provisions. But as a matter of fact, they have not done so. You are also correct in saying that the figures were put in with the view of calling attention to the present state of the industry in order that something should be done. I stand here asa friend of the cane farmers.
Professor P. CARMODY: This discussion has, I think, arisen out of some misunderstanding; but I think it is one of those misunderstandings of which we can make use. This Conference, and the cane farmers as well, should be indebted to Mr. Abel for having brought forward those figures ; because when I heard them read, although they appeared low in my mind, yet I thought we should take the matter up and see how far they applied to the whole island. Mr. Abel is very accurate in his figures, and when he puts them before the Conference, it is* our duty to make use of them. On the estate with which Iam connected there are 350 cane farmers, all working under the Government, and I shall ask the Government to request the manager to report how many acres are under cultivation, and we shall be able to find ont from the weight of canes delivered at the factory, what is the return, and I shall be in a position in a few months to supply you with the figures. In addition to that, we shall include those figures in the returns of the Agricultural Society. If those figures show that the cane farmers are only producing 6 tons to the acre, it will be a useful argument on which to base a demand for increased cultivation: we can tell them they must increase their yield.
The PRESIDENT; You mention the acreage under cultiva- tion. What we want to know is the number of acres actually
under cane in the aggregate. 3 Os Professor CARMODY : I mean the number of acres in cane.
The PRESIDENT: Another question I should like to ask is
24
this—Whether a cane farmer can always keep a definite area in canes every year ?
Mr. PETER ABEL: As the system is now, he cannot.
The PRESIDENT: I think what Mr. Abel has said is very important. These men hold a certain number of acres ; it is, apparently, not possible for the whole of that area to be in canes in successive years. You can hardly take the number of acres held as the number of acres actually in canes. Therefore, if we wapt accurate returns, we must get the actual number of acres in canes by the cane farmer.
| The Hon. S. HENDERSON: In other words, you want. the weight of canes cut each year, and the area from which it is cut. ; ks Be Mr. PETER ABEL: It will be exceedingly difficult to get that. ;
The PRESIDENT: That may be, but we must have some definite data on which to go.
The Rev. Dr. Morton (Trinidad): I took a great interest in this question of cane farming and was on the committee which came to the conclusion as to the price we should pay for canes, and practically that committee’s work has been the guide until now. At that time we got admirable returns from Mr. Henderson of what the cane farmers were doing, showing the exact amount of canes produced on a certain number of acres, Then, the farmers, with the assistance of their families, eultivated the land themselves, but since then the industry has undergone a change and the farmers employ their own labour. Personally, I think the former system a great deal better for the country and the people than the present, because under. the present system the cane farmer, by hiring labour, became a competitor with the estate, and frequently he had not the means to pay his labourers without getting into debt. Consequently cultivation went down. At the same time many cane growers were farming land which was given them by the estate; no payment was to-be made for the tenure of that land, but at the end of the year they delivered their canes at a certain price either in the field or at the mill door. Afterwards there came in those who cultivated their own land, and my impression is that they cultivated better than those who paid nothing. The estates then saw that the best thing was to rent the land to the farmer, and I think that improved the system. In dealing with a question of this kind we must make some allowance for a large number of people who are extremely hopeful and who come into the industry influenced by what is said about its being the salvation of the country and themselves. There is one duty which, I think, owners of land owe to the country and the cane farmer. It is this: to weed out the bad cane farmer and keep only those who will cultivate the land. Again, I do not think a cane farmer should be required to put his whole area in cane; some of it should be planted with other crops. I am. eonvinced that the most profitable cane farmer is the tradesmian—the artisan who gets the land, goes about in the villages and gets manure and cultivates his own land, or land he has hired and is paying for.
25
The Presipent: I think we were informed yesterday by the manager of a large estate that he found those cane farmers who had tolerably large areas—men who were overseers on estates—were far better than the small cultivator. Dr. Morton seems to think differently.
The Rey. Dr. Morton: I regard the small cultivator as rather competing with the estate.
The PRESIDENT: I understand that in British Guiana there are men of the overseer class that have taken up land.
The Hon. B. HoweL_i, Jones: Yes; and they are feeling what the larger planter is also feeling, namely, the want of labour. That is one of the points of difficulty with us.
The PRESIDENT: Would the manager of large estates regara these men as competing with him ?
The Hon. B. HOWELL JONES: Not at all: they are in exactly the same box as he is.
Mr. Peter ABEL: We find here that competition is set up among the cane farmers themselves for labour. which is ruining the estates.
The PRESIDENT: But they compete in growing canes for you.
Mr. PeteR ABEL: That may be so, but we have cane fields within a few yards of the railway given over to grass, while the cane farmer is taking the labour miles away.
-The Hon. S. HENDERSON: What clearly proves that cane farming is not accomplishing what we wished it would is this: that the quantity of canes produced on the estates together with that produced by the cane farmer at the present time is not equal to what was produced on the estates alone in previous years ; and it is all attributable to the want of labour in the colony. |
The PRESIDENT : Can Professor Carmody or any one else give us some idea as to the proportion which the number of acres actually in cane cultivation bears to the total area held by the cane farmers? The area held for twenty years is 9,650 acres. What proportion of that was actually in canes, say, last year ?
Mr. PETER ABEL: 1,753 acres.
The PRESIDENT: I see the number of farmers in 1904 was 164; the acreage held actually in canes was 1,753 acres ; and the canes grown amounted to 8,906 tons. Dividing the yield by the actual acreage in canes, that will give an average of 5°08 tons of canes per acre. What pr oportion does that bear to give total number of acres in cultivation in the island ?
Professor CARMODY: Granted that the average yield} is 10 tons of canes, and dividing that into the tonnage produced by the cane ‘farmers, it gives a proportion of exactly one- tenth of the total production of the island. That, of course, is only an estimate.
26 APPENDIX.
At a meeting of the Trinidad Agricultural Society held on Tuesday, January 31, his Excellency the Governor, Sir Henry M. Jackson, K.C.M.G., in the chair, Mr. G. C. Wyatt introduced the subject of cane farming, calling upon the society to place the industry on a more satisfactory footing. The discussion upon Mr. Wyatt's resolution was continued at a meeting of the society held on February 7, and brought to a conclusion at a later meeting on March 14.
As the discussion arose out of remarks made by members at the Agricultural Conference, and with a view to placing on record as complete information as possible, a summary of the proceedings at these meetings of the Agricultural Society, So far as they relate to points brought forward in the foregoing discussion, is included here.
The Secretary read the following covering letter in connexion with Mr. Wyatt's motion :—
Princes Town, December 12, 1904.
To the President and Members of the Agricultural Society.
Gentlemen,—The object of this letter is not that the society should compel either farmer or planter to the observance of any set of rules, for it has no right or power to do so, but rather to invite its kindly interference in. trying to bring about an understanding, the working of which will be mutually beneficial.
I know there are difficulties.in the way, but I submit that there are no obstacles that cannot be sufficiently overcome to enable the cane-farming industry to be continued with mutual satisfaction. It would be positively unwise on the farmers’ part to continue to plant canes as before without the positive assurance of their crop being taken off, and unreasonable of the planter to expect that of them. I do not think, therefore, that there is any serious objection on the part of the planter to come to an understanding.
I believe, rather, that he would hail with delight any arrangement that would secure to him sufficient canes to meet his estimate from year to year.
As a society, interested in the agricultural progress of the land, the farmers’ claim on your consideration is very great, for they have positively enabled the planter to withstand the late crisis, and even admitting the planter’s contention: ‘ that he has been paying the farmers more than the price of sugar justified,’ yet that price was less than his own cultivation cost him; and if he lost in the purchase of the farmers’ canes, his loss would have been a great deal more on the cultivation of his own canes, which would have meant a closing down of more factories with all its attendant hardships on the population.
I firmly believe that if cane farming is to proceed satisfactorily in the colony, the present is the time for action.
27
The price of sugar this year justifies a good increase in the price for canes, which will have the effect of causing the farmers to extend their cultivation. It is observed, though, that the planter is also extending his area of cultivation, so that unless corresponding improvement in his grinding capacity is effected, exclusion of the farmer must be apprehended; for it is unreasonable to expect that the planter will leave his own canes for the farmers’ benefit, and all those interested in the prosperity of the island should do their best to see this invaluable industry on a firm basis. Weare constantly told that Trinidad is a very prosperous country, but to my mind the prosperity of an agricultural country such as ours cannot be so great if the agriculturists themselves are in the terribly impecunious position of our farmers. If, therefore, Trinidad is absolutely prospercus—she is not comparatively so—some abnormal condition is at work which may at any time land us on the other side of the iedger. It is, therefore, worthy of the attention of all and every one to help in the satisfactory working of an industry which promises to be the means of laying the foundation for the permanent prosperity of the island. (See Society Paner, No. 46, read before this society on August 11, 1896, by the Hon. R. de Verteuil, the remarks and suggestions wherein I fully agree with, and would invite attention to on the part of any committee that may be appointed to deal with the question.)
As I have already said, there are many difficulties in the way of settlement, the reputed unreliability of the farmer being the chief; but I am of opinion that the insecurity of his position hitherto is largely accountable for his shortecomings— the securing the one contains the remedy for the other.
The above is, I think, sufficient for the society to recognize the necessity of lending its aid to bring ahout a mutual understanding which I suggest should be done by the appointment of a committee specially qualified to thresh out the whole question ; the result of which I hope will bring about something more than mere legisiation for the cash advanced to farmers, for they can never hope to obtain fair and reasonable advances until their position and responsibilities are defined and acknowledged.
Mr. WYATT said that, as his letter had embodied all he intended to say on the motion, he would then formally move :— ‘That this society, recognizing that cane farmers have contributed to an appreciable extent in maintaining the sugar industry of the colony during the past years of extreme depression, is of opinion that every effort within the power of the society should be made to place cane farming on a firm, satisfactory, and permanent footing.’
Mr. NoRMAN LAMONT (now M.P. for Buteshire) rose and said: As President of the Cane Farmers’ Association I rise with pleasure to second the resolution which has been so well and clearly proposed by Mr. Wyatt. I regret that I was unable, threugh absence from the colony, to attend..the recent Agricultural Conference, as there were several things I should have liked to say, in my presidential capacity. I trust, therefore,
“28 3
that this meeting will bear with me a few minutes, while I say ‘a few words in support of the motion.
It falls into two parts: the first, ‘recognizing that cane farmers have contributed to an appreciable extent in maintaining the sugar industry during the past years of extreme depression.’ I think that is almost a self-evident proposition. After remaining for several years at about | 105,000 tons the farmers’ production jumped in 1901 to 170,000 tons, an increase which has since been maintained. Now this has been concurrent with a decrease of estate cultivation in an almost exactly corresponding ratio, since the total output remains about the same.
Now you may agree that this coincidence is purely - accidental, and you may also agree that if in the four worst years the sugar industry has ever known, the farmers’ output has made and maintained an increase of 70,000 tons, what would it have done in four profitable years?
. The immediate future may provide the answer, especially if steps be taken in words of the motion ‘ to place cane farming ona firm, satisfactory, and permanent footing.’ To this end ‘action. should be taken along three distinct lines. First, ‘TIT advocate the adoption, generally, of a sliding scale, because until, as Mr. Wyatt said, the farmer has some definite assurance that he will receive a fair remuneration for his canes, it is idle to talk of ‘a permanent footing.’ I myself have done what as an individual I have been able to do, during the last few years, in the matter of a sliding scale ; and in spite of many obstacles, that sliding scale, though working unevenly sometimes, has, on the whole, been a success. I donot say that it is an ideal scale, but I putit forward as a basis for discussion between members of the planting fraternity and cane farmers who are members ‘of. this society, the important point it has elicited, viz., the necessity of a minimum price. After several years’ experience we found last year that it was perfectly useless to let the price go below 9s. per ton, because in years when we paid 8s. 6d. or 8s. the result had been that the farmer neglected his cultivation, which diminished the succeeding crops of cane; and therefore the new agreements which we made last year fixed a minimum price of 9s. The question of a maximum price also deserves consideration.
My second point is in connexion with railway extension. I suppose that in any other country in the world where the’ railway system is not a government monopoly, there would already have been an extension of the railway system to almost every important cane-farming centre, because the private ‘companies would have been eager to follow up those farmers as they extend their plantations, in order to earn the large ‘profits which were to be made by the lucrative traffic of ‘hauling canes. The estates have done what lay in their power ‘to: provide a net-work of lines to bring in what canes those farmers around them had, but so far as any system of: true connexion, connecting up the different estates and centres by means of the Trinidad Government Railway is concerned, the matter has scarcely ever been discussed or even thought of.
29
Now Naparima and Savana Grande have long been two very important and most anciently settled districts in the colony, and yet they pushed their railway to Tabaquite. Yet until every factory is served by the Trinidad Government Rail- way, there can be no real free trade for the farmer in canes —since his market is limited to donkey-distance of the nearest factory or tramway-siding. It is not that railway rates are prohibitive, for they do not compare unfavourably with those of Louisiana, where J have seen a train of farmers’ canes come in from 150 miles. The charge there is 50c. per ton up to 25 miles; then 75c. up to 75 miles, the railway providing the cars. Thus, up to a distance of 15 miles our Trinidad rates are actually more favourable.
One difference of importance must be noted, viz., that the Louisiana farmer is generally a planter minus a factory, and he can quickly load a whole train with his own canes. Here it might take one of our smaller farmers several days to load a 6-ton truck ; but I do not believe that this difficulty would be allowed by a sympathetic Government to stand in the way of an extension of the industry, when it could so easily be remedied by the provision of a scale at its loading-stations: while a charge of ld. per load for weighing would cover interest and upkeep.
Thirdly, there is the important question of Agricultural Banks which was somewhat superficially discussed at the: Conference. The present Colonial Secretary of Jamaica, when here, took a keen interest in the problem and collected data: with a view to the possible introduction of a bank on the: Raiffeisen system. If attempted, it must be begun on quite a small scale and with a very careful selection of men, in order to avoid the catastrophes which have befallen previous efforts. in similar districts. But it must be remembered that in dealing with cane there is practically no risk, as compared with fruit or vegetables, because loans could always be recovered by sending in a note of the amount to the factory where the canes are ground to be gradualy deducted at each pay.
Such a kanking system might also be the means of levelling up the cultivation methods pursued by farmers ; since it would be desirable that their cultivation and crops should be. periodically inspected and approved, before any loan could be sanctioned upon it.
1 do not wish to seem to offer a panacea in what I recommend to the society. Far from it, I am only making these suggestions as a basis for future discussion. Objections are, as I well know, raised to any extension of the farming system, and therefore anything which may establish it more firmly is condemned as bad.
It is argued that the farmers will exhaust the land, and then throw it back on the hands of the owner. This is held by some of the truest friends of the farmers. My own experience is that the best of the cane farmers get quite as large a return as the best of the estates ; and while, no doubt, a large number of them fall grieyously below the standard, yet I do not
80
believe they really exhaust the land, because no manure at all is certainly better than the wrong manure. While if any of them really get, as is alleged, so low a return as 53 tons over twenty years, I regard that not as exhausting the soil, but as a sort of perpetual fallow. A few inches of the surface soil are oceasionally tickled, while the subsoil is continually increasing its richness beneath. But this is very much what the estates are doing. It is conceivable that cane farming may succeed because it is cheap. It is probable that the methods of the Trinidad Estates Company may sueceed because they are efficient. It is impossible that the average estates’ cultivation should succeed, for it is neither cheap nor efficient.
#
Then it is argued that cane farming is harmful because it competes with the estates for labour. Well, it would be very strange if farmers could grow canes without labour. But I believe that those labourers whom the farmers employ bring quite as much eane to the mill, as indentured labourers working only a little over 100 days a year. And I believe that cane farming has helped us in this way--that it has undoubtedly sueceeded in keeping employed, in the production of cane, meu who would have still left the estate, on their time being up, but who would have taken up the cultivation of vegetables, rice, or fruit, or become small shopkeepers.
If cane farmers compete for labour, the remedy is to be sought, not in the disparagement of their efforts, or the dis- arrangement of the industry, but by following the excellent example of the Trinidad Estates Company in endeavouring to economize our wasted labour in field work, and in endeavouring to fix our wo1k:ug population on the soil.
Gentlemen, I commend this resolution to you. This great cane-farming industry has grown up of itself. If the Govern- ment had accorded to it one tithe of the care and attention and encouragement which they have rightly given to the fruit industry, most of the difficulties to which I have referred would never have existed: others would have been overcome ere this. Even now it is not too late. The farmers have given me a notable example of what is not too frequent here—of self- help. It is on their behalf that- I have ventured to detain you so long, and that I now implore you to aceord to the resolution, net your grudging aecquiesence, but your whole- hearted support.
The Hon. S. HeNDERSON, in replying, remarked that Mr. Wyatt had suggested the danger of farmers’ canes not being taken by the factories. He did not think the past history of cane farming quite justified that fear. As to the assertion that the farmers’ canes were increasing while those of the estates decreased, he thought that was due chiefly to the fact that as farmers increased their area of cultivation, the necessity for employing labour arose, and so the farmer drew off the labour from the estates. He did not think the sliding scale would be useful either to the farmer or the planter: he thought it would create dissatisfaction. The prices of canes were regulated by supply and demand. Last year farmers got 9s. per ton, that year 12s. was offered, but it did not:last long.
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He : thought they would all agree that there was not sufficient labour, and immigration was a sine qua non.
At the adjourned meeting on February 7 the discussion was taken up by Mr. George White, the Hon. G. Townsend Fenwick, C.M.G., Messrs. A. W. Rolston, R. Rust, the Rev. Dr. Morton, and others.
Mr. NORMAN LAMONT replied as follows to some of the —aeene that had been brought forward against his remarks :. — ”
I hope I may be pardoned if I speak a second time in this debate in reply to a few of the criticisms upon my speech last week, especially to Mr. Henderson’s. Mr. Henderson referred to the price of canes. He disapproved of my having raised the price from 12s. to 14s., and went on to say that on a pre- vious occasion he himself had raised it from 9s. to 10s. I will merely ask you to consider that if I raised the price of canes from 12s. to i4s. from motives of competition, then I must be a more foolish person than I have yet found reason to believe. If I raised the price by 2s. a ton, not only on the canes I got from outside, but on the larger proportion which I got from within my estate, and an adjoining estate of Which my manager has also the control, on the off-chance of getting a few tons more from the outside, a chance rendered still more improbable by the fact that my neighbours were certain to raise the price too —then I wrote myself down FOOL, in very large letters indeed.
Then Mr. Henderson went on to argue that our farmers could not understand the principle of the sliding scale: though canes are purchased thus in Demerara, Porto Rico, Cuba, and at the new Gunthorpe’s factory at Antigua, where I notice a minimum price of 7s. 6d. has been fixed. He is, I think, wrong in assuming that the farmers of Trinidad are any less intelligent than those of other West India Islands. I assert absolutely that our farmers understand perfectly the principle, and would accept it to-morrow.
Then with regard to the subject of the labour supply. Immigration, as an abstract proposition, may be defended in two ways: the urgent need of more labour by estates which they cannot obtain from other sources ; and the urgent need of more population by the colony. Now, I admit from the first that this colony could probably support a population of one million ; and, if immigration is desirable, that it would be impossible to find a more industrious, thrifty, and useful class of immi- grant than the East Indian. But two questions then arise. Is it desirable, and, if so, for how long will it be so, to hasten by these artificial means, these forcing-house methods, an un- naturally rapid increase in the population of the colony, and at what point will it be better to let nature take ber course? Hitherto, successive Governments of the colony have considered that the rapid methods were expedient and have therefore assisted immigration to the amount of £25,000 a year out of genera! revenue.
Next, certain firms and individuals conducting a particular industry maintain that their business cannot be carried on
32
without an annual influx of some thousands of persons, work- ing under compulsory terms, and at a fixed wage: that though this system has been in vogue for fifty years, their need for labour is as great as ever, and that every inhabitant of the colony must for ever contribute indirectly to the cost of immigration ; while everyone also engaged in the industry, great or small, must contribute directly, whether they want more labour or not.
That is the case, and merely to state it is to admit the total and hopeless failure of the present system of sugar estate management. That, after fifty years of continued immigration, the sugar estates would be no better provided with labour than they were fifty years ago, though their output has not increased, and in spite of all that science has done in invention of labour-saving devices, is a condemnation of the system too complete to need further amplification from me. And why has it failed? Because no serious attempt has been made to settle the time-expired immigrants on or around the estates, and to engage them continuously in the industry.
It is here, at this point, that the true interests of the colony and the supposed interests of the sugar planters diverge. The true interests of the colony lie, not in the least in the mere increase in a roving population, of time-expired immigrants east adrift to make way for fresh hordes of new-comers. An increase of population is only desirable when that popula- tion is gradually settled in useful and permanent occupation of the land. And it is because the cane farmers are sneceeding and because I am succeeding, in so fixing the people, in creating a real peasantry, that this outery is raised, and endeavours are to be made to crush us by an acreage tax.
Once more I commend Mr. Wyatt’s resolution to the society. Not a single argument in this debate has been adduced which has in the least upset or even shaken his fundamental proposi- tion, that cane farming is a necessity to the stability of our industry and should be accorded every encouragement.
Instead of vainly attempting to increase your population to the extent of your cultivation, reduce your cultivation to the extent which can be worked by the population which you are able to fix on the soil; introduce every possible labour- saving contrivance ; give the rest of your land-—not necessarily the worst land—out to cane farmers. So may this great industry in which so many of us here are interested succeed ; so may the colony prosper ; and what is even more important, so will you promote not only the material but the moral improvement of the people. .
At the meeting of the society held on Tuesday, March 14, the discussion was brought to a close, and Mr. Wyatt’s resolu- tion (see p. 27), being put to the vote, was agreed to.
STs)
- REVIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL FUNGOID DISEASES OF THE SUGAR-CANE.
BY L. LEWTON-BRAIN, B.A., F.L.S.,
Mycologist on the staff of the Imperial Department of Agriculture.
Two, out of the three, principal fungoid diseases of sugar- cane have already been dealt with at previous: Agricultural Conferences. As 1egards the third, I have already dealt with it frequently, both in publications and in lectures. I intend, therefore, merely to give a brief summary of the chief facts known with regard to these diseases.
RIND DISEASE.
The rind disease is one which has caused great loss in previous years to sugar-cane planters; so great was the damage in Barbados that practically every estate was obliged to abandon their then favourite cane—the Bourbon.
The fungus causing the disease (Trichosphueria sacchari) gains entrance to the stem of its host by wounds— principally those caused by boring insects. It attacks and destroys the parenchymatous cells of the stem; it then passes on to the wood vessels and chokes up their cavities, so reducing the — water current and causing the leaves to droop and wither. Finally, it produces spores in chambers just within the rind of the cane. The spores break through the rind and appear as small pustules on the surface of the cane. Canes badly attacked are practically valueless, while always the sugav content is reduced.
Among remedial measures there is the destruction of diseased canes. These were often separated from the healthy ones and left on one side in the estate yard, there to produce spores ready to infect the newcrop. They should, of course, be burnt immediately they are brought in.
The use of only healthy canes for planting is a point on which I need not insist. The folly of planting ‘seed’ that is already infected with the disease is obvious.
The fungus is a wound parasite ; consequently, if we keep in check the insects which are the principal cause of wounds, a good deal will be done to prevent the attacks of the fungus.
Finally we have the raising of sugar-cane varieties which are resistant to the disease. This I may say has been done, and in those islands which have abandoned the Bourbon eane, certainly in Barbados and the Northern Islands, the rind disease is no longer feared. The White Transparent is one of’ the best known of the resistant varieties, besides this there are several seedling canes recommended for trial on estates. In all the selection experiments resistance to rind disease is one of the points insisted upon. |
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PINE-APPLE DISEASE.
The pineg-apple disease is caused by a fungus (Thielaviopsis ethaceticus) which attacks cane cuttings and prevents their growth. The fungus gains access at the cut ends or at wounds, The interior of diseased stems is found filled with a black mass of hyphae and spores of the fungus and has a distinct odour of pine-apple. The disease is one that does little damage in a good planting season, when germination and growth are rapid. During a dry season the disease does considerable harm and causes a good many cuttings to fail to germinate. The last two planting seasons in Barbados have been very favourable, consequently I have seen little of the disease.
The first means of preventing the disease is to select only sound cuttings for planting: by this I mean cuttings not only free from disease but also free from borer holes and other wounds where the fungus can gain entrance.
One other method of treatment is to soak the cuttings in some fungicide, by this means protecting the cut ends from infection. As this is a subject which is to come up for separate discussion I will not say anything of the experiments which have been carried out on these lines.
ROOT DISEASE.
Root disease of the sugar-cane is caused by a Bacidiomy- cetous fungus (Marasmius sacchari) : the same fungus attacks sugar-cane in Java, while another species of the genus attacks bananas inthe West Indies (JJ. semiustus). The disease is one that has caused great loss in Barbados, especially in the season before last when weather conditions were unfavourable to the growth of the cane.
The symptoms are first those of a deficient water supply. The leaves roll up and finally become dry and wither, the tips and edges showing the effect first. Fewer leaves, also, are developed. The lower leaf-sheaths, instead of falling off leaving the stem clean, remain attached, and when examined are found to be matted together by a white mycelium, and the whole has a characteristic musty smell. The young roots when examined are seen not to be developing properly, the tips are red and black and they remain short. The stools, generally, are dwarfed and easily uprooted. The last stage is the development of toad-stools ; these are found, usually in rainy weather and in the early morning, at the base of the attacked stools; they are small, white, delicate structures, bearing the spores on gills on the under side of the cap. They may spring direct from diseased roots or from the matted leaf-sheaths. The following is a technical description of the genus Mlarasmius and the species M. sacchari :—
‘Marasmius, Fries.—Tough, thin, dry, reviving their form when moistened (not putrescent). Veil absent (except in one sp.); stem cartilaginous or horny; gills tough, sub-distant or distant, often connected by veins, edge acute ; spores white or pallid.
‘Marasmius sacchari, Wakker, De Ziekten van het Suikerriet op Java, p. 194, pl. V. (1898).—Gregarious or fasciculate at the
hi oo
base, variable, flesh membranaceous, persistent ; pileus white, broadly campanulate, then dingy white and plane or cup- shaped, 15 mm. diam.; gills white, simpie, or bifurcate; stem central, white, 15 mm. long, apex tubiform, base villous, hyphae white; spores hyaline, continuous, irregularly oblong, ends attenuated, rounded, 16-20 x 4-5 micro millimetres.’ (Magsane Text-book of Plant Diseases, :p. 387.)
The fungus isa facultative saprophyte and its mycelium is capable of living indefinitely on deca nying ‘ane-stumps, so long as conditions are favourable, that is, in the absence of much air and light. It attacks the cane plant indirectly, first developing on the dead leaves, dead roots, ete, and finally attacking the root tips. Here it destroys the growing region and so prevents root development.
Under favourable conditions the sugar-eane is capable, to a great extent, of overcoming the attacks of Marasmius. It is only. when root development is checked that great damage is done.
The fungus spreads by its spores but mainly by its under- ground mycelium, spreading thus from diseased plants to healthy ones in the neighbourhood. This gives us one way of checking its spread, namely, by digging a trench around an attacked area. The trench should be about 18 inches deep and should include one or two rows of apparently healthy canes,
Good cultivation, by promoting root development and admitting light and air, will also check the growth of the fungus. Diseased canes should not be allowed to ratoon, for it is as ratoons that canes are most severely attacked. Whenever possible infected land should be rested from cane cultivation for at least two years. Cotton forms a good rotation crop.
Old cane stumps infested with the mycelium of Marasmius are a frequent source of infection. These should be dug out pnd destroyed. Another point is to use only very healthy, vigorous cuttings, to give the plants a good start. Sometimes, even now, cuttings are taken from plants which are too poor to be crushed; the folly of this, in giving the fungus a good start with the newcrop, is obvious. Great care Speul d also be taken in supplying to use only healthy plants.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Bovell: Field Treatment of the Diseases of the Sugar- cane in the West Indies: West Indian Bulletin, Rio |e Bars)
Howard: Fungoid Diseases of Sugar-cane: West Indian Bulletin, Vol. II, p. 46.
Thiselton-Dyer: Note on the Sugar-cane Diseases of the West Indies: West Indian Bul letin, As) Ab a eas Ve
Howard: The Field Treatment of Cane Cuttings in reference to Fungoid Diseases: West Indian Bulletin, Vol. II, p. 73,
Wakker and Went: De Ziekten van het Suikerriet op Java : Leiden, 1898.
Lewton-Brain: Lectures on the Diseases of the Sugar-cane Pamphlet No. 29, Barbados, 1994.
36 DISCUSSION.
The Presip—eNt: Three principal diseases have been touched on by Mr. Lewton-Brain, the first is the rind fungus. This is a disease which a few years ago attacked the Bourbon eane in Barbados, and led to the abandonment of that cane owing to its susceptibility to the disease. I would submit for the opinion of the Conference whether the rind fungus is now prevalent in the West Indies, and whether it is found on any other cane than the Bourbon, and to what extent?
The Hon. B. Howe. JonuS (British Guiana): Rind fungus is extremely prevalent in British Guiana chiefly on the Bourbon eane. White Transparent has also been attacked by it. On one estate, Anna Regina, so bad was the attack that, but for the seedling canes being mixed with the Bourbon, we would not have been able to make any sugar this year. There has been no sign of the pine-apple disease.
Mr. J. R. BOVELL (Barbados): In Barbados the rind fungus is practically confined to the Bourbon cane. With regard to the root fungus, I am sorry to say that, up to a couple of years ago, there was a great deal of it, and I should like to emphasize Mr. Lewton-Brain’s remarks as to the care planters should take in the selection of cane plants, and in rejecting any plant which shows signs of disease.
Dr. FRANciS WATTS (Leeward Islands): At one time it appeared that the sugar industry in the Leeward Islands would have. to be abandoned owing to the attacks of rind fungus. The cane then grown was the Bourbon. Experiments were carried on in the hope of raising a variety of cane more resistant to the discase. Many varieties tried in the early stage had to be abandoned because they were as badly attacked as the Bourbon; among these was the Lahaina cane. We have, however, succeeded in obtaining varieties of canes (among them B.147) highly resistant and practically immune, and rind fungus has almost entirely disappeared from Antigua and St. Kitt’s. Root disease has been observed in Antigua to a certain extent especiaily where the soils are somewhat heavy, and also in St. Kitt’s; but in the latterisland I know of no ease where it has become a pest. :
The Hon, S. HENDERSON (Trinidad): The rind fungus made its appearance in Trinidad in 1891, and although it did not appear to have any appreciable effect upon the crop then about to be reaped, yet it was sufficiently serious to cause planters to take. measures to get rid of it. The measures adopted were the cutting out of the stems, removing them from the field and burning them. The stems were not crushed before they were burned. That was done for two or three years, after which the fungus became less harmful. The cane then planted was the Bourbon, but in some districts this is giving way to the White Transparent, which has been found to resist the disease better than the Bourbon. I remember seeing only one variety of seedling cane badly attacked by rind fungus in 1898, and that was the Burke cane.
The Hon. W. Fawcett (Jamaica): Iam glad to say we are
37
not troubled very much with diseases of cane in Jamaica. Some two years ago the whole of the canes on an estate in the centre of the island were swept off by both rind and root fungus. Since then, although we see evidence of diseases here and there, they have not given serious trouble.
Mr. EK. M. DEFRRITAS (Grenada): My experience is very small, but there is a remarkable instance with reference to the Bourbon cane and rind fungus. I had a field of B. 147 which I planted on the recommendation of the Imperial Department of Agriculture. Alongside of that was a field of Bourbon. B. 147 did so well that I invited a neighbouring planter interested in the sugar industry to see the field. Then the Bourbon was also looking well. Six months after the Bourbon was attacked by rind fungus, and there was not a sound cane left in the field, whereas B. 147 was not attacked at all. B. 147 has done so well in Grenada that the plants are now at a premium. This will be the fifth crop reaped from~ the original field. The canes have not been attacked by disease of any kind.
Mr. G. S. EVELYN (Barbados): I should Jike to ask whether Wwe can account for the sudden outbreak of the rind fungus ijn Barbados in 1895 or thereabouts.
The PRESIDENT: In the case of a disease so widely spread; it may be that it had existed among the canes for a long period, but only came into prominence when the canes were weakened and not in good health, due to unfavourable conditions.
Dr. VAN HALL (Surinam): We are happily not very much troubled with sugar-cane diseases in Surinam. Rind fungus is there, but it does not do serious damage. ‘Land is cheap, and the proprietors are constantly changing their acreage, and when rind disease appears in any field, that field is at once abandoned and another piece of land taken into cultivation. The Bourbon is the only cane planted there. Professor Harrison very kindly sent me this year some seedling varieties, and they have just been planted out.
REVIEW OF THE INSECT PESTS AFFECTING THE SUGAR-CANE.
BY: Hr A. KAULOU, B.Sc.:
Entomologist on the staff of the Imperial Department of Agriculture.
At the previous Conferences there have been presented papers on this subject, which, together with such other information as has come to hand from time to time, have appeared in the publications of the Imperial Department of Agriculture, This paper is intended to furnish a concise—
2
b8
summary of what has been published, together with an account of a borer in canes (Castnia licus) which has recently appeared in British Guiana.
THE MOTH BORER.
(Diatraea saccharalis.)
Life-history.—The egg is laid on the leaf; the larva lives about ten days in the outer leaf-sheath and then bores into the heart of the plant which, later, withers and dies. These withered shoots are known as dead hearts and are an indica- tion of the presence of the larvae in a stool of canes; The larvae in a shoot may become well developed before the shoot withers; they also penetrate the stem of the cane, and may go from one shoot to another in the same stoo). The larval life lasts from thirty to thirty-five days.
The pupa is formed in the tunnel made by the larva, near the surface of the cane, protected by a slight web across the mouth of the tunnel. The pupal period lasts about six days. Theimago has a short existence, living but a few days. It is not a strong flyer, and remains inactive by day, flying at night. The female lays from 100 to 300 eggs.
Description.—The egg is flattened, oval, slightly convex, upper surface finely reticulate. The eggs are laid in clusters averaging about nineteen to a cluster, the range being from four to fifty-seven, usually between ten and thirty. When first laid they are light-yellow, becoming orange-brown later, and just before hatching the centres become very dark. The ezg is about 1 mm. (, #nch) in length.
The larva is about 2 mm. (;4, inch) in length when first hatched, of a light-orange colour, with numerous short, black hairs. The mature larva is about 1} inches in length, the head is dark-brown or black, with a V-shaped mark lighter than the rest of the head. The pronotum is dark-brown or black. The remainder of the body whitish with stigmata black, and with afew dark hairs scattered over the body. ‘The head and pronotum are hard, the remainder of the body being soft.
The pupa is naked, shiny brown, $ to ? inch in length, with short spines and eallosities on abdominal segments.
The imago or moth is of w dull straw colour on upper surface of fore wings, with a few dark spots; the hind wings are Whitish, under surface of wings uniformly light, the body brownish. The expanse of wings is 1} to 12 inches, length of body 2 to #? inch.
Parasites.—The eggs are attacked by a small hymenop- terous parasite (Trichogramma pretiosa), and the larvae are somctimes attacked by a fungus (Cordyceps barber’).
Injury to Canes.—The moth borer injures’ the cane ‘in several ways: by killing the young shoots; by eating out the sugar-containing portion of the stem; and by affording easy access to fungoid diseases, especially the rind disease (Trichos- pheeria sacchari),
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Prevention.—Canes that show borer holes should not be planted, nor should such canes be sent from one estate or from one colony to another.
Remedies.—Cutting out the dead hearts seems to be the most generally practised of all remedial measures. These should be cut as low as possible te ensure getting below the larvae. The dead hearts are burned or fed to stock, and the larvae are thus destroyed. The collecting of eggs has been practised but does not seem to be generally carried out in the West Indies, Care should be taken to distinguish those eggs containing parasites: parasitized eggs should not be burned with the others, but should be kept to give the parasites an opportunity of emerging.
HARD BACK. (Ligyrus tumulosus.)
This is the common black hard back, the larva of which is a white grub living in the ground feeding on vegetable matter. There seems to be no evidence that this is a serious pest to sugar- cane, but a closely related species, Ligyrus rugiceps, is a pest of canes in Louisiana, and the West Indian form may do more harm than has been realized.
THE WEEVIL BORER. (Sphenophorus sericeus.)
Life-history.—The eggs are laid singly, embedded in the cane toa depth of 1 iuch. The egg hatches in four days, and the larva or grub eats its way into the cane, forming a small tunnel which increases in size as the larva grows larger. The larval period or grub stage lasts about seven weeks. During this period the larva destroys most of the interior of a joint of cane. The pupa is formed in the tunnel inade by the larva and is covered with a large, rough cocoon made of the fibres of the cane. The pupal period lasts about ten days, and at the end of that time the adult beetle emerges from one end of the cocoon. The beetle is active, flying about at night. The female, after mating, begins egg-laying which continues for some time. The beetles may be kept alive several weeks.
Description.—The egg is oval, about ;; inch in length, and is nearly transparent.
The larva is a small, white grub when first hatched. It has no legs but has a hump near the hind end of the body by means of which it pushes itself along the tunnel. When full-grown the larva is about 3-2 inch in length and 3? inch in thickness at the swollen part of the hind body.
The pupa is soft, whitish, enclosed in a rough cocoon of coarse fibres in the rotten cane where the larva has lived.
The adult beetle is reddish-brown with black markings. There are three longitudinal black marks on the thorax, and the wing covers are edged with black, and on each wing cover there is a black line and black spot. The front of the head is pro- duced to form a stout beak or snout. The length is-about Linch, the width about 7%; inch,
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Injury to Canes.—The damage caused by this insect consists in the destruction of canes growing in the field, injury te young ‘anes springing from cane plants, and possible injury to young canes springing from cane stumps.
Remedies and Prevention.—Destroy all infested canes, cover eut ends of cane plants, cane tops, and ratoon stumps with mould as soon as possible, or plant so that no ends shall be left exposed above ground, and destroy all stamps not intended for -atooning as soon as possible after canes are cut. Tarring the ends of cane plants, as recommended for preventing fungoid attack, would probably be useful.
THE ROOT BORER. (Diaprepes abbreviatus.)
Life-history.—Eggs are laid in clusters ranging in number from eight to 130 on upper side of leaf, not necessarily that of a food plant. When first laid, the eggs are white; later they become tinged with yellowish-brown. The eggs hatchinten days. The newly hatched larva is about =; inch in length, pale yellowish- brown in.ecolour. There are no legs, and the body is not swollen to form a hump like that seen in the larva of the weevil borer. The larvae or grubs fall to the ground and burrow beneath the surface. They begin feeding almost immediately on the roots of plants. They attack the canes first at the soft ends of the adventitious roots, the root stock being attacked later. The larva enters the cane about 9to1l inches below the surface of the ground, works its way upward several inches, then turns and descends and enters another cane. ‘One grub is often responsible for the death of a whole stool of canes.’
The larval period extends over 800 to 312 days, and the
mature larva measures { to 1 inch in length, and ;5, to 2 inch in diameter.
The pupa is formed in the ground where it is enclosed in an earthen cell, 6 or 8 inches below the surface or in the cane, in which case itis enclosed in a cocoon similar to, but rougher than, that of the weevil borer, or in a nest of decaying leaves. The pupal period is about fifteen days.
The imago or adult beetle is at first soft and brownish- white. In two or three days it becomes hard and assumes its characteristic colours. The thorax is brownish with fine white pubescence, which gives a spotted appearance, wing covers greenish white with longitudinal brownish or bronze stripes: head brownish with stout snout or beak, the legs brownish, femora somewhat swollen.
The length of life of the adult is about twenty days, during
which time mating and egg-laying oceur. The female lays about 240 to 270 eggs.
Food Plants.— This insect is probably a very general feeder. It is known to feed on sugar-cane, sweet potato, guinea corn, imphee, and ground nut, and has been found eating the roots of cacao trees in St. Lucia, (See Agricultural News, Vol. III, p. 264.)
Remedies.—Sweet potatos and imphee should not follow canes in field culture, nor should these be followed by canes ¥
41
A crop not attacked by the root borer would be advisable, or no crop, with the removal of the cane stumps. The larvae of the root borer can live only about fifteen days without food, and to deprive them of food will be greatly to reduce their numbers. The following plants do not seem to be attacked by the root borer: ochro, cassava, yams, and eddoes, woolly pyvrol, pigeon peas, bonavist, rouncival pea, bean.
THE CANE FLY. (Delphax saccharivora.)
This small insect, although at one time believed to be a very severe pest, is not now considered as such, though generally present in small numbers each year. It appears to be well controlled by the lady-bird beetles (Coccinellidae) and the Ince wing (Chrysopa sp.) except for occasional outbreaks on
small areas. The presence of Delphax is generally indicated by black blight.
SCALE INSECTS.
Three species of scale insects are known to attack canes ‘in the West Indies, viz., Dactylopius sacchari, Dactylopius calceolariae, and Aspidiotus sacchari.
These species of Dactylopius are ‘ mealy bugs,’ soft-bodied insects covered with mealy wax. They attack the stems and are protected by the leaf-sheaths. Aspidiotus sacchari is a small, rounded, straw-coloured scale insect. These insects do but little harm, probably, and in the time ordinarily required for the growth of the crop would not become very numerous. No treatment is practicable except the exercise of great care not to plant infested canes.
THE SHOT BORER. (Xyleborus perforans.)
This is asmall, brownish beetle about 5, inch in length. The greatest injury to canes from the boring of this insect is that the holes in the hard rind of the cane furnish an easy entrance for fungoid diseases such as the rind disease. As the species of Xyleborus readily attack dead and dying plants and multiply in them rapidly, the prompt destruction of dead and dying canes will have the effect of reducing the number of shot borer and checking its development and spread. The shot borer has not been prevalent in the West Indies for the past two years.
THE LARGER MOTH BORER. (Castnia licus, Drury.)
This insect was first reported to the Imperial Department of Agriculture in October 1904 from plantation Enmore, British Guiana, where it was then causing serious injury to the canes.
Mr. Bethune, manager at Enmore, sent specimens of the larvaland adult forms of the insect as well as pieces of cane and a stool of cane stumps showing the damage done, accompanicd by statements as to its destructiveness. The Executive
42
Secretary of the British Guiana Board of Agriculture forward- ed a report by Mr. Ward, Agricultural Instructor, and further specimens accompanied this report.
From such correspondence and reports, and the specimens and material received, this paper has been prepared, the writer having had no opportunity of studying the insect in the field.
The egg is about 4 mm. (3 inch) in length and 1 mm. (. inch) in width, spindle shaped, tapering to a point at either end, with five prominent longitudinal ribs from end to end, The eolour ranges from a light-gray (nearly white) to a dark-gray. Eggs laid in captivity hatch in three or four days. . Eggs have not been found in the field, and it is not known where they are laid. In captivity the eggs are laid singly and unattached.
The newly hatched larva (in captivity) is large in compari- son with the size of the egg. Full-grown larvae are about 24 inches long and 4 inch in diameter. The head is large, reddish- brown in colour, with large powerful mandibles, with which it eats its way through the canes. The mandibles are shiny- black. The segments of the thorax are the largest, thus giving ‘the body its greatest size just behind the head. The abdominal segments are nearly uniform in size decreasing gradually pos- teriorly, the last one being the smallest.
The thoracic legs are small, brownish, situated on the large fleshy swellings of the three segments of the thorax. The abdominal legs are soft protuberances on the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and last abdominal segments. All the body segments are swollen and prominent. The colour of the larva is whitish; the spiracles are very prominent, being large, and brown in colour. There are a few pale hairs most plainly seen on the head, on the last abdominal segment, and on each segment below the line of the spiracles. The skin is shiny and slightly transparent.
On the dorsal surface of each of the second and third thoracic and the first seven abdominal segments, there is a small area set with short, brown spines or callosities, which serve to assist the larva in travelling along the tunnel in the cane.
The pupa is formed either in the canes at the base of the stool or in the ground near the canes. The pupa is brown in colour about 1} inches inlength. The wing pads, antennae, and proboscis are very plainly visible. On the dorsal area of each of the.abdominal segments, except the last, are spines and thickened processes. On the first six segments there are two rows and on the seventh and eighth there is one row across the segment. These spines are short, sharp and directed backward, and assist the pupa in wriggling its way either through the tunnel in the cane toward the top of the stump or through the ground toward the surface when the adult or imago is about to emerge. The pupa is sometimes enclosed in a rough cocoon formed of the fibres of the cane and sometimes in an earthen cell. (I have not seen a cocoon and only one pupa—that one, an imperfect one.)
The imago has a spread of wings of 3 to 8} inches. The
43
body is 1{ to 1% inches long. The colour is dark, brownish-gray, lighter beneath.
The fore wing is crossed on the upper surface hy a broad white band just within the middle: outside this and nearly parallel with it a short white band extends from the front margin about half-way across. These white bands are seen on the under side of the fore wing also. Along the outer margin is a row of small, light spots which are not conspicuous.
The hind wing has a white band on the upper surface running across it near the middle. This is interrupted, near the front margin, making tio distinct spots, behind which the band gradually inereases in width until near the hind margin, where it is at its widest. A corresponding white band is seen on the under surface of the hind wing, but it is narrower, and the two spots near its beginning are less distinctly separated. Along the outer margin of the hind wing above are six spots of pale orange, the first three smaller and less distinct than the last three.
The head is large, with large, prominent eyes of a dark, velvety-brown colour. The antennae are slender, swollen toward the end, tipped with a small, slightly curved point, dark-brown in colour, lighter at the tip. The proboscis is slender, light-brown in colour, about $ inch in length, coiled under the head when not extended for feeding, ete.
The body is robust, clothed with coarse scales which are long and hair-like at the anal end. Colour, similar to the wings, dark-brown above, paler below.
Habits.— The eggs are laid (in captivity) singly and not attached. It is not known where they are deposited in the field, but it is suggested that they may be laid in the axils of the leaves, or in the ground at the base of the plant.
The larva enters the cane at the base of the plant and tunnels upwards about 2 feet and then turns and goes back through the same tunnel and bores its way into the under- ground part of the plant. Canes have been found in which the larvae evidently entered high up on the plant and worked their way downward, but such exceptions are rare.
It is not known how long a time is required for the growth of the larva from the hatching of the egg to the forming of the pupa. Only one larva has been found in a cane, and it is likely that one larva attacks more than one cane, perhaps all the canes in a stool, as in some cases the underground stems are all iunnelled through, so that all the tunnels in the stems of a stool are connected. Iu some cases, too, the underground stems are eaten through at the sides, so that the tunnels connect with the soil around the plant. It is not known whether the larva tunnels underground from one stool of canes to another, but it seems likely. Larvae in captivity in the laboratory of the Imperial Department of Agriculture tunnel- led through and through the soil in a glass dish in which they were kept. The soil was 6 inches deep and the larvae went to the bottom of the dish, and the tunnels penetrated in all directions through the soil.
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The duration of the pupal stage is not known, nor is it known whether the adult feeds at all after emerging from the pupa. The adult orimago is a day-flying moth, greatly resembling a butterfly in its general appearance.
The damage to the canes is of two kinds. The larva eats out a large amount of the sugar-containing portion of the cane, and so thoroughly tunnels the stumps and underground portions that it is impossible to get ratoons from them.
Occurrence.—The larger moth borer has been known at plantation Enmore for the past three years, but has not occurred in seriously large numbers until the present season (1904). The moths have been most abundant in January and February in previous years, and a few have been seen in May or June, following a mid-year cutting of canes.
As the specimens received from British Guiana appeared to be identical with some large caterpillars received some years ago from Marienburg estate in Surinam, a letter of inquiry was sent to Dr. C. J. van Hall, Director of Agriculture for the Duteh West Indies, asking for particulars as to the outbreak in Surinam. Dr. van Hall wrote that the description of the pest corresponded with a pest of canes known at Marienburg some five or six years previously. ‘The pest appeared suddenly and assumed a dangerous character, but very soon the borers disappeared and so far as we know, they have not been seen here any more.” Early in 1903 a large lepidopterous insect was sent to the Head Office from Trinidad, which was said to be a borer in bananas. The specimen was very badly injured and was not identified, but it is believed to be the same as the one under discussion.
Remedies.—Several remedies have been suggested, but only two have been tried. These are (1) catching the adult, while flying, with nets, and (2) plugging the borer holes in the top of the cane stumps with clay to prevent the emergence of the adult. By the first of these methods large numbers of the moths were caught by coolie children at plantation Enmore. . The second seems not to be very efficient, as the clay crumbles in the sun and opportunity is thus provided for the escape of the moths. Carbon bisulphide is not available in British Guiana, or it might be possible to make use of this valuable insecticide. The moths have not been observed to feed on any flowers, nor will they feed on sweets provided them in captivity. If they were attracted to any food, use might be made of poisoned baits.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Maxwell-Lefroy : Moth Borer in Sugar-eane: West Indian Bulletin, Vol. I, p. 327.
Maxwell-Lefroy : Weevil Borer of Sugar-cane : West Indian Bulletin, Vol. Ill, p. 88.
Watson : Root Borer of Sugar-cane: West Indian Bulletin, Vol TV, pest.
Maxwell-Lefroy : Insect Pests of Sugar-cane: West Indian Bulletin, Vol. II, p. 41.
ADDENDA.
Since the preparation of the foregoing account of the cane borer at plantation Enmore, British Guiana, for the Agri- cultural Conference, the following additional information has been obtained :—
Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C, writing under date of December 17, 1904, to the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture, with reference to the specimens sent to him, says: ‘This is Castnia licus, Drury, which has been reported as being bred from Orchidearum on the Upper Orinoco. It has been collected in Brazil, Kcuador, Demerara, Surinam, Trinidad, Upper Orinoco, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, and is described and figured (in part) in Westwood’s ‘Monograph of the Castniidae,’ Transactions of the Linnean Society.’
The Journal of tha Trinidad Field Naturalists’ Club, Vol. I, no. 6, p. 141, February 1893, contains an article entitled ‘Castnia licus: A Banana pest,’ by Mr. Thomas J. Potter, which is quoted here in full :—
‘When the peasant cultivators in my district see a banana tree backward in growth, they say that it is the worm which always attacks the banana sucker when planted ata “bad moon.” On May 15, I resolved to find out what this worm was, and examining a sucker that was in a backward state I discovered traces of a boring insect which had entered at the base of the sucker and almost on a level with the soil. It had bored upwards almost into the heart of the plant, and the channels it had made were filled with decomposed vegetable matter. I did not succeed in finding the insect, but traces of its recent presence were unmistakable. A few days after this, I inspected another plant in a condition similar to the last one. Again I was unsuccessful in discovering the culprit, for it had evidently bored through the root stock and emerged from the plant. On amore recent occasion I examined another affected plant and this time was successful in capturing a specimen of the borer. I found it was the larva of some lepidopterous insect, about 3 inches long, and about 3 inch in diameter. Its head was light-brown, with darker-brown mandibles and its body was whitish with a transparent skin. Its presence in the plant is readily indicated in the early stages of its attack by an exudation of a transparent mucilaginous fluid from the hole through which it effects an entrance. The only cure I have tried is to destroy the insect and to cut out the affected part when the enemy makes its first attack, but nothing can save a plant which has been affected for some time. On July 10, 1892, I found a caterpillar boring into a banana sucker; on August 18, it spun a cocoon and changed into a mahogany-brown chrysalis, and on September 24, a fine specimen of the Castnia licus emerged. This moth flies in the day and I have often caught it in banana patches, but I little dreamt that it did such harm to the plants in its early stages. A short time afterwards I observed one of these moths depositing its eggs. It selected the base of a banana sucker for this purpose, and laid a single
46
egg just inside a dry and withered leaf-stalk. The local name of this moth is “ cane-sucker.” ’
Mr. A. W. Bartlett, Executive Secretary of the British Guiana Board of Agriculture, writing under date of February 4, 1905, furnishes the following additional information :—
‘In reply to your questions with regard to certain points in the life-history and habits of this insect, the following additional information has been obtained :—
‘(a.) The eggs are laid singly on the cut surface of a cane stump apparently almost immediately after the emergence of the insect from the cane stool, and it would seem probable that the larva bores its way into the cane stool within three days after the egg is deposited.
‘(b.) The length of time spent in the larval state is unknown. The grubs hatched out in captivity have lived but a few hours, and most of the larvae found at this season are practically fully fed.
‘(c.) Some cocoons are found in the underground portion of the cane while a few make earthen cocoons below the cane stool. The duration of pupation remains undetermined. The pupa works its way up the hole bored in the stump _ pre- paratory to the emergence of the imago by means of a fringe of sharp spines round its posterior segments. In one instance the insect emerged from a piece of cane stool planted in a pot of damp cocoa-nut fibre, not by means of the top end of the eane stump, but from below through the fibre.
‘(d.) The length of life of the adult is unknown.
‘(e.) With regard to the feeding habits of the adult, it does not appear that it is attracted by any shrub or flower, and it is seldom seen to alight on any of the grasses.
‘(f.) It has been recorded that, so far as it is known, the larvae feed chiefly on Orchidaceae and Bromeliaceae.
‘(g.) Asmany as three fully-fed larvae are sometimes found in one cane stool which is seldom forsaken until it is completely riddled. Owing to the comparatively short distance between the cane stools in the rows it is quite possible that the grubs work their way from one to another.
‘(h.) The borer cannot be detected by the appearance of the cane in the early stages of the attack. In most cases it is not destroyed by cutting out the young canes, as is the moth borer, for when the leaves begin to wither the insect has again descended to the stool to extend its tunnelling into another cane. Hence it is difficult to combat successfully with this grub.
‘The remedy of plugging the holes in the cane stools suggested by the Hntomologist of the Imperial Department appeared at first to be attended with partial suecess as the number of the adults flying in the plots treated after this manner was reduced. Clay, however, crumbles when exposed to the weather and egress is again permitted.
‘As many as possible of the adults are still being captured. The insects appeared during the first week in November and
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since then there has been a steady increase in the number collected weekly, rising to close upon 17,000 during the week ending December 31, 1904.
‘When supplying gaps in the cane fields the dead stools are removed and in this manner a good many grubs are taken.
‘The insect has since been identified in London as one of the day-flying moths belonging to the family Castniidae and known as Castnia Berbece. So far as is known the larvae feed chiefly on Orchidaceae and Bromeliaceae.’
DISCUSSION.
Mr. A. W. BARTLETT (British Guiana): I do not know much about the new cane pest at Demerara beyond what Mr. Ballou has told us. [saw the manager at plantation Enmore before I started and he told me that it was still troublesome. He endeavoured to keep it down by employing coolie boys to catch the moths. The pest has not appeared in any of the neighbouring estates, but Professor Harrison says he has seen it in different parts of the colony.
The Hon. B. HOWELL JONES (British Guiana): No one who has not visited Enmore would have any idea of the vast injury that is done to the estate. This pest was discovered in one field. At first little or no attention was paid to it, but soon it became a very serious pest. The moths come up about mid-day and fly about until 38 o’clock in the afternoon. The pest is not now confiued to that one field but has spread to a considerable distance over the estate. As to the origin of the disease nothing so far has been discovered.
The PRESIDENT: Can Mr. Ballou add anything as to the life-history of the pest?
Mr. Bauuou: I have no definite information. I have now in the breeding cage in the laboratory some larvae received on October 22: they were nearly fully grown; they left the pieces of cane in which they were feeding, and were then placed in a jar containing some earth; they tunnelled through the earth but did not pupate. They still seem very active. Some of them are not feeding at all. The eggs are laid singly and loose, and not attached to anything. I _ believe Mr. Bethune discovered that the moth lays its eggs either in the ground or against a plant on the surface of the ground. The egg hatches and the larva makes its way into the cane. I suggested that the feeding habit of the adult might be carefully studied, but Mr. Bethune has written to say that he had been unable to find any actually feeding.
°
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FIELD TREATMENT OF CANE TOPS FOR PLANTING PURPOSES.
Dr. FRANCIS Watts (Leeward Islands): Acting on the suggestion of Mr. A. Howard, late Mycologist of the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies, we have treated plant tops and cuttings with germicides before planting. The germicides used have been Bordeaux mixture and tar, separately and combined. Experiments have been conducted on tops and on cuttings; by the latter we mean the lower joints of the cane not usually used for planting. The results of the experiments carried out during the season 1902-3 have already been published in the West Indian Bulletin (Vol. V, pp. 96-108).
The results go to show that the treatment with germicides prevents the decay of the top or cutting prior to the formation of roots and the development of the shoot from the bud. When tops are used and the planting season is propitious, the loss from this decay is but small, and germicides have but little influence ; but when the season is unpropitious, or when cuttings are used, the loss from this cause may be very great, so that germicides are particularly useful when cuttings are used or when the planting season is a bad one.
Of the two germicides, Bordeaux mixture is both the better and the easier to apply. ‘Tar* is less efficacious, and when used in conjunction with Bordeaux mixture it does not appreciably improve the results.
In our experiments we obtained the following results, the numbers being the percentage growing :—
1902-3. 1905-4.
Tops. | Cuttings. | Tops.) Cuttings.
Untreated ... ee ele mOl 18 95 48:2 Bordeaux mixture Pea hagas AE 75 98 Be ie Ends “tarred Sty ee eS 27 99 63 Bordeaux mixture and tar | 90 | 57 100 79°5
The season 1908-4 was much more propitious for planting than that of 1902-3.
* The ends of the canes planted were tarred,
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The results for 1903-4 are shown in diagrammatic form as follows :— TOPS.
Percentage of Plants growing.
20 40 60 80 100 | | | | |
Untreated, eee | of three experi- ments |
Bordeaux mixture Ends tarred
Bordeaux mix- \ ture and tar... f
CUTTINGS.
Untreated, mean | of three experi- ; ments J
IOI ENT ane ot ee ee ee ee eee
Ends tarred
Bordeaux mix- | ture and tar... f
The use of Bordeaux mixture is cordially commended to planters; it is cheap, simple, ard efficacious and may prove decidedly useful when endeavouring to plant canes in districts liable to fungoid diseases. It is not necessary, as at first suggested, that the tops or cuttings should be soaked for two hours.
Bordeaux mixture is best prepared by the following
formula :—
Copper sulphate (blue stone) de. A Ib. Unslacked lime sa xe ; = Ib. Water ... ie ee a SS ... 00 gallons.
The 6 tb. of copper sulphate (blue stone) are dissolved in 25 gallons of water in a wooden tub or barrel. It is best to tie the crystals of blue stone in a piece of sacking and suspend it in the water from a stick laid across the top of the barrel. At the same time 4 b. of freshly-burnt unslacked lime are slowly slacked, and the resulting paste made up to 25 gallons with water and weil stirred. Next, the lime wash and solution of
50
blue stone are slowly poured together into a third tub or barrel holding from 50 to 60 gallons. When the mixing is complete, the blue liquid is stirred for a minute and tested by placing therein a clean, bright knife-blade for one minute. If the knife- blade remains bright, the Bordeaux mixture is safe; but if it becomes covered with a deposit of copper, more lime milk must ‘be added until this deposit ceases to furm. Prepared in this way the blue substance in the mixture does not settle readily nor does the mixture require much stirring before use.
Mr. J. R. Bovetti (Barbados): In Barbados, so far, two experiments have been conducted with the object of ascertaining, first, whether the treatment of cane cuttings by tarring the ends prevented fungus spores germinating and infecting them;and secondly, whether soaking them in Bor- deaux mixture had the same effect.
In December 1902 experiments were conducted to answer the first question. Ten series of experiments were carried out on four estates and five on another. On each of the first four estates 100 holes were planted for each experiment, on the fifth 2,820 holes were planted.
In the first and sixth series the cuttings were planted in the usual estate way, that is, soaked in water for twelve hours and planted, leaving the top ends uncovered.
In the second and seventh series the cuttings were soaked in water for twelve hours and planted, the top ends being covered with soil toa depth of } inch. This, it was hoped, would prevent fungus spores reaching the top ends and also prevent insect attack
In the third and eighth series after soaking in water for twelve hours the top ends of the cuttings were tarred. In these series the top ends were left uncovered.
In the fourth and ninth series the cuttings were treated as in the third and eighth, but on planting the cuttings were covered with + inch of soil.
In the fifth and tenth series both ends of the cuttings were tarred and the top end was covered with } inch of soil.
The results of these series of experiments have so far proved inconclusive; the percentage of cuttings which germin- ated being practically the same throughout the experiments, varying from 72 per cent. to 81 per cent. The average in the first series being 80, in the second 73, in the third 81, in the fourth 74, in ths fifth 81, in the sixth 76, in the seventh 72, in the eighth 80, in the ninth 73, and in the tenth 79 per cent.
The experiments with Bordeaux mixture were carried out in six fields attached to the Government Industrial School (Dodds) between November 17 and the end of December last. In these fields, 9,900 holes were planted in the usual manner in which the seedling canes are planted, i.e., by cutting and taking them from the plots in which they are growing direct to the plots in which they are to be planted, thus avoiding any likelihood of the cuttings becoming mixed. At the same time 4,660 holes were planted with cuttings that had first been
ok
soaked for two hours in Bordeaux mixture made according to the directions given in the West Indian Bulletin (Volo EI p. 210). ae
During the time the cuttings were germinating the weather conditions were favourable to their growth, showers falling at short intervals. In the case of the untreated cuttings 81°6 per cent. germinated, and in the case of the cuttings soaked in Bordeaux mixture 91°8 per cent. germinated. The average difference in favour of the cuttings soaked in Bordeaux mixture was 10 per cent., the maximum in the case of the non-treated cuttings being 86 per cent., and the minimum 77 per cent. In that of the cuttings sorked in Bordeaux mixture the maximum was 97 per cent. and the minimum 89 per cent.
DISCUSSION.
The Hon. B. HOWELL JONES (British Guiana): The vast number of cane plants with which we have to deal renders it impossible to adopt the method of treatment recommended by Dr. Watts.
Mr. PererR AB&sL (Trinidad): That is also the case in Trinidad.
The Hon. S. HENDERSON (Trinidad): Ou the estates with which I am connected, tops for planting are selected from the best canes. On one estate the plants are soaked in white-wash for about an hour before being planted. The method of planting adopted is to leave about an inch of the plant above ground. Cuttings are only used when it is impossible to obtain tops, the experience here being that cuttings germinate very slowly, and, in many cases, after germinating are apt to die.
Mr. E. M. DEFR#ITAS (Grenada): In Grenada the system is exactly that as described by Mr. Henderson as obtaining in Trinidad. It is found that the plant germinates more quickly if a partof it isleft above ground. If entirely covered, the plant does not germinate.
The Hon. G. TOWNSEND F'ENWICK (Trinidad): Thirty years ago. when I was in charge of estates in Mauritius, that system was regularly pursued, and the material used for soaking was lime water; but the practical difficulty referred to by Mr. Abel of dealing with plants on a large scale led to its being dropped, and when I left Mauritius the practice had been discontinued.
Dr. Francis Warts: The general custom in the Leeward Islands is to bury the plant entirely. I might suggest that in cases where, as Mr. Henderson points out, the plant dies when entirely covered, death is due to fungoid attacks induced by moisture. If, as has been said, it is possible to treat plants with lime wash, then it is equally easy to soak them in Bordeaux mixture. If the magnitude of the operation is a barrier to adopting this method, then the magnitude of the operation will prove a barrier to cultivation. - On the other hand, if without treatment of any kind the plants germinate as they did in Antigua this year, then it is a question whether the expenditure should be incurred. In
52
those islands which suffer from drought, and the operation of supplying theapparently dead holes is considerable, it seems to me that considerable expense is spared by ensuring a much larger spripg of canes by treating them in this manner.
The PRESIDENT: In the paper read by Mr. Howard at a previous.Conference the formula for Bordeaux mixture is given: 50 gallons of water to 4 ib. unslacked lime and 6 tb. copper sulphate, -at a cost of 50c.; that is sufficient for 25 acres. Bordeaux mixture has been recognized as a good treatment, and in almost every publication of the Department bearing on the question the formula is given. The alleged difficulty as to the magnitude of the operation in certain colonies might be overcome by the use of a large vat. Planters have overcome greater difficulties than that. The only question is whether in good seasons it is worth while doing it.
Mr. G.S. EVELYN (Barbados) : It was the custom in Barbados in years gone by to soak the plants in ordinary water for twelve hours before planting. I should like to ask Dr. Watts whether that is the practice in the Leeward Islands.
Dr. FRANCIS WATTS: That is done occasionally with the object of hastening germinaton. It depends, however, upon the season.
THE POLARIMETRIC DETERMINATION OF SUCROSE.
BY THE HON. FRANCIS WATTS, C.M.G., D.Sc., F.LC., F.C.S., AND H. A. TEMPANY, B.&c., A.I.C,
Kor several years a keen controversy has been waged concerning the influence of temperature upon the polarimetric determination of sucrose. Alteration of temperature affects the determination in several ways: by causing changes in the volumes of the measuring vessels and polarimeter tubes, by altering the optical activity of the quartz which forms an essential part of some forms of polarimeter, and possibly by affecting the optical activity of sucrose itself.
Concerning ail these points, except the last, there is absolute agreement between all the workers in this field; the last has, however, given rise to very warm discussion. This has been reviewed by Dr. Wiechman in a paper presented to. the Inter- national Comuission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis*
*Reprinted in the International Sugar Journal, Vol. IL (1900), p, 491 et seq.
58
in which he reviews the work of different observers, whom he classifies in two lists, namely, (a) those who maintain that change of temperature has no perceptible effect on the optical activity of sucrose, and (b) those who maintain that the effect is perceptible, and measurable, and of sufficient magnitude to be taken into account in laboratories working at tropical tem- peratures.
The question is of considerable commercial importance - owing to the fact that large quantities of sugar are produced and sold in countries having a tropical climate and are then transferred to, and refined in, countries possessing a temperate climate. Should temperature affect the optical activity of sucrose to such an extent as to alter it even by ‘3 per cent. for a range of some 12° C., as some observers claim, then the seller in the tropics may be claiming payment on a basis which is in error by *3 percent. This may appear small in itself, but when applied to some 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 tons of cane sugar produced in the tropics it means a sum in dispute of £120,000 to £150,000 a year.
The subject has assumed great importance from the fact that the United States Government has decided that in determining the polariscopic test of sugar for customs purposes, the alleged change in the optical activity of sucrose with change of temperature shall be taken into account and a corresponding correction made, thus giving important official sanction to the views of one party. This has the effect of increasing the revenue by some $100,000 or more a year over the amount that would be levied, were the polariscopic test made in the tropical countries in which the sugar is grown, a sum sufficiently large to attract the attention both of revenue authorities and those dealing in sugar.
In view of the statements contained in the interesting paper by Wiechman, already referred to, we set ourselves to inquire into the question with a good deal of care. Pure sugar from Khalbaum was used in the work, this was carefully dried before use.
As a result we found that the standard weight of 26°048 grammes of sucrose dissolved in 100 trwe cubic centimetres of distilled water at 30° C. and read at a temperature of 29°3° C. gave a reading of 99°765, and in a second case when observed at 29°7° C.a reading of 99°79 on the Ventzke scale.* Introducing a correction of °034 per degree C. for the slight contraction due to change of temperature during the polarimetric observa- tions, these readings become 99°745 and 99°78 respectively. The readings are the means of a series taken by two observers : they are in close agreement and are within the limit of accuracy obtainable on our instrument (a triple-field Schmidt and Haensch ‘white light’ polarimeter). This instrument was checked by means of quartz plates which had been carefully standardized, both at the Reichanstalt Charlotten- burg, and by Dr. H. W. Wiley at Washington.
These readings, however, are not true percentages of sucrose in the sample of cane sugar. The following points
require to be taken into consideration :—
54
(a) The Ventzke scale is based upon the solution of 26:048 grammes of sugar in 100 Mohr cubic centi- metres equal to 100°228 true cubic centimetres. Hence our readings must be corrected by multiply- ing by joys, aS our solution was too concentra- ted for proper observation on the Ventzke scale.”
(b) It is well known that the optical activity of quartz itself and therefore of the quartz wedge of the Schmidt and Haensch polarimeter is affected by temperature : this has been carefully studied by Jobin (Zeitschrift des Vereins fiir Ruben Zucker Industrie, 1898, p. 835) who finds that the correction to be applied to Schmidt and Haensch instruments may be expressed by the formula, Polarization + (00016t) N, where t is the difference of temperature of observation from that at which the instrument was standardized, and N is the scale reading.
In the case of our observations this correction is (a) (00016 x 11°8 x 99°745 or (188 degrees Ventzke. (b) 00016 x 12°2 x 99°78 or 195 - e
Our readings in the two series of experiments thus become
99°745 + °188 = 99°9383 and- 99°78 +°195 =99'975
And when corrected for the relationship between Mohr and true cubic centimetres, 99°975 x 100
99°933 x 100 =e FaAvews Ge ES open In the first instance we therefore observe a difference of
‘294 per cent., and in the second one of *252 per cent. We believe that we are correct in attributing this difference to the effect of temperature upon the optical activity of sucrose. These results are in as close agreement with those of Wiley and Harrison as can be expected when the observations are made with a polarimeter.
From the above observations we conclude that changes of temperature (up to about 30°C.) cause a lowering of the reading on the Ventzke scale which may be corrected by the formula Polarization +(:00028t) N, where t is the difference of temperature of observation from that at which the instrument was standardized, and N is the scale reading observed.
for solutions requiring no clarifying reagents we recom- mend the following :—
The solution of 26 grammes of sugar in 100 trwe cubic centimetres. (This is equivalent to 26°048 in 100 Mohr eubie centimetres.)
*Note. The true cubic centimetre is taken as being the volume of one gramme of water weighed in vacuo at 4° C., while 100 c.c. Mohr are defined in this case as being 100 grammes of water at 17°5° C. in air, no correction being made for the effect of the displacement of air ; under these conditions 100 e a Mohr become equal to 100°228 c.c. true; see Wiley, Principles and Practice of Agricultural Analysis, Vol. IL., p. 99,
55
The correction quartz change by Jobin’s formula, and the correction ‘Sucrose change’ by the above formula, Polar- ization +(00023t) N, or combining the two, Polarization + (000389t) N.
ERROR DUE TO THE VOLUME OF TH® LEAD PRECIPITATR.
The foregoing method will give correct determinations when working with solutions requiring no clarification, but a serious error is introduced when the ordinary method of’ clarification is used—consisting in adding a solution of basic acetate of lead to the sugar solution and subsequently making up to 100-c.c.—due to the volume occupied by the lead precipi- tate, which results in the sugar being dissolved in less than 100 c.c. of solvent.
The question of the effect of the volume occupied by the lead precipitate has been treated by several writers, but does not appear to have received the general attention it demands. This lack of attention is probably due to the difficulty experienced in measuring it, and as it varies with each class of sugar dealt with, observers have found great difficulty in satisfying themselves of the appropriate correction to apply.
The method usually suggested for measuring this volume is that of Scheibler. In this method the sugar is dissolved in water, a measured quantity of solution of basic acetate of lead is added, the volume made up to 100 c.e., the solution filtered and the polarimetric determination made in the usual way. A second solution is made in a precisely similar manner except that the volume is made up to 200 e.c.: this is filtered and a polarimetric reading taken. The true polarimetric reading of the sugar under examination is obtained by doubling the second reading and deducting this quantity from the first read- ing, the difference is multiplied by two and deducted from the first reading, the result is the corrected reading. From this the volume of the precipitate can be readily calculated. This has been discussed by Weichman in a paper read before the International Congress of Applied Chemistry at Berlin, June 1903,* in which he points out several objections to it and suggests other methods.
The chief objection to our minds lies in the fact that the possible errors in reading the polarimeter are of greater magnitude than the quantity it is sought to measure, as the following will show :—
The volume of the lead precipitate, in the case of muscovados, can be taken as affecting the polarimeter readings to the extent of some ‘2 to ‘4 Ventzke scale divisions, while the accuracy with which a reading can be taken is about "05 to ‘1 Ventzke scale divisions.
If we take a case in which the respective readings in a double dilution experiment were 90°7 and 45°3 respectively, the corrected reading would be 90°5; if, however, the original readings are assumed to be in error to the extent of *05 divisions of the scale, and we calculate the corrected readings for all possi- us A ca eee
* International Sugar Journal, Vol. V, 1903, p. 376,
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ble values, we obtain ‘corrected’ readings ranging from 90°25 to 90°7, a variation greater than the quantity to be measured. This method is therefore obviously inapplicable.
A second is that of Sachs. This is described by Wiechman as follows: ‘A precipitate is produced by subacetate of lead. This precipitate is washed with cold water and with hot water till all the sugar is removed, and is then introduced into a 100 cc. flask; a normal weight of pure sugar is added, and
the solution is ‘made up to 100 ¢c.c. with distilled water. This solution is well mixed, filtered and polarized, and the volume of the precipitate ascertained in the following manner :—
A = Percentage of purity of the sucrose in solution. B= Polarization of the solution when containing the precipitate. V = Volume of the precipitate is equal to 100B-— 100A B
This method is unsatisfactory partly from the want of delicacy of the optical method where errors of °05 to ‘1 degree Ventzke may occur in each reading, and partly because it involves much handling of the precipitate.
All optical methods are open to the objection that the experimental errors are bound to be relatively large, and the results on small volumes of precipitates relatively inaccurate.
Other methods therefore should be sought to effect this measurement. A densimetric method at once appears rational and obvious. Unfortunately, a method based on double dilution is not directly applicable to this problem, for the ‘excess gravity’ of sucrose solutions is not a direct function of the concentration as shown by the classic researches of Gerlach and others, and any attempt to measure the volume of the precipitate by the effect of dilution on the specific gravity becomes extremely complicated. We have spent much time in an attempt to apply this principle to the Belen but without success.
Wiechman* adopted a process based upon cautious precipi- tation with subacetate of lead, filtering off the precipitate and washing it with hot and cold water, after which it was dried at 100°C. and weighed. The specific gravity of the precipi- tate was ascertained by weighing in Benzene. Wiechman’s method involves some inconveniences particularly in that it requires a good deal of manipulation of the precipitate. We have adopted a modification which reduces the work, and is, we believe, more satisfactory.
In our method the operations of preparing the solution, precipitating with lead acetatet and making up to 100 ee. are performed in a tared specific gravity flask, the water content of which is accurately known. The flask with its contents is weighed, after which the solution is filtered off and its specific gravity accurately taken. The precipitate is washed with water till free from sugar, dried at 100° C and weighed, a Piet rate + 2 c.c. of a solution of basic lead acetate of Ripe ats aksaiis
57
tared filter paper being used to reduce the manipulation required. From these data the volume of liquid displaced by the lead precipitate is readily caleulated.*
By using the solution from which the precipitate is thrown down as the medium in which its specific gravity is taken, we avoid a good deal of manipulation and at the same time we have a medium in which it is quite insoluble. The subsequent A sahoatas of washing, drying, and weighing give but little
rouble.
Following this method the precipitates produced in the clarification of several sugars, have been examined with the following results :—
No.| tate fromuormal | Volume of Sp. Gr. of weight of sugar. precipitate. precipitate.
1 ‘6506 gms. 35 @.e. 1°859 2 | ‘6030 ..,, bo em 1°945 3 | 6609 ,, Mauss 1°888 4 1240 _,, a! pet ae 1°856 5 Ta89 .., Maa ©. 1:680 6 7400, eee 1:760 7 ‘6786 sy, 305 ,, | 2°229 8 6731. .;, ae | 1°495 9 656 ts Ee we 1°560 10 416 a see EP 1°640
i Noa: i. are Museovade Sugar: No. 9, Low-grade Crystals.
No. 10, Yellow Crystals.
From these results, as well as from those of other observers, it is obvious that a very considerable error is introduced into the polarimetric determination of sucrose, if no account is taken of the volume occupied by the lead precipitate.
* Weight of solution and -precipitate contained in tared Sp. Gr. flask = 109°738 gms. (A). ee: tO es
Sp. Gr. of solution 30° G = 1°0976 (S).
Water content of flask at 30° C. = 99°7 23. :
Whence solution content of flask at 30° C.=109,446 gms, (C),
Weight of precipitate = ‘7240 gms. (B).
C - (A - B)=°432 gms.= W.
ao W —-39 c.c. with sufficient approximation,
»
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When working at tropical temperatures in the neighbour- hood of 30° C., the error produced by the volume of the lead precipitate to a large extent compensates the errors introduced by the effect of temperature on optical activity of sucrose and on the quartz wedge of the Schmidt and Haensch polari- meter. Thus tropical observations in which no corrections are introduced are more in accord with theoretically accurate readings than those in which corrections are made for the effect of temperature on the optical activity of quartz and sucrose while neglecting the effect of the volume occupied by the lead precipitate.
In laboratories having a temperature near to that at which the polarimeters are standardized, and where no temperature corrections are necessary, the error introduced by the volume of the precipitate is serious.
A method of clarification has been proposed by A. D. Horne* by which, it is claimed, the error due to the volume of the lead precipitate is eliminated or reduced to a negligible quantity, while the method itself is as simple as those in ordinary use, and entails no extra work on the observer.
Horne’s method consists in inaking up the sugar solution to the required 100 c.c. before adding the precipitating reagent, and using dry anhydrous basic lead acetate as the precipitant and clarifying reagent. This ensures that the sucrose is dissolved in 100 c.c. of solution and presumes that no change is introduced into the volume of the solution during the process of clarification. This appears to be the case provided that excess of the lead salt be avoided. The volume of the radicle entering into solution appears to compensate very closely the volume of the complex radicles removed by precipitation. To ensure accurate results, therefore, it is necessary to avoid the use of an excess of lead salt, for if excess be used the volume of the solvent liquid is increased and error creeps in.
We have examined this method critically in the case of several samples of sugar, by determining the polarization when the solutions were clarified with basic lead acetate before making up to volume, then determining the volume of the lead precipitate in the manner already mentioned and correcting the polariscopic reading of the volume of the precipitate. The same samples were then clarified using Horne’s method? and the results were compared.
“Read before the New York section of the American Chemical Society, December 1903.
+The weight of dry basic lead acetate used by us in our experiments was *35 2ms gms.
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Proceeding in this way we obtain the following results :—
| ac wee a gs 22 8 S 2 6 5 6.2 © 2 Vol. of §3 eo 7 8 ae 2 Ppt. ae yao te map 2 | SS eo. « os o Os fog oa & | 0-H all Sis -) — fas 1) | ~ S 1 33 ce. 89°55 89:26 89°35 09 2 Qe 0 2 86°50 86°20 86:20 00 3 300. 87°55 87:23 87°25 02 ES ao ae 90:30 8991 | 90-00 09 5 42 ,. | 87:65 87:29 87:30 ‘O1 Pat eAGe es - =) SSO 86-44 | 86°45 ‘Ol ee 4d | 8000 80:58 } | 8 | 25 ,, 97-40 QT15 97:20 05 |
1 Nos. 1-6, Muscovado Sugar. No. 7, Low-grade Crystals. No. 8, Yellow Crystals.
In order to ensure accuracy and to avoid errors in sampling low-grade sugars, in each case a considerable quantity of the sugar under examination was dissolved in water and the required quantities of this solution weighed out, instead of weighing the sugar directly, greater uniformity being attainable by this method.
From these resuits we may conclude that Horne’s method is @ distinct advance in the direction of accuracy, whilst its simplicity will commend it to all workers.
As the outcome of this investigation we reccommend the following method of working as generally applicable :—
(1) Use a weight of 26 grammes of the sample of sugar, dissolve in distilled water and make up to 100 true cubic centimetres.
(2) Clarify by means of anhydrous basic lead acetate, avoiding excess.
(3) Polarize at the temperature at which the solution is prepared and correct for temperature by the formula, Polarization + *(00088 t) N, where t is
*Tf the temperature is below that of standardization, the correction will be- instead of +.
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the difference between the temperature of observ- ation and that at which the instrument was standardized, and N is'the Ventzke scale reading.
Working in this manner will, we believe, secure a high degree of accuracy and at the same time uniformity between those working under diverse climatic conditions. We therefore commend this method to the careful consideration of those responsible for securing uniform methods of sugar analysis, whether for official or technical purposes.
THE CENTRAL SUGAR FACTORY IN ANTIGUA. BY THE HON, FRANCIS WATTS, C.M.G., D.Sc., F.I.C., F.C.S.,
Government Analytical and Agricultural Chemist for the Leeward Islands.
At the West Indian Agricultural Conference in 1900 Mr. F. J. Clarke reviewed the efforts which had been made to establish Central Sugar Factories in Barbados, while it fell to my lot to review those which had been made in Antigua. After describing effort after effort we were compelled in every instance to conclude with the omen: nothing further seems to have been done.’
The period since 1900 has not been an inactive one in Antigua. In 1901 an effort was made which bade fair to come to fruition. Sir Henry M. Jackson, who was then the newly appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands, gave the proposals ~ his warmest support, but unfortunately they broke down.
Karly in 1903 Sir Gerald Strickland ascertained that a residual sum, arising out of a Parliamentary Grant of £250,000 to assist the West Indian sugar industry pending the confirmation of the Brussels Convention, was available for application within hisGovernment if satisfactory proposalsecould be put forward. He adopted the bold course of suggesting that asum of £15,000 should be offered as a bonus, under certain restrictions, to the group or company which would put forward and carry into execution the best Central Factory scheme for Antigua. The conditions were laid down with some stringency so as toensure that the money, if granted, would be faithfully applied, and I was sent to England to confer with the Colonial Office in the hope of seeing the negotiations successfully put through.
It may be well to point out that the £15,000 constituted no new grant, but was merely a question of distribution and allotment of the original Parliamentary Grant made some e long time before.
It is unnecessary to go through the various negotiations ; suffice it to say that after much hard work and some anxious moments, when it was. feared that our work might be lost,
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a company was found prepared to fulfil the requirements of the Government and to make what, I believe and hope, will prove a very good bargain for itself and the sugar planters of Antigua.
Briefly stated, the position is this: The Factory Company and the estates’ proprietors have agreed to co-operate, the former to build and work the factory, the latter to grow and supply the canes, during a period of fifteen years, on a profit- sharing basis. This co-operation, to my mind, constitutes the strongest point in the venture, as it is calculated to secure the interest and goodwill of all concerned.
Divested of technicalities the situation may be thus described :—
The capital of the Factory Company is £40,000, including the £15,000 contributed by the Government. It is anticipated that, with rigid economy, this sum will be found sufficient.
The company agree to erect a well-equiped factory capable of making 30 tons of 96° crystals in a day of twenty-three hours; this factory to be equipped and constructed in a manner satis- factory to the Government.
To provide reasonable railway facilities for the transport of canes.
To pay for canes the equivalent price of 45 tons of 96° crystals, f.o.b. Antigua, for each 100 tons of canes. This may be regarded asa payment ‘on account.’ After the payment of working expenses, interest on capital and setting aside of a reasonable amount to sinking and reserve fund, any profits which arise are to be dealt with in the fcllowing manner: Should the price paid for canes prove less than 10s. per ton, then the profits shall be applied to bringing up the payment to 10s., or as far in that direction as the amount available permits. If after canes have been paid for at 10s. per ton, or over, any profits still remain unallotted, these profits are to be divided equally between the shareholders of the company and the estates’ proprietors supplying canes.
Of the £15,000 contributed by the Government £1,000 is amortized each year, so that at the end of fifteen years this will disappear from the company’s capital account. As soon as the £25,000 subscribed by the company shall have been paid off, the ownership of the factory will be divided equally between the shareholders in the company and the estates’ proprietors supplying canes.
The estates’ proprietors bind themselves to maintain a certain acreage in cultivation with sugar-canes, and to supply the canes so grown to the factory for a period of fifteen years.
This is the essence of the contract; there are necessary minor points, dealing with the quality of cane, the methods of payment, the provision for arbitration in case of disputes, the manner of distributing the ownership of the factory when the capital is paid off, and such like, which are, I hope, calculated to give security to both parties, and to provide for all the changing circumstances of the next few years. I think this
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contract, of which I have copies here, which I shall be pleased to show to, and discuss with, any one interested, is equitable ana helpful to all parties to it.
In addition to this the company is under an obligation to the Government to take, if offered, canes from the peasantry up to 4,500 tons a year at a price equal to the value of 44 tons of 96° crystals, f.o.b. Antigua, for each 100 tons of canes, but with the proviso that the price to be paid for peasants’ canes shall in no ease be less than 7s. 6d. per ton; good, sound canes being stipulated for. It is probable that this will stimulate many of the more industrious and thrifty peasants to cultivate their small holdings in a profitable manner, and afford an oppor- tunity for hard-working men to improve their positions.
Hight estates have entered into co-operation with the Factory Company and have agreed to supply canes from an area of 1,620 acres in each season. It is estimated that in average seasons this area, together with the supply of peasants’ canes, will yield about 3,000 tons of sugar,
The Factory Company has now erected a factory equipped with tywo Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers having 11,528 square feet of heating surface, calculated to work at a pressure of 160 tb. per square inch, but fitted with reducing valves whereby steam is delivered to the factory at a pressure of 100 hb. per square inch.
An engine having a cylinder 26 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 4 feet.
Two three-roller mills having rollers 60 x 80 with provision for maceration.
A triple-effect apparatus having a heating surface of about 4,000 square feet.
Two juice heaters, each having 1,000 square feet of heating surface.
Two vacuum pans each capable of striking 15 tons of massecuite or about 9 tons of dry sugar, and having a heating surface of 450 square feet.
A central condensing installation is fitted to serve the triple-effect and vacuum pans, consisting of a condenser on the Torricellian principle, and a dry air pump to remove air and uncondensible gases from the condenser. Arrangements are made whereby air may be gradually exhausted from any vessel when required, e.g., when a pan is started after striking.
Five Weston 36-inch, belt-driven centrifugals, three of which are intended for Ist. sugars and two for 2nds. These are provided with all the necessary pug-mills, grass-hopper sugar conveyors, and chain-and-bucket elevators for delivering sugar into the store-room.
Six second sugar crystallizers, each capable of holding a full strike from one of the vacuum pans, fitted with stirring gear.
Together with all the necessary vessels and appliances for the manufacture of 30 tons of grey crystals in a day of
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twenty-three hours. These it would be tedious to enumerate at length here.
The machinery is housed in buildings constructed of rolled steel columns of H section, and covered with galvanized iron.
The mill house is provided with a travelling crane capable of lifting 12 tons.
The buildings and mill yard are lighted by electricity.
A small laboratory provides accommodation for the resi- dent chemist.
: The machinery was provided and erected by Messrs. Mirlees Watson & Co., of Glasgow. The railway was con- structed by the Factory Company under a separate contract.
Six miles of railway are laid down to convey the canes from the estates to the factory. ‘The rails‘are 80 tb. per yard, and are laid to a guage of 2 feet 6 inchés. Two locomotives are provided for haulage.
While the construction is not yet complete in allits details, matters were so far advanced as to permit of an official ‘open- ing’ and short trial of the mills, ete., on Monday, December 19, under the «gis of his Excellency Sir Courtenay and Lady Knollys. On this occasion everything went with = such smoothness and precision as to augur well for successful working.
After so many years of hard work on the part of many in Antigua interested in this movement, and after so many abortive efforts, it is satisfactory to know that at last we have in Antigua a Central Sugar Factory of modern dimensions fitted with simple but excellent and adequate machinery, con- nected with a cane supply bya contract fair to all parties, a contract based on a co-operative form of working which will induce everyone bound by it, whether on the factory or on the cane-supply side, to use every effort to make this pioneer factory a success.
This factory is calculated to solve many problems concern- ing which we have only been able to put forward solutions based on hypotheses of approximationsand estimates. Should the solutions tend in the direction which I anticipate, I foresee con- siderable extension of the factory work and the possibility of many other factories on similar co-operative lines, not only in Antigua, but in other islands where the muscovado process of sugar manufacture still lingers: and [ am sure all who are interested in the sugar problems of the smaller islands, while waiting for results, wish our pioneer factory the success which we ourselves desire for it.
Notre ADDED: Since the above was written the factory has manufactured a considerable portion of its crop of sugar for the season 1905. Work has proceeded ina very satisfac- tory manner so that we are now practically assured of its successful working.
It is not possible at this early date to give a detailed account of the working or figures showing the recovery of
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sugar, but there is good reason to believe that the estimation of the promoters will be fully realized.
The cost of the factory, so far as can be ascertained at this stage, has been approximately as follows :—
£& & Cost of plant , es a 5 eee Additions to plant... : 35 bod 633 Houses, offices, labor ator Vs ete. Pat ALi 1,000 Preight .°:.. = 3,467 Lighterage, insurance, package tax, ‘ete. = 683 Erection (not yet fully known), say . “ 7,500 Water tower, ponds, pipes, ete. ee oe 700 Sundries ... es ad ve i 400 Legal es os 360 Consulting engiveer Ss rst a 350
£ 36,408 36,408
Railway, 54 miles ...
line and construction ... ae sous’ steel 2 Locomotives Fe ee ¥ ee 980 120 Waggons a + fe Sie 1,100 Sundries ... a iy: a8 ae 80
£6,000 6,000
£42,408
The estimated sum of £40,000 has thus been exceeded by £2,408. These figures at this stage can only be given as approximate and provisional. The cost of the plant is ex- tremely low. For safe estimating for any other factory £50,000 should be allowed.
DISCUSSION.
The PRESIDENT: The erection of this factory is one of the most important events connected with the sugar industry in the Leeward Islands. Members of this Conference will be glad to learn that in obtaining the establishment of Central Factories at Antigua, Dr. Watts has himself contributed a large share—in fact it is in connexion with his efforts in this and other directions that His Majesty the King was pleased to confer on him the Companionship of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. That is evidence that our work in the West Indies is followed closely at home, and that the prosperity of these colonies lies closely to the heart of the English people.
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EXPERIMENTS IN IMPROVING THE HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVENESS OF CACAO TREES.
Mr. J. H. Harv (Trinidad): Our experiments have only just been initiated and have hardly reached a stage to justify saying anything about them. One or two things have, however, heen brought to the notice of planters, and have, I am glad to say, been taken advantage of with considerable success. The firstis the method of dealing with the pod disease. .The methods suggested by me to the Trinidad Agricultural Society, and also by the Imperial Department of Agriculture, which consist in the burning, burying, and disinfecting of diseased pods, have been especially successful in dealing with the disease called Phytopthora, and I was agreeably surprised to be told recently that, as the result of their adoption on one of the largest estates in the island, the proprietor expected to get 25 per cent. more cacao than he otherwise would have done. Mr. deGannes has also adopted similar treatment with equal success. Another thing which we have been trying to impress upon small | planters especially is the desirability of pruning cacao trees so as not to leave wounds which cause rot of the centre of the stem. Again, where wounds and holes occur we strongly recommend a system of cleaning them and filling them with a mixture made of ordinary cement and sand. This gives the trees renewed vigour and prolongs their life for many years. Tar is also recommended for use in pruning and Iam glad to say the practice has been adopted on a large number of estates. Few manurial experiments have as yet been carried out, but those recommended are being adopted, and I shall be able to report on them at a later period.
Mr. J. G. DEGANNES (Trinidad): With few exceptions the cacao cultivation in this island has received, up to a year or two ago, little attention beyond the ordinary method of upkeep handed down by our forefathers, but it seems now as though the cacao planters are realizing the necessity of higher culti- vation. So far, artificial manures have not been extensively made use of, but where they are being tried the results are encouraging. Basic slag is the manure most generally applied. Some very good results are obtained by the use of pen manure prepared with gypsum, and on some very old properties its use, and that of sheep manure forked in, have been remarkable in improving the health and productiveness of the cacao trees. The island has had up to now, thank God, few cacao diseases to contend with, the ‘Brown Hot’ and ‘Canker’ being the only two. The measures successfully adopted to combat them, have been the treatment suggested, I believe, by the Imperial Department of Agriculture, and, with the advice and assistance of Mr. Hart, the Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens here, they are kept under control. The cacao trees of the plantations situate in the valleys suffer considerably from ‘moss’ on account, I. presume, of the excessive moisture, and it would be desirable if some other and more efficacious means than the brush or the hand—the ‘knapsack’ sprayer having totally failed for the
66
purpose—should be found to deal with it. There are several patent cacao dryers of different patterns used for the curing of the cacao bean and I am informed that they give satisfaction, but personally I shall adhere to the opinion that the sun-dried article is preferable. With regard to green dressing I am not aware that it is resorted to.to any great extent. I gave it a trian on one of my properties in October last, and so far I have not noticed a very marked change in the look of the trees. In conclusion, I regret that, owing to the short time since experiments have been started in the colony, I have no statistics to offer.
The PRESIDENT: With the object of assisting the cacao industry in Grenada, St. Lucia, and Dominica, we undertook a series of what we called sample plots of cavao ; that is to say, we took over plots of land, about 1 acre in extent, near the public road from proprietors who were willing to allow us the use of the land, and to assist in the cultivation. These plots were labelled ‘Imperial Department Plots.’ In most cases they consisted of cacao which was not in good health. The Department paid the expense of cultivation, the Agricultural Instructor visited these plots, which became central points for giving information to cultivators in the district. The planter who gave the use of the plot became the agent of the Department in his district, so that when the Agricultural Instructor visited the plot he would see the planter and discuss with him the best way of utilizing his time while in the district. Sometimes’ it was suggested that a meeting would be held at which the cacao growers in the district should be present. After the Instructor had been intro- duced to them by a _ person they knew, they were ulti- mately willing to receive and hear'the Instructor and follow his advice. Some people might regard the establishment of sam- ple plots as giving assistance to the large proprietors by taking a portion of their land and cultivating it for them. However, we _are quite satisfied with the results, as the feeling that has been created ameng small proprietors by our taking an interest in their cultivations has more than repaid us for the trouble and expense which the establishment of these plots has occasioned. As the result of sample plots in Grenada, a paper in connexion with one of these has been circulated among members of the Conference. Peasant proprietors who had scouted the idea are now making drains and pruning their trees, applying manures and fully carrying out the recommendations of the Department. I believe these sample plots have been very bene- ficial. We have gone through our first series and shall now begin another. The plots in Dominica I hope to place under the supervision of Dr. Watts, so that can he make experiments with chemical manures and carry on the work more closely on scientific lines. Mr. Hudson has had charge of the plots in St. Lucia and he will be able tu tell you himself what is being done there.
CACAO MANURIAL EXPERIMENTS AT.GRENADA, |
The following report and table, showing the results of the working of the cacao experiment plot at Nianganfoix estate,
67
Grenada, were forwarded by the proprietor for publication (see Agricultural News, Vol. IE, p. 347):
This plot was handed over on September 30, 1903, by the Department of Agriculture to the proprietor who still carries on the experiments, in order to obtain the highest possible yield from an acre of land by the use of fertilizers and green
soiling.* The plot measures 1 acre and was divided into four sections of | acre each.
During the period, extending over four crops from April 1, 1900, to September 30,.1904, two applications of manures were made, as shown in the table, the first during the first crop
1900-1, and the second application in the spring and summer of 1902 just before the third crop.
A., the pen manure section, is the wettest section of the plot, and it will be noticed that, notwithstanding the heavy application of manure in May 1902, the yield fell below the two preceding crops, and only recovered after several rods of new drains had been added to those already existing—and dug diagonally across the slope. This illustrates the value of drains in a wet clay soil, without which manure is at a discount.
The potash section D. has steadily advanced and, unlike sections B. and C., which unaccountably fell off by + to } bag, held its own during the crop 1902-3. The cost of production for the first two years averaged £1 per bag of cacao, and for the second two years 12s. per bag, or an all-round average of 16s. per bag for four years’ working.
When the results of the fifth year’s working are known, the cost of production will be considerably reduced.
The following figures show the gradual improvement in yield : — Crop 1900-1=5} bags per acre Crop ei “a Crop 1902-8=7 = o Crop 1903-4=8 _,, 3
Full particulars are given in the following table as to the details of the treatment accorded to the various sections :—
*The sections have been bedded twice yearly.
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70
‘Mr. J. H. Hart: We have established in Trinidad one experiment plot on the same lines as the Grenada plots. It is at Brasso and in charge oi Mr. Carl de Verteuil. It was only started a few months ago, and the results will not be available for some time.
Mr. G.S. Hupson (St. Lucia): Experiments in improving the health and productiveness of cacao trees have been carried on in St. Lucia under the Imperial Department of Agriculture now for five years. Our method, as Sir Daniel Morris has said, has been that of taking up the most unhealthy portions of cacao we can find adjoining the main-roads, so as to bring our work as much as possible before passers by. The results have been exceedingly satisfactory. In many cases the trees had actually stopped bearing ; in others, the yield was only 56h. of dry cacao per acre when the plots were taken over. In three years the yield had been increased to 7 bags. The policy is, as soon as we attain that standard of improvement, to hand the plot over to the owner and take a new plot in the same or another district. In our five years’ experience we find we get the best results from the following method: ‘forking through- out the plantation in January; then applying broadcast 8 cwt. of basic slag between January and April; that is followed by draining where necessary, and then thorough pruning. We find pruning to be of very great importance as it admits sunlight. After this, thorough cleanliness throughout the year. Three to four weedings are usually sufficient, but sometimes as many as six have been found necessary. In August or September we apply sulphate of ammonia, to each tree. I observe from the results of the experiments in Grenada that the best results there have been obtained from an application of sulphate of potash. In 1902 we applied nothing but potash to a 6- or 7-acre plot, and the results were negative in every case. I may mention, however, that, in combination with basic slag, the - experiment has proved very valuable; but the best results were obtained from a combination of slag and nitrogen. We have also tried superphosphate but have not found it advantageous. We have obtained good results from. ground bone, but that is rather expensive. Pen manure is undoubtedly the best system of manuring, but the difficulties of transportation prevent its generaluse. Chemical manures yielded as good results and at less cost. The only fear in the application of chemical manures is that too much nitrogen may be applied to certain soils, but in light soils there is nothing to fear. Many planters seemed to fear forking, on the ground that it injured the trees, but I have never seen any bad results from careful forking. On the contrary, the results have been excellent. As the result of the experiment plots, planters in St. Lucia are now importing basic slag and sulphate of ammonia-—a thing unheard of before—and pruning and forking have now become a recognized part of cacao cultivation. Asa rule, we do not find it necessary to
use tar or cement except in cases where a fungus disease is affecting the trees.
Dr. H. A. A. NICHOLLS (Dominica): Until the last quarter
of a century the exports of cacao from Dominica were very small, as it was produced only by peasant proprietors,
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When, however, the crisis overtook the sugar industry, man‘ of the sugar planters, feeling the effects of the hard binies planted up portions of their estates in cacao and limes and so from that time the exports of cacao began to inerease, ; The Treasurer of the island has very kindly furnished me with certain returns which include the exports of cacao for the last ten years, which are as follows :—
EXPORTS OF CACAO FROM DOMINICA.
| Year. | Kxport. | Year. Export. 1804-5 851,334, 1899-1900 968,740 mb. 1895-6 | 499,113, | 1900-1 992,586 ,, 1896-7 | 946,393 ., 1901-2 1,052,693. ,, 1sy7-8 | 885,024,, | 19023 | 1,809,577 ,, | 1898-9 1,082,851, 19034 1,285,245 ,, * |
* Gale in August and partial failure of crops.
From this return I observe that in 1895-6 there were half a million pounds of cacao exported ; but when we come to, 1902-3 it is found that the exports had increased to one and a third million pounds. Last year, that is, 1903-4, there was a decrease owing to the hurricane, which, although not directly striking Dominica, seriously affected the crop. But notwith- standing this the exports of cacao reached one and a quarter million pounds. During the last few years a good deal of attention has been directed to Dominica: a new road, opening up the rich land of the interior, has been made with money granted by the Imperial Parliament and it has appropriately been called the Imperial Road. We have young Englishmen with moderate capital constantly coming out, and some of them have gone into the interior, cut down forest, and created estates, and in many instances they have planted cacao. It must, however, be borne in mind that the increase in exports to which I have referred is not due to the new planters, but entirely to the older planters, who, seeing that sugar had failed, set their energies to work in another direction ; therefore, it is the industry and enterprise of the older planters—the men who have borne the heat and burden of the hard times—that have brought about the dawning prosperity of Dominica. When, however, the new settlers’ estates begin to bear, then it will be found that Dominica will make a sudden leap forward along the path of progress. Coming to the cacao tree itself, I should like to make a few observations in regard to the facts brought before us by former speakers. Taking the case of pruning, I would thoroughly commend the remarks made by Mr. Hart, just as I would deprecate those made by Mr. Hudson,
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If you wish a cacao tree to do well and to bear well you must perform the operation of pruning with great care. I think the Mycologist of the Department will tell you that if you cut off the branches and limbs of trees and do not tar the wound, you will probably get fungus diseases in the wood ; the Entomologist of the Department will also tell you that there could not be a better site for the entry of boring beetles and such like insect pests than the unprotected wounds left by bad pruning. The more intelligent planters in Dominica use tar, and also fill up with clay any holes, or deep depressions that may be found in the tree whereby water might collect or insects get shelter. As regards manure, in days gone by the greater part of the exports of Dominica came from the peasant proprietors who had not the advantage of having brought before them, as is the case now, the scientific and technical knowledge of the Imperial Department of Agri- culture; they allowed their trees to grow as they might, and did not manure them, with the result that the trees have deteri- orated very considerably. The manure that is found most useful in regard to cacao cultivation is exactly the same that is . found most useful in cane, and indeed in almost any, cultivation, that is farmyard manure. There can be no better manure, not only from its chemical constituents, but also its mechanical _ effect: it improves the soil, whilst it provides food for the trees. But where you have estates far in the interior or on steep hillsides, and with few animals, it is almost impossible to obtain sufficient farmyard manure, and in such instances it is necessary that artificial manure should be used. Hence the Dominica estates use basic slag, which contains phosphate and some free lime, and nitrogenous manures in the form of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia. But in regard to nitrogenous manures it must be remembered that in Dominica, St. Lucia, and other such islands an immense quantity can be got in the forest lands by using dead leaves, lopped shrubs, and grass as a mulch for trees, and afterwards by forking this decayed vegetation into the soil. There is also a loss of nitrogen attendant on the cultivation of land in the tropics, and it must be restored by the use of farmyard manure, by green dressing, or in some other way. Mr. Hudson recommends keeping a cacao plantation thoroughly clear of weeds. That is opening up the question brought before the last Conference by Dr. Watts, who advised that in cacao and similar cultivations the land should not be kept entirely free of weeds, but that the weeds should be allowed to grow for a time and then cut down: so that the cultivation would practically get a green dressing. That is the system that has been universally adopted in Dominica for many years, and it would appear to me to be the one best suited to local conditions. There is a matter which I omitted to allude to and which may be regarded as one of the main causes of the small crops now got from peasant holdings. In removing the pod from a cacao tree it is necessary that a portion of the stem attached should be left on the tree, but the ignorant peasant, instead of cutting the pods, wrings it off, with the result that the little bud at the end of the stem which will supply the future pod is torn off, so that in time the bearing portions
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of the stem are materially reduced in number. This is a matter to which Agricultural Instructors in Dominica and other islands should call the attention of peasant proprietors.
The Rev. Dr. Morton (Trinidad): I go about among many peasant proprietors in Trinidad, and I know that the teaching of the botanist, the chemist, and the analyst has had a great effect upon them in the matter of cultivating their land. One matter referred to by Dr. Nicholls is of great importance to them, and that is the application of manures. They should be urged to use the natural manures which they can get without laying out money. Sometimes they have no money. The names of artificial manures are all new to them, but they know pen manure; and some of them from Barbados know the value of it, and the distinction made between pen manure that has been kept covered or been trampled, and pen manure that has been exposed to the sun or washed out by rain. We see in our villages to-day, as the result of cane farming, the peasant proprietor’s cart going out every morning half-loaded with manure, to be returned to the soil. Not only is that the case with the ordinary manure madein the village, but the peasant. proprietor has also taken to the use of liquid manure. At the Government Stock Farm where the stalls are concreted, the liquid manure which collects in little wells is daily removed by peasant proprietors. This practice is also carried out in St. Joseph and has resulted in an improved sanitary condition. What Dr. Nicholls has said in reference to,weeds and shrub is perfectly true. In some cases, such as rice cultivation, the only manure which goes into the soil is the grass and weeds which grow for six months during the dry season. The practice is also valuable in connexion with cacao estates.
Mr. J. G. DEGANNES: I should not like Dr. Nicholls to run away with the idea that we do not prune our cacao trees. The only thing in which we are backward is the application of manure.
Dr. H. A. A. NICHOLLS: The remarks which I made had no reference to Trinidad but to the cultivation in the Leeward Islands.
The Hon. WM. FAwcEtTT (Jamaica): I have listened with a great deal of interest to the discussion that has taken place on the cultivation of cacao. The cacao industry in Jamaica is of considerable importance, although rather overshadowed by the banana industry. There we do not look upon it as you do in Trinidad and Grenada, as one of your great industries; it is rather a subsidiary industry in Jamaica: but I hove it will become in time one of our great industries. The reason why it has not advanced quicker is that the banana has been so very important. But now the planters, seeing the bad effects of hurricanes, are gradually beginning to plant their banana estates with cacao, and some have turned their banana estates altogether into cacao estates. So we wish to get hints as to the cultivation, pruning, curing, and especially shade. We owea great deal to Mr. Hart for having written such an excellent handbook on cacao: we in Jamaica consider it a very practical and important book.
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With reference to Criollo cacao and Forastero cacao, we have been much exercised in Jamaica for some time as to which is better to plant. Some planters do not think Criollo a robust plant, asserting that it is subject to disease and pests at all times. I should like to get some information from planters in Trinidad on that point. In Venezuela, where they have large estates of Criollo, some trees have died out, and attempts have been made to supply their places with Criollo, but without suceess, although Forastero will grow. The estates are there- fore deteriorating. Ishould like to know whether this has been found to be the ease also in Trinidad. Do you find you can plant Criollo and keep it up, or have you gradually to revert to Forastero? We have in Jamaica a_ considerable tract of land in the western part where the remains of cacao are still found growing, and almost without excep- tion the variety is Criollo. Some of these trees are said to be 100 years old and yet they are bearing heavily and doing well. But the question is whether the seeds from these trees can be utilized for establishing new estates of pure Criollo. With reference to the question of Criollo growing well and being supplied where it is already established, we wonder whether a system of budding on strong stocks would not apply. For instance, on estates in Venezuela, where they found they could not successfully establish Criollo in
acant places and have had to plant Forastero instead, would it not be possible to bud on the Forastero from their Criollo trees? We have been experimenting with budding and found we can do it with success. Again, in our cacao estates we find many of the trees do not bear anything like as well as other trees, and we want to know whether we cannot improve them. Will it not be advisable to cut down those trees and bud on the shoot that springs up from one of the more valuable trees on the estate ? Another matter we do not understand is shade. That seems to me to be a very complicated question. In Grenada they do not use any shade, and in Trinidad they use shade every- where and find they eannot do without it. What is the reason? Is the shade wanted for the trees or the soil? If itis wanted for the soil, then you do not want shade trees, as the cacao will provide its own shade. Is it necessary to have shade at all, or is it » question rather of cultivation? Do the roots of shade trees keep the ground open, or might that be overcome by the use of cultivators? One of our most practical agriculturists in Jamaica started five or six years ago a cacao estate in the middle of the island, and he is convinced in his own mind that there it is necessary to have shade. But on the north side of the island it has been proved that shade is not required. I am inclined to think that shade produces moss on the trees and leads to fungus disease which might otherwise be avoided, and that the more sun you can reasonably allow to the cacao trees, the heavier the crop will prove.
Dr. H. A. A. NICHOLLS: The practice in Dominica is not to use shade, but trees are planted, in some cases running along lines, so as to serve as wind-breaks. I remember that fourteen years ago when I made my second visit to Trinidad
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L was told that shade was necessary; so I obtained seeds of Bois Immortel from a friend, and planted them among my cacao. I was sorry I did so: but the hurricane, which did so much damage to the cacao estates in Dominica, did me some good in throwing down my Bois Immortel. The experience of the Dominica planter is that cacao grows better without shade than withit. I was exercised in mind a good deal by remarks made to me some years ago as to the advantages ofa tree which is used here as shade, I was gravely told by some planters that the Bois Immortel is very beneficial, inasmuch as it gives out water from its roots during the dry season. We can well understand that such trees do good, but in a different way ; their roots naturally would go further into the subsoil than the-roots of cacao, and they draw from the subsoil certain constituents which will later on be shed upon the land in the shape of dead leaves and twigs and flowers, and so much nitrogenous matter would thus be supplied to the land in the form of humus. But we must also remember that these plants belong to the order called Leguminosae, which have nodules on the roots, and in these nodules are micro-organisms called bacteria, which have the power of drawing the nitrogen from the air and fixing it in the soil, and in that way nitrogen is supplied to the sur- rounding plants. It appears to me, therefore, that the benefits of the shade trees in Trinidad are not due so much to the shade, but to the manure they give to the soil.
Mr. E. M. pEFRmITAS (Grenada): At one time we planted a great deal of shade trees in our cacao estates in Grenada. In fact we adopted the Trinidad system. After atime we found that the trees which were not shaded gave better results. Then about ten years ago planters began to cut down their shade trees, and at the present time, with perhaps one exception, I do not believe there is an estate in the island on. which shade trees are grown. I have always been puzzled to know why in Trinidad cacao cannot be grown without shade. The soil here is somewhat different to that in Grenada; it is a stronger’ soil and has more clay. Having regard to the value of cacao cultivation, amounting to £900,000, and in view of the great difference between the yield here and in Grenada where we do not use shade, I think it would be advisable for the Imperial Department of Agriculture to carry out experiments in Trinidad with the view of finding out whether they cannot grow cacao here, as we do in Grenada, without shade. With regard to the question of improving the health of trees, we use sheep manure. We raise sheep not for mutton, but for the manure which commands a very high price on the local market.
The PRESIDENT: There is one point of difference between the cacao trees in Grenada and those in Trinidad. The trees in Grenada are much smaller and planted closer. The question is one of great importance—not for the Department—but for the planters of Trinidad. The Department will be happy to assist Trinidad in the same manner and to the same extent as the other islands. The wide question which Mr. Fawcett has brought up—whether as a general principle shade trees are necessary in cacao cultivation, can only be answered by trying
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to find out whether in Jamaica they want shade trees at all, or want shelter belts. It would be useless to follow blindly the experience of Grenada and Trinidad, because the circumstances of the two places are so different from those of Jamaica. In Jamaica they are liable to hurricanes, whereas in Trinidad and Grenada they are not. I believe in Dominica and the Northern Islands they grow the ‘ Pois doux’ (Inga dulcis).
Dr. H. A. A. NICHOLLS: They use it for shelter belts, not as a shade tree.
The PRESIDENT: I should like to ask Mr. deGannes what he regards as an average yield either per tree or per thousand trees in Trinidad ?
Mr. J. G. DEGANNES: Twelve bags, of 170 tb. each, to each thousand trees planted 12 feet apart.
Mr. KE. M. pgFReITAS: The average yield in Grenada is 4 bags, of 196 tb. each, per acre.
The PRESIDENT: So far, we have had no experience as to the relative values of Criollo and Forastero.
Mr. J. G. DEGANNES: Criollo.was put aside altogether because the yield was poor: it is a delicate tree for Trinidad. I understand that even in Venezuela there are certain parts of the®country where it does not thrive at all.
The PRESIDENT: Would it be any advantage to graft the Criollo on to the Forastero stock ?
Mr. J. G. DEGANNES: It might be tested on a practical seale.
Mr. J. H. HART: Our experience with grafting is very small at present. The Forastero is the strongest-growing cacao, but the Criollo produces a cacao of the highest quality. The question of shade, I think, might be usefully gone into. I have discussed it many times and have come to the conclusion that shade is absolutely necessary for Trinidad. I am equally certain that shade is not necessary for Grenada. I have heard the story of a Grenada planter who came to Trinidad to teach the planters here how to grow cacao without shade. He bought an estate and carried out the experiment by cutting down all the shade trees with the result that he had to repJant them, as he found it impossible to grow cacao here without shade. If ever you see a bad patch of cacao here the planters’ explanation is that the trees have not sufficient shade.
The PRESIDENT: I should like to suggest for the considera- tion of the Agricultural Society whether during next year they could put. an acre of the Criollo variety of cacao in cultivation. 'The results might be sufficiently reliable to justify an extension of it later on, or to abandon it altogether. I know Mr. Hart would be willing to join in au experiment of that sort, and it would be useful to the colony.
Dr. H. A. A.NicHoLLS: Mr. Hart has declared, ex cathedra; that cacao cannot be grown in Trinidad without shade trees. I do not think the argument used by him fully warrants that declaration, because one can very well understand that cutting down shade trees from among cacao trees brought
Py Ps 4a
up with shade, is very different to growing cacao trees up, to maturity and then cutting down the shade. The proper test as to whether cacao can best be grown in Trinidad with or Without shade is to endeavour to grow cacao with and without
shade right from the seed. I do not think that has been done as yet in Trinidad.
Professor P. CaARMopDy (Trinidad): I would like to make a few remarks in connexion with this subject as I have given a little scientific attention to the shade tree used in Trinidad. Mr. deGannes, who is an experienced planter and works his estate himself, will tell you that cacao cannot be grown in Trinidad without shade. It is natural to assume that when cacao trees were first planted here no shade was tried, but it was subsequently resorted to in consequence of failure. It seems to me unreasonable to suppose that a man would begin to plant Immortel trees before he knew they were required and then plant cacao. I incline to the opinion of Mr. Howell Jones, that the question of shade or no shade depends upon local circumstances. From analyses of the flowers of the Immortel tree made in 1901, I ascertained that some of them contained as much as 6 per cent. of nitrogen caleulated on the dry flowers. This large percentage naturally attracted my attention and further investigation was made which led to a report to the Government.*
Mr. J.G. DEGANNES: About forty years agoa gentleman came here and started cacao cultivation. His idea was that we were making a mistake in planting shade trees. He planted cacao, raised with temporary shade, and then cut down the shade. When the shade was removed the cacao trees stopped growing and he lost everything.
Dr. VAN HALL (Dutch Guiana): In the question of shade trees we are just in the same position as planters are here in Trinidad. There is a general idea that cacao cannot be grown without shade in Surinam. There is only one estate where it is grown without shade. One thing of great impor- tance with that estate is that it can be irrigated in the dry season. On other estates, where attempts have been made to grow cacao without shade, the trees generally suffer very much when the dry season comes. In my opinion it is very difficult to grow cacao without shade in Trinidad; when grown without shade it must be cultivated in another way. First your soil must be better tilled when no shade tree is used, because the shade tree is an improver of the soil and when you lose such an improver you must do yourself what is more or less done by the tree. Another thing planters do not understand is this: the shade tree is also a wind- break, and when you remove the shade you must take care that your trees are in sheltered position. Then the question of irrigation is, in our country also,a matter of importance. If you do not use shade trees and do not till your soil better, the soil suffers from drought in the dry season, and irrigation
Published as an appendix to this discussion ; see pp. 80-4.
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will be necessary to keep your cacao trees alive. It is not necessary in plantations where there are shade trees. These and similar matters are often overlooked by planters who try to grow cacao without shade. Another thing is this. As in our country, where the wet season is followed by three very dry months, you have to remove your shade trees not at once but gradually ; and that is perhaps one reason why the experiments which some planters tried were unsuccessful. My Department is now trying an experiment with young trees. We have removed the shade from a field of about 2 acres, leaving some wind-breaks, and the first year, at any rate, this was a success, because, contrary to the expectation of many planters, when the dry season came none of the trees suffered. In the second year, however, we had a very bad dry season and the trees suffered more or less. Yet planters were very astonished that they were still in good condition. It seems to me that once shade is properly removed, cacao can be grown in Surinam without shade.
CACAO CULTIVATION AND GREEN DRESSING.
Dr. FRANCIS WATTS (Leeward Islands): The question of the treatment of orchard soils was krought up at the previous Conference, when I put forward views urging in substitution for excessive tillage and keeping the land clean in orchards, the adoption of a system of green dressing, or the use of weeds and shrubs for manures. This has all along existed in Dominica. The weeds are allowed to grow, and at intervals these are cut down without materially disturbing the surface soil ; the cuttings are either used as a mulch, or they are treated as a green dressing and bedded in. The crop that has been found most useful so far appears to have been woolly pyrol. I have had some experiments made with other plants, but not to a very great extent. I have recently put forward some analyses which I believe will appear in the next issue of the West Indian Bulletin |Vol. V, pp. 287-8] showing the proportion of manurial constituents which may be returned to the soil on each cutting. This is very largely practised in Dominica especially where it is shown that the amount returned is very considerable. I have had oceasion at certain times to examine soils. I will take one ease, namely, Krenches, where Mr. Scully follows this system of cultivation. Around each tree he keeps a space of about 10 feet perfectly free from weeds; the remainder of the land remains largely untilled ; the weeds are cut down and either are left as a mulch to find their way into the soil, or are at once dug in. J think it would be wrong to allow the formation of anything approaching a permanent grass sod: and perhaps that is the point where I find the greatest conflict of opinion. I think all agree that the surface of the soil must be light, loose, and free—nothing like a definite grass sod. There are some places in Dominica where in cutting down into the soil one finds the conditions of natural virgin soil : the condition of tilth is maintained thoroughly. The great point is draining. On that subject I may have more to say at a future period. In
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Dominica it is a recognized method of cultivation, a cheap one, and a very thorough one, and I think it would be found better in practice, and tend to solve some of those difficul ties to which Mr. Fawcett has referred, than keeping the soil absolutely clean. I have seen many cases where attempts have been made to keep the land perfectly clean and where the highest perfection used to be the absence of every weed ; but in most cases | think that has been found to be most disastrous: the soil bakes hard and then a system of forking has to be resorted to.
ARTIFICIAL DRYING OF GACAO.
The desirability of drying cacao by artificial heat, thereby rendering the planter more or less independent of atmospheric conditions, has long been realized in the West Indies. During wet seasons and in certain elevated districts of some of the cacao-producing islands considerable loss is frequently. ocea- sioned by ‘ mildew.’
Mr. G. Whitfield Smith, then Travelling Superintendent of the Imperial Department of Agriculture, gave a brief sketch in the West Indian Bulletin (Vol. II, pp. 171-4) of the efforts that had been made in Grenada to dry cacao by artificial heat, and gave, also, a description of a cacao drier since erected by the Department at the Botanic Station, Domi- nica. A further description of this drier will be found in the Agricultural News (Vol. I, p. 19) where it is stated :—
‘The essential feature of this drier is the arrangement by which the hot air, on entering the drying box, is conducted along an air-tight flue or channel, and is compelled to pass over and around the trays in succession, beginning with the lowest In this respect it is a great improvement on driers of a similar pattern used in Grenada and elsewhere, which have no interior divisions. In such driers it is found that the hot air on entering the single drying chamber naturally rises to the top, with the result that the beans on the upper tray were too quickly dried, while those on the lower tiers were only partially dried or, in some cases, remained moist.
‘The drier above described is capable of dealing with do bags of cacao at a time, and its original cost, including shed, stove, and fan, was £127. Where, however, the planter is able to utilize a spare building in which to place the drying box and stove, the cost might be reduced by about one half.
‘For the information of. those desirous of erecting a similar drier, it may be mentioned that the fan (18 inches) with belt and driving wheel might be obtained. from the Blackman Veatilating Company, Limited, Head Office, 68, Fore Street, London, H.C.,at a cost of £9 6s., and the stove (Motts’ Comet No. 28) from the I. L. Mott Iron Works, New York and Chicago, at a cost of £10 17s. 8d. The latter is surrounded by a galva- nized iron jacket to confine the hot air and to discharge it through the cow! into the drying box. The fuel may be wood, coke, or coal, as found most convenient.’
Subsequent trials have shown that cacao can be dried within twenty-four hours of being p'aced in the drier without
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the fan being worked after 9 o’clock at night. The best results were obtained by maintaining a temperature of 110° to 120° F., with a good draught passing over the beans. Similar driers have been erected on private estates and have proved thoroughly successful. As many as 9 bags have been cured in twenty-four hours.
The members of the West Indian Agricultural Conference of 1905 had an opportunity of inspecting a patent cacao-drying apparatus erected by Mr. Hoadley at Chaguanas, Trinidad. The following is a description of this drier :—
The cacao-drying apparatus consists of an ordinary room ‘34 feet square, with 25 feet perforated circular drying floor, upon which cacao is placed direct from the fermenting box. In the centre of the drying tray is a vertical axle from which project four arms which are revolved once in ten minutes. To each arm are attached six ploughs, the operations of which are equal to the work of twelve coolies in keeping the cacao in constant motion. Hotairis generated by exhaust steam, which is passed into 1,100 feet of piping enclosed in a box, over which cold air is drawn by a powerful fan which makes from 600 to 700 revolutions per minute. The air in its passage becomes heated to any desired point up to 150° and is forced up through the drying floor. The machine will dry from 12 to 15 bags of cacao in thirty to thirty-six hours. The cost of installing the system is said to be between £300 and £400.
After drying, the cacao is passed through a machine which clays and polishes, or merely polishes to suit the markets, and thereby saves the costly process of dancing.
The cacao is fermented in cylindrical drums, which are partially turned every night and morning for ten to eleven days. — |
APPENDIX. THE IMMORTEL AS A SHADE TREE FOR CACAO.
The following is the report on the manurial value of the flowers of the Bois Immortel (Hrythrina wmbrosa) referred to by Professor Carmody (see p. 77) :—
I have the honour to report that an analysis of the above flowers shows them to contain a remarkably high proportion of nitrogen, viz., 6 per cent., and to be therefore of considerable manurial value.
2. My attention has been drawn to this tree by various proposals made from time to time to replace it by other shade trees, the timber or other product from which would be saleable and therefore presumably more profitable to estate owners.
3. It