The other main sugar cane producing island, St. Kitts, imported annually 3,500 tons
,, fertilizer in 1958-60. The application of St. Kitts, although high by the standards of
;her small islands, has not showed as marked an increase over the period 1950-59 as in
:he larger territories. This is thought to be due to the fact that natural soil fertility there
n high, and the optimum amount of fertilizer has probably been in use for some time.

 Crops which are mainly produced by peasants frequently suffer from lack of fertilizers,
,nid this is one of the main reasons why, in the West Indies, peasant production has lower
fields than estate production. Nevertheless there has been a surprising increase in the
:us of chemical fertilizers by peasants, particularly those growing bananas. Banana
itrlilizers are distributed by the local banana growers association, and in some territories
. subsidy is paid. In coffee production a compound of ammonia, superphosphate and
muriate is recommended, and various compounds of nitrogenous, phosphorous and other
chemical fertilizers are recommended by departments of agriculture in various ten ito-
ries.

 Fertilizer trials hafe been conducted in Jamaica for all crops, and some of the results
have been encouraging. For coconuts, for instance, a crop which traditionally did not get
much fertilizer, there are indications that the yield could be doubled with proper fertiliza-
tion during the pre-bearing and bearing years; and it has been apparent, where coconut
is intercropped with banana, that it responds well to fertilizers meant for the bananas.

 Probably the most nearly controlled experiments in fertilizers have been in sugar cane.
Even so, the lack of complete control of genetic and side factors has made it inadvisable
for us to give an arithmetical relationship between yield increases and fertilizer appli-
cation. In tree crops in particular, where genetic factors are difficult to control, the
:gronomists concerned prefer not to derive an exact arithmetical relationship between
application and yields; so we have made some qualitative observations only.

 The larger estates and better producers of sugar are probably nearing the optimum
fertilizer application. Considering, therefore, that they grow the larger part of the crop,
it is not considered that there is as much scope for large increases in yields as in mainlI
peasant crops. Rice is mainly a peasant crop, and fertilizer expenditures are not so
marked as in some crops. We expect to find the highest fertilizer responses in crops
such as bananas, cocoa, coffee and citrus, and also in coconut, which is being produced
with banana on a larger scale and on a few estates is now being subjected to intensive
production with fertilizer application.

 Perhaps the most spectacular results are those gained after the fertilization of improved
pasture. Cattle weights, which will usually double (in terms of liveweight per acre)
as between improved and unimproved pasture, will often double again as between non-
irtilized and fertilized pangola grass. In Jamaica some experiments showed a liveweight
pain of 1,000 pounds per acre after fertilization of pangola grass. It is, therefore, pos-
sible to predict that the use of fertilizers is likely to be important in increasing beef and
milk production, or in reducing the land area necessary for producing a given quantity of
neat or milk.