, 1908-06-24

NAA
manure. Under no other cultivation could
80 much humus- making manure be obtained.
Only a fraction of it's loss is made up by the
ordinary application of sheep MANURE, and
still less can the loss be made up by the
application of cotton-cake meal or of artif-
cial manures of organic origin, such as tank
age, slaughter house refuse, dried blood and
the like. / think it would not be nm exag-
geration to express the opinion that under
any cultivation other than sugar cane, or "a
cultivation III which sugar cane formed a
part, our thin lands in Barbados would have
been abandoned q century ago. My strong
opinion is that it beh0ves cotton growers to
regard cotton cultivation rs one crop in a
rotation of which the sugar cane is an i'm
portant part, aGd [ do not believe that green
dressings (Which in cane cultivation supple
ment the cane ~leaves), if used as u substitute
for cane leaves and the farmyard manure
derived from them, l do not believe that
such q system Of agriculture will prove ~
stable one in this island. l think that in
time, under such a system, the land will
gradually diminish in fertility until it ceases
to be profitable to cultivate it either III sugar
or cotton.
Before I sit down there are two other
points that l would like to allude to. The
first is he value of cotton-ciie meal as u
substitute lOI uIlluCldl lIAihliLC9' LIZ obhT
lvses of ten samples Of cotton-cake meal (un-
decorticated) from Messrs. Thorne & Sons
Oil factory, gave an average of 4,34 per
cent. nitrogen, 2.20 per cent. ~phosphorio
ncid, 1.54 per cent. potash, and about II
per cent. organic matters. 1000 Tbs. of such
q substance, applied directly t. the land,
would WELL about 40 lbs. nitrogen, equal to-
200 TBS. sulphate Of ammonia, 50 Tbs. phos-
phate Of lime and 80 lbs. potash equal to
60 TBS. sulphate of potash. The direct APP
plication, however, wastes the valuable feed
lug propert es of the cottoh-cake. III fed %
the stock with care, some 90 or 40 per cents
of the above amounts of nitrogen, phoSpho-
rc acid and potash would be saved IN the
manure, and would be saved IN q condition
much more readily available than IN the
cake-meal.
The second point to which l desire to
direct your attention is in connection with.
the disinfection of cotton seed by soaking III
a solution of corrosive s~ublimate. Expert
ments and analyses have shown that the
strength Of the solution IS rapidly used up
bv the cotton seed and slowly used up ny
the wood of the cask in which the dl5infec+
ton is carried out. 1t is therefore necessary
to mike the solution of corrosive subllinate
in the cask inst before it is going to be used
and to use the solution once only. 1t should
be renewed for each lot of seed"
u x X X N
FUNGUS DISEASES OF COTTON AT BARBADOS
The fungus diseases of cotton at Barbados
were briefly referred to by Mr.. It. A. Stock
dale, b. A., f. IT, s., Mycologlst on the staff
Of the Imperial d %partrhent of Agriculture
and their treatment indicated.
During the past two seasons cotton has
suffered but slightly ftom fungus Diseases
but constant watchfulness was recommended
and remedial measures, when necessary, were
to be promptly applied.
In the earlier wears Of cotton ut b Irbados,
Anthracnose or pink spot was frequently
noticed, and in some instances caused q
certain amount of damage to the boils ana
Young seedlings. One of the methods oy
which the disease may be distributed 10
through spores of the fungus being carried
on the cotton seed. All bad seeds should De
picked out before planting is carried out,and
the disinfection of cotton seed for planting
purposes in a solution of l part of corrosive
subiimate in 1000 parts of water-equal to
I or Of corrosive sublimate In Z gallons OF
water-for twenty minutes, IS q safe methoo
of killing the fungus spores without IN any
way iniuring the terminating power OF the
cotton seed itself. During the past two sea-
sons Anthracnose has not been very preVa-
lent. but disinfoctiou of all seed tor planting
uoo obould ba continued.