Barbados, an Agricultural Tropical Island without WeedsAuthor(s): Ismael VelezSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Oct., 1950), pp. 276-277Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20032 .

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SWITCHING ASSIGNMENTS MOTIVE AM. PRESENT PM.ERVICE POWER 12 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 8 0 11 SV Loco 1 STE"I~ OPERATION Loco

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PROPOSED

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Ohio Railway under ordinary conditions obtains 80 per cent of its revenue from hauling bituminous coal, but it is now purchasing Diesels. In 1949, the Pennsylvania Railroad, largest coal-hauling road in the United States, purchased 300 Diesels. Hope

for more profitable railroad operation is accom- panying the revolution in Diesels.

J. 0. KAMM

School of Commerce Baldwin- Wallace College

BARBADOS. AN AGRICULTURAL TROPICAL ISLAND WITHOUT WEEDS

ARBADOS, BRITISH WEST INDIES, the east- ernmost of the Lesser Antilles, is a tropical spot where weeds have no chance. Primarily

an agricultural island, all its arable land is under cultivation. Sugar cane, the principal crop, is grown in practically all plantations and in nearly all peas- ant holdings, with food crops and cotton between two successive crops of cane. About one third the total acreage each year is cane newly planted in November, and the remaining two thirds are grown from stubble. Usually two ratoon crops are ob- tained, though in better lands as many as four crops can be raised profitably. Soil that is too shallow for sugar cane is under sour grass for stock and mulch- ing.

A typical sugar-cane crop cycle is as follows:

Planted November, say, 1950 First harvest, January to February 1952 First ratoons, 6 ' 1953 Second ratoons, c cc 1954

The harvesting season lasts for 3-3.5 months and is usually completed by the end of May. Where the crop cycle has been completed-that is, where the last ratoon crop has been harvested-the old cane stumps are removed by forks, and the field is cul tivated with chisel plows. Usually the field will be replanted to sugar cane in November of the same year. The period between the reaping and the re- planting of the cane is used for planting such catch crops as maize, sweet potatoes, yams, and eddoes. Although yams and eddoes are not harvested until the year following, cane is interplanted with them.

276 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

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Carington Sugar Estate in Barbados.

In some cases the cane is not replanted until No- vember of the succeeding year. Such land is said to be "thrown out" and is available for the late fall planting (September to November) of sweet potatoes, or of long-terrn crops such as cassava and cotton. But at no time is the land allowed to lie idle for even a short season, and by law each estate must, by rotation, devote a given percentage of the land to subsistence crops.

Weeding is carried on entirely by hand. The care of a number of acres, clepending upon the weedi- ness of the site, is assigned to a laborer, usually a woman. Her sole responsibility is to keep weeds down. And she usually does. Whether the site is planted to sugar cane or to catch crops or to cotton, the worker practices absolutely clean farming, and mulches at the end of the rainy season. Cane thrash

piled in heaps at the end of the crop, sour grass (Andropogon pertussus (L) Willd.), from near-by plots, and tops of Khus-khus (Vetiveria zizanioides (L) Nash), which is planted in rows at the edges of the fields, are used for mulching.

Under these conditions the weeds are never al- lowed to seed, and each new weed crop must, of necessity, arise from immigrants. Such practices keep under control even the noxious nut grass (Cy- perus rotundus L.), as well as devil's grass (Cyno- don dactylon (L) Pers.), which is so persistent in the cane lands of the tropics. The broad-leaved weeds, so commonly present in moist, fertile lands, are easily eliminated as soon as they appear. Bar- bados is no paradise for weeds.

ISMAEL VfELEZ Polytechnic Institute of Puerto Rico

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October 1950 277

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