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VAD 1.3:
2/5
1991
'ii
I
I
I
Agrifest
1991
20 Years Celebration
Fj I I I A
VirginRE
Islands AGRICULTURE A
O D FAIR-
OOD FAIR
Bulletin
Number 5
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Virgin Islands
Agriculture
and Food Fair
1991
Editor-in-Chief ................. Dr. Darshan S. Padda
Editor .............................. Clarice C. Clarke
Cover Design .................. Maude Pierre-Charles
"Economic Development Through Local Resources"
Jointly Sponsored By
The V.I. Department of Economic Development and Agriculture
and
The University of the Virgin Islands
Cooperative Extension Service Agricultural Experiment Station
i 038689
Irl
Acknowledgements
This year's book cover was done by Maude Pierre-Charles, a local
artist. The cover reflects the theme of the 1991 Agriculture and Food
Fair-"Economic Development Through Local Resources." A special
thank you goes to the Agriculture and Food Fair Board of Directors for
their support and to everyone who was involved in this publication.
While many people have contributed to this book, a few deserve special
mention: Dr. Darshan S. Padda for his continued support, interest and
involvement; Raquel Santiago, Yvonne Horton, Nan Lenhart, Dr. Erica
Smilowitz, Dr. James Rakocy, Dr. Christopher Ramcharan and Dr.
Stephan Wildeus for their assistance and technical information, and the
entire staff at Antilles Graphic Arts.
The Editor
Reprinting of articles is permitted as long as the Agriculture and Food Fair bulletin is credited; mention of product
names in this book in no way implies endorsement by the authors or by the Agriculture and Food Fair Board of
Directors. All photos not credited were taken by the editor.
ii
A Publication of the 20th Annual
Virgin Islands
Agriculture and Food Fair
1991
Bulletin Number 5
Table of Contents
1990-91 Fair Board of D directors ................................................... v
Governor Alexander A. Farrelly's M message ................................. ........... vi
Dr. Orville Kean's Message .................... ............................... vii
Commissioner Eric E. Dawson's M message ............................................ vii
Hurricane Damage and Recovery -
The Story of UVI Land-Grant Programs ............................................. 1
Dr. Darshan S. Padda
U.S. Virgin Islands Agriculture Production and Structure 1960-1987 ..................... 7
Dr. Richard W. Moore
M making a Difference in Fam ily Life ................................................. 11
Clarice C. Clarke
Hom e M anagem ent W orks ........................................................ 13
Dr. Margaret L. Peters
The Role of Plants in Medicine in the U.S. Virgin Islands .............................. 15
Dr. LaVerne E. Ragster & Simone O. Heyliger
Injurious Plants .................................................................. 23
Toni Thomas
The Importance of Rangeland to Man .................................... ......... 27
Olasee Davis
W ater Conservation and Development .............................................. 29
James K. Newman
From O ur Photo A lbum .............................................
Water Research for the Virgin Islands Community.......................
Dr. J. Hari Krishna & Robert H. Ruskin
Tan Tan An Open Treasure of the Virgin Islands ......................
Dr. Martin B. Adjei
A ckee A H -K ey ....................................................
Errol A. Chichester
Have You Thanked a Tree Today? .....................
Dr. Christopher Ramcharan
.......... 31-34
............. 35
............. 37
............. 4 1
........ ..................... 4 3
Grafted What? .....
Errol A. Chichester
T ree B orers ......................................................
Dr. Jeff Keularts
Advances in Hormone Treatments Affecting Reproduction in Livestock ........
Dr. Stephan Wildeus
Raising Rabbits in the Virgin Islands ...........
Kofi Boateng
Seagrass Meadows: Pasturelands of the Sea......
Dr. Mary Lou Coulston
Poinsettia The Symbol of Christmas..........
Olasee Davis
The Grove Place Baobab Tree .................
Dr. John Rashford
.............. 49
......... 5 1
. ... .. ... .. ... .. .... . .. 5 9
. . . . . . . . . . 6 1
.......... ........................... 65
BU I 'LDIN
COOPERAIVYE EITEESIM&
'.s
p
1991 Agriculture and Food Fair
Board of Directors
President
Commissioner Eric E. Dawson
Vice President of Operations
Eric L. Bough
Executive Secretary
Clarice C. Clarke
Treasurer
Pholconah Edwards
Director of Food Exhibits
Ruth Lang
Director of Farm Exhibits
Rudolph Shulterbrandt
Director of Livestock Exhibits
Dr. Duke Deller
Vice President
Dr. Darshan S. Padda
Director of Promotion and Publicity
Claire Roker
Director of Youth Activities
Olasee Davis
Director of Rules and Awards
Dr. Arthur C. Petersen, Jr.
Director of Special Activities
Willard John
Director of UVI Exhibits
Clinton George
Director of Off-Island Participation
Kofi Boateng
XNELCOME
I
Message from Honorable Alexander A. Farrelly
Governor of the Virgin Islands
It is certainly a pleasure to extend con-
gratulations to everyone involved in this
year's Agriculture and Food Fair on St. Croix.
The annual fair provides a wonderful oppor-
tunity for the people of the territory to learn
more about the importance of agriculture.
The small farmer is the backbone of the agricultural industry, and they
are to be commended for their perseverance. In the Virgin Islands, despite
Hurricane Hugo's devastation as well as limited rainfall and land, they
continue to produce crops and livestock.
This year's theme, "Economic Development Through Local Resources,"
draws attention to the fact that agriculture is one facet of a diversified
economy. I remain optimistic that agriculture will continue to develop in
these islands.
On behalf of the people of the Virgin Islands, best wishes for a success-
ful fair. I commend the exhibitors, the Board of Directors of the Agri-
culture and Food Fair, Dr. Darshan Padda, the University of the Virgin
Islands, Commissioner Eric Dawson and the Department of Economic
Development and Agriculture for their efforts to promote agriculture in
the Virgin Islands.
Alexander A. Farrelly
Governor
116-r
Message from Dr. Orville Kean
President, University of the Virgin Islands
It is my pleasure, as the new President of
the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), to
welcome you to the 20th Annual Agriculture
and Food Fair. It is my particular pleasure
because the theme of the Fair, "Economic
Development Through Local Resources," so accurately expresses my vision
of UVI's position in the community. Indeed, the University has a major
role to play here.
One of my main goals for the University is to facilitate the improvement
of the quality of life here in the Virgin Islands. I want the University to
become a center for technology transfer and utilization. In terms of agri-
culture, this will mean bringing scientific advances to the grass roots level.
Along these lines, I plan to expand the University's research capabilities
in order to address the specific problems of the Virgin Islands. Much of
this research, through the Research and Land-Grant Affairs component
under Dr. Darshan S. Padda's leadership, will focus on food and agricul-
ture needs and will complement the existing programs, such as the Agri-
cultural Experiment Station, the Caribbean Research Institute and the
Cooperative Extension Service, which educate the public in the areas of
home economics, natural resources, 4-H youth development, water
resources, social and environmental sciences and, of course, agriculture.
Such plans as these mean a university-wide commitment to make UVI
accessible and useful to you, the people of the Virgin Islands, on a truly
pragmatic level. The Agriculture and Food Fair is one example of many
that will unfold as this exciting decade moves forward.
I wish to congratulate the Agriculture and Food Fair Board for their
dedication and commitment in organizing this community event for all
Virgin Islands residents.
Enjoy the Fair!!!
Orville Kean
President
Message from Commissioner Eric E. Dawson
Department of Economic Development
& Agriculture
The theme of "Economic Development
Through Local Resources" is very appropriate
for any developing country, and it is appli-
cable to the U.S. Virgin Islands as well.
Though our money supply is generated
from external sources to feed into our local economy, we must always be
on the alert to devise ways and means to capture and retain as many
dollars as possible for the sustenance of the Virgin Islands economy.
In keeping with the theme of "Economic Development Through Local
Resources," we see the reality through agricultural growth and devel-
opment in the Virgin Islands. Through the expansion of our local crops
and livestock, there is a great opportunity to develop the agricultural
industry along with other sectors of the economy as a whole. Local con-
sumption of locally produced food would greatly assist in the prolonged
retention of dollars in the Virgin Islands economy before such dollars are
exported to purchase goods which are not locally produced.
Programs such as the Integrated Farm Systems, which is jointly spon-
sored by the Department of Economic Development and Agriculture and
the Extension Service of the University of the Virgin Islands, as well as the
various programs now in place to assist our farmers, work toward making
"Economic Development Through Local Resources" a reality.
My very best wishes to all of the participants and visitors to the 1991
Agriculture and Food Fair.
Sincerely,
Eric E. Dawson, Esq.
Commissioner
Hurricane Damage
And Recovery Effort The Story
Of UVI Land-Grant Programs
Darshan S. Padda
Vice President for Research and Land-Grant Affairs
University of the Virgin Islands
The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) received
land-grant status in 1972. Dr. Fenton Sands was hired as
the first director of the then College of the Virgin
Islands' Land-Grant Programs. He laid the foundation
and hired consultants to conduct feasibility studies. I
came on board on July 1, 1974 as a research horticul-
turist, became Acting Director and Director on
September 15, 1975 and March 1, 1976, respectively.
Before joining UVI, I had worked at the Virgin Island
Department of Agriculture (VIDA) as the Director of
Marketing and Crop Production. This opportunity
brought me in touch with a lot of people who needed
help. During these years, the UVI Land-Grant programs
were perceived as federal programs and were approached
for help by a small number of clientele, compared to the
Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture.
However, with my move to UVI, things started to
change. I made special efforts to open up the programs to
people who needed assistance. The appointment of Mr.
Oscar E. Henry as Commissioner of Agriculture
afforded excellent opportunities in defining the respon-
sibilities and services of the two agencies, i.e., UVI and
VIDA. Commissioner Henry and I shared a common
vision in developing agriculture in the territory. As a
result, both agencies made great strides.
Another very significant development, boosting the
expansion of UVI's Land-Grant programs, was the
appointment of Dr. Arthur A. Richards as UVI Presi-
dent in 1981. Dr. Richards was committed to helping the
common person and, as soon as he saw the potential of
the Land-Grant programs, he became their staunch
supporter.
Over the years, the programs grew by leaps and
bounds. An instructional program leading to the Asso-
ciate of Arts degree in Agriculture was instituted. Exten-
sion and research programs experienced an increase of
more than 1000 percent in financial resources. By the
year 1989, the Agricultural Experiment Station (AES)
had developed eighteen active research projects, cov-
ering the areas of agronomy, animal science, aquacul-
ture, olericulture, pomology and ornamentals,
marketing and forestry. The Cooperative Extension
Service (CES) expanded its services under thirty-two
educational projects, covering the areas of agriculture,
community and rural development, 4-H youth devel-
opment, home economics, natural resources and pest
management.
In summary, both research and extension programs
had come of age, had won acceptance from the people of
the Virgin Islands, and had acquired a credibility as a
regional leader in the development and transfer of tech-
nology in the broad areas of food and agriculture. The
Agricultural Experiment Station's research projects in
aquaculture and on animal science received national
recognition when the Cable News Network aired seg-
ments of the research projects on their weekly program
called Science and Technology Today.
Then came Hurricane Hugo on September 17, 1989
and changed everything. All past accomplishments were
dwarfed by the destruction of just one night.
Two of the Cooperative Extension Service buildings
were totally destroyed. The Great House, which housed
the administrative offices, was a total loss the windows
and doors blown out. The water damage through the
facility caused the lighting and carpeting to be destroyed.
The structure was so badly damaged that it was later
condemned for use. The buildings occupied by the
Home Economics, Agriculture and 4-H programs were
also a total loss.
The Agricultural Experiment Station's newly com-
pleted Biotechnology Laboratory was blown-off its
foundation and smashed to bits. It was a very sad exper-
ience to survey a field littered with hundreds of water-
soaked books and reprints amid broken test tubes
containing tissue cultured plants. All of the greenhouses
were reduced to heaps of twisted metal, punctuated by
potted plants. Sheds offered little resistance to Hugo's
powerful winds, and allowed torrents of salty water to
rust equipment and saturate bags of peat, fertilizer, fish
feed and pesticides. The Aquaculture Program lost two
cage culture facilities (fresh water and marine), seven-
teen tanks and thousands of fish.
The most devastating loss was, of course, the destruc-
tion of the farms and homes of our clientele. Farmers
became homeless and suffered a tremendous loss of
crops, livestock and farm facilities.
However, the Land-Grant staff put service above self,
as is the System's tradition. Two days after the hurri-
cane, the majority of the staff members were back on the
job, assessing farmers' losses, distributing food to needy
families, working with the Red Cross and other relief
agencies, and rebuilding their research and education
programs. The staff worked without offices and labora-
stories and many without secure homes. But most of all,
they cooperated and worked as one team.
After the storm and the ensuing social disruption, the
staff moved slowly from states of shock and depression
to a vigorous rehabilitating effort.
The Hess Oil of the Virgin Islands Corporation
(HOVIC) provided a great amount of assistance for re-
habilitating the St. Croix campus of the University after
the hurricane. In fact, work accomplished by the
HOVIC personnel enabled the campus to resume classes
on October 23, a little more than a month after the
hurricane.
At the request of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA), Mr. Dean Davis, Program Manager of the
Caribbean Basin Advisory Group, visited St. Croix on
October 4-5, 1989 to assess the damage to UVI's Land-
Grant Programs and to provide estimates of the short-
term and long-term needs bf the programs. The entire
staff was extremely gratified by his presence since it indi-
cated USDA's sincere concern for the welfare of the
Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative
Extension Service.
Mr. Davis submitted a 21-page report and summarized
the damage to research programs as follows:
"It has taken them 17 years to reach the
stage of development that existed before
Hurricane Hugo, and now much of the devel-
opment has been lost. It is personally devas-
tating to the staff. The Station is barely
operating and comeback will be slow. The
immediate needs identified in my report will
help them attain a reasonable operating level,
but most of the research programs will not be
operable before six months to two years. I
hope aid to the Station can assure it will not
take another 17 years to get back where they
were before the storm. A heavy input of cap-
ital is needed to gain time for the Station to
reach a level of operations where it can begin
once again to make the contributions it was
making to the people of the Virgin Islands and
the Eastern Caribbean."
Additionally, the Research and Land-Grant Affairs
component submitted an extensive list of personal
property items to be obtained through federal excess
property channels. The U.S. Department of Agriculture
responded by immediately supplying two 10 kw diesel
generators and later shipping 331 pieces of office and
laboratory equipment to St. Croix.
Locally, the University made every effort with its lim-
ited resources to help rehabilitate the facilities. The
Cooperative Extension Service facilities, other than the
Great House, have been temporarily repaired to bring
them to an acceptable-use level. The field operations at
the Agricultural Experiment Station have reasonably
recovered. The research tanks of the aquaculture pro-
gram that were destroyed have been replaced with fiber-
glass tanks. Covers over many of the rotating biological
contactor filters have been repaired and/or replaced.
Greenhouses and sheds that were damaged have also
been replaced. A block of six new greenhouses, each
measuring 27' x 48', with gravel floors, concrete side-
walks, dual rain water and city water delivery systems
and expanded metal work benches have been erected.
These greenhouses will be used for a variety of research
projects on ornamental plants, fruit and mahogany trees,
vegetable transplants, root crops, and forage grasses and
legumes.
The numerous sheds that were destroyed by the
hurricane are being consolidated into one concrete
building, measuring 240' x 20', with ten rooms. There
will be a large storage and workroom for each of the
research programs, as well as two cold storage rooms for
livestock and fish feed, seeds and plant materials. The
remaining rooms will be used as a pesticide storage
room, a drying and grinding room for plant material, and
a shop for fixing and fabricating research equipment.
The building will be reinforced with steel and concrete to
withstand the force of future hurricanes.
A catchment system has been installed to collect and
store the rain water that runs off the greenhouse and
shed roof areas. In a typical year, 330,000 gallons of rain
water will be collected and used for the greenhouse
operations.
To provide permanent replacement office and labora-
tory spaces for research and extension programs, the
University of the Virgin Islands, under the leadership of
President Orville E. Kean, has approved the design of a
new building to be constructed on the St. Croix campus.
The new building, to be called Research and Extension
Center, will cover 9,700 gross square feet, with 6,300 net
assignable square feet. This building will house the
executive offices of the Vice President for Research and
Land-Grant Affairs, three laboratories for use in the
areas of plant science, biotechnology and human nutri-
tion, fourteen faculty and staff offices, a resource room,
a staff lounge and four seminar rooms. The completion
of the Research and Extension Center will provide first-
class state of the art laboratory and office space for our
employees. With these facilities, combined with the new
greenhouses and research sheds, the Land-Grant pro-
grams will be fully operational again.
However, the rebuilding of the agriculture industry in
the territory will take a little longer. Hopefully, with the
help of our dedicated staff and with improved working
facilities, we will be able to carry out the University's
mandated mission as a land-grant institution to serve the
Virgin Islands community through new technologies
and research-based information in agriculture, home
economics, youth development, natural resources and
community development.
We are not fully recovered yet, but we see the "light at
the end of the tunnel." We have come a long way in the
recovery effort, and I wish to express my appreciation to
my staff, UVI administration, USDA and all others who
have so willingly offered a helping hand.
The Great House CES headquarters after the hurricane.
(Photo by Carrol B. Fleming)
Home Economics laboratory after the de-
struction.
Right: The trailer containing offices and
the biotechnology lab was completely
destroyed.
Below: Office of the Vice President and
Director with collapsed ceiling.
Below right: CES staff clearing some debris
at west campus courtyard. Note roof dam-
ages to CES buildings.
(Photo by Carrol B. Fleming)
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Left: The AES greenhouses became heaps of twisted metal.
(Photo by James Rakocy)
Nw^^
A\ N I sA\^.
Top: A block of six new greenhouses were constructed to
replace those destroyed by the hurricane.
Left: The numerous sheds destroyed by the hurricane were
replaced by one reinforced concrete building.
Bottom: The new Research and Extension Center that will
house offices and laboratories destroyed by the hurricane.
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We are proud to be a part of the 20th Annual Agriculture and Food Fair
athF gt. QGrix Auis
THE ONLY LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER. SERVING THE VIRGIN ISLANDS SINCE 1844
... and we are proud of our 149 years of service to St. Croix
LOOK FOR US AT 1A LA GRANDE PRINCESS (Near 5 corners)
We are proud to be a
part of the 1991
Agriculture and ood
Fair
and we are proud of our 149
years of service to St. Croix.
I A
CORN HILL FARM. .
MON BIJOU FARM.....
MOUNTAIN MINT FARM
SIGHT FARM ............
WINDSOR FARM ..........
...... HENRY NELTHROPP
........... OLIVER SKOV
..... RICHARD RIDGWAY
.CHARLES SCHUSTER
. ST. CROIX DAIRY
PRODUCTS, INC.
'4
VIRGIN ISLANDS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOC.
fr
"The Best is Fresh
Naturally"
T.
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U.S. Virgin Islands Agriculture
Production and Structure
1960 1987
By
Richard W. Moore, Director
Bureau of Economic Research
Department of Economic Development and Agriculture
Basic data on the U.S. Virgin Islands Agriculture
sector, from 1960 to 1987 provides the interested reader
with a fascinating close up view of a dynamic, truly local
industry. The information shown here is a compilation
of data from the Census of Agriculture. Since 1977, this
federally sponsored census has and will continue to be
conducted on years ending in 2 and 7.
Farm Size
Virgin Islands farms in 1987, a total of 267 with an
average size of 67 acres, equalled about half the 501
farms with an average size of 88 acres in 1960. Total farm
acreage in 1987, 17,785 acres, was 60 percent less than
the 44,062 acres in 1960. The percent of land in farms
over 1,000 acres has grown from 41 percent or 18,000
acres in a maximum of 18 large farms in 1960, to about
51 percent or 9,100 acres in a maximum of 9 farms, in
1987.
Operators and Wages
As is the case on the U.S. mainland, the average wage of
farm operators is increasing steadily. The average wage in
1987, $3,967, has grown from the $2,907 average wage
in 1977. However, the total wage bill has dropped in cur-
rent dollars from $915,978 in 1977 to $896,660 in 1987.
Commodities and Sales
The largest number of farms have always been live-
stock farms; some very large and some very, very small.
In real terms, total sales have been about steady at $2.6
million per year since 1977. The most important agri-
cultural commodity throughout this period has been
milk, which has averaged about 40 percent of all farm
sales. Livestock, mainly export sales of Senepol cattle,
and vegetables have both increased their share of total
receipts during the 1980's. This has occurred as poultry
and egg sales have dropped to a very small level and pro-
portion from earlier years.
Vegetables
About 12 percent of the farms were of this type having
sales of $239,762 in 1987. Of the six most important
vegetable commodities, lettuce and tomatoes have had
the highest sales figures during the last 10 years.
Tomatoes, in particular, equalled about 50 percent of all
vegetable sales in 1987, at $113,664.
Fruits
Fruit and nut farms equalled about 17 percent of all
:arms and provided about 5 percent of all farm sales in
1987. Banana sales, $38,891 in 1987, have grown very
close to the leader in this category; mangoes, for which
total sales equalled $44,007 in 1987. In earlier years,
mango sales far surpassed all other fruit sales and
equalled more than 50 percent of the total. Avocado
yields and sales exhibited the most stable growth
through the period.
-j;
Charles Collingwood, AES Research Anaylst, explaining the drip
irrigation system to Governor Alexander Farrelly and DEDA Com-
missioner Eric E. Dawson. (Photo by Carrol B. Fleming)
Livestock Production and Sales
As noted above, milk sales have dominated all sales of
locally produced agricultural products included in the
Census of Agriculture and have exceeded the second
most important agricultural commodity, cattle, by a
factor of about two. For nearly 20 years, milk sales have
equalled more than $1.0 million in 1987. Sale of
Senepol breeding stock accounts for most of all cattle
sales, $580,139 in 1987. Clearly, the most dramatic
trend in production and sales in this category is that of
chicken egg sales, which has dropped from a peak of
$317,641 in 1964 to what appears to be an all time low
of $13,542 in 1987.
SAINT CROIX GAS
P.O. BOX 5961, SUNNY ISLE
ST. CROIX, U.S.V.I. 00820
PHS. (809) 778-6500
Sunlech roupr
D/,/A (809) 771-0057
v' cTrrA SAINT THOMAS GAS
#4 SUB BASE, ST. THOMAS,
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS 00803
PHS: (809) 774-2666 (809) 776-0099
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE COMPARISONS
1960-1987
1975 1970
NO. OF FARMS
ACRES
% IN FARMS OVER 1,000 ACRES
HARVESTED CROPLAND (ACRES)
AVG. FARM SIZE (ACRES)
AVG. AGE OF OPERATOR
267
17,785
50.9
608
66.6
57
259
17,778
45.8
690
68.6
54
378
24,397
51.4
1,184
64.5
54
327
24,703
40
751
76
54
212
20,470
53
737
97
52
VIRGIN ISLANDS
PUERTO RICO
ELSEWHERE
--------- OPERATORS
166 168 233
11 22 47
90 69 98
BY PLACE OF BIRTH
226 1;
15
86 e
UNPAID LABOR
HIRED LABOR
TOTAL WAGES
AVERAGE WAGE
TRACTORS (NO.)
102 62
VEGETABLE
FIELD & FORAGE CROPS
FRUIT & NUTS
DAIRY
LIVESTOCK
POULTRY
NURSERY
MIXED
OTHER
FARM SALES
SALES PER FARM (AVG.)
FIELD, FORAGE & VEGETABLE*
FRUITS & NUTS
NURSERY PRODUCTS
LIVESTOCK
MILK
POULTRY & EGGS
MACHINE HIRE & CUSTOM
HIRED FARM LABOR
FEED FOR LIVESTOCK & POULTRY
--------- TYPE OF FARM (No. of farms)
31 14 9
3 7
43 56 -31
$2,685,351 $2,391,916 $2,227,059
$10,057 $9,026 $8,218
$399,221
$146,817
$241,230
$838,554
$1,042,698
$16,831
$120,640
$896,660
$742,512
--------- SALES BY COMMODITY ---------
$212,155 $65,894 $41,525 $63,848
$145,796 $36,834
$89,700 $353,507
$705,629 $484,948 $12,413 $2,347
$922,830 $1,074,145 $1,264,437 $808,758
$315,586 $211,731 $296,262 $120,702
--------- FARM EXPENSES
$123,015 $109,942 $43,426
$887,029 $915,978 $960,550
$868,732 $1,020,423
$21,351
$441,243
$420,013
$23,065 $23,420
$4,672
$326,990
$220,870
$69,787
$1,466,453
$273,085
$5,509
$127,129
$18,039
$1,286,910
$96,418
U.S.V.I. BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
466
39,539
33
5,134
85
501
44,062
41
4,272
88
434
226
$896,660
$3,967
76
429
214
$887,029
$4,145
111
718
315
$915,978
$2,907
108
11-Dec-90
U.S VIRGIN ISLANDS
CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE COMPARISONS
1960-1987
CONT'D
1975 1970
-------- SELECTED FIELD CROP YIELDS AND SALES
CASSAVA (PDS)
SALES ($)
DRY BEANS (PDS)
SALES ($)
DRY CORN (PDS)
SALES ($)
SWEETPOTATOS (PDS)
SALES ($)
TANIERS (PDS)
SALES ($)
YAMS (PDS)
SALES ($)
TOTAL
15,264
$5,120
2,527
$765
2,238
$989
7,918
$2,388
1,610
$226
3,582
$827
$10,315
14,733
$5,761
1,455
$699
3,788
$573
10,035
$3,310
1,720
$542
7,165
$2,935
$13,820
9,710
$1,158
4,994
$1,612
5,964
$600
16,326
$3,316
4,889
$826
13,407
$3,432
$10,944
7,510 7413 6277 3234
2,281 100 335 1192
6,476 15,012 17,266 9,626
20,830
3,835
30,505
3135
463
6891
16120 43121
30941 21131
-- --- VEGETABLE CROPS SALE---------
TOMATOES (SALES)
LETTUCE (SALES)
CUCUMBERS (SALES)
ONIONS (SALES)
SPINACH (SALES)
OCHRES (SALES)
$113,664
$49,513
$29,771
$16,288
$25,056
$5,470
$33,710
$7,820
$20,975
$51,450
$4,398
$2,870
$6,528
$8,413
$4,950
$4,425
$3,997
$1,873
$2,377
$2,240
$933
$3,760
$2,485
$7,405
$3,080
$3,800
$3,215
$2,585
$2,113 $2,515
$2,870 $360
$125 $362
$1,217 $1,209
-------- SELECTED FRUIT YIELDS & SALES
AVOCADOS (NO.)
SALES ($)
BANANAS (BUNCHES)
SALES ($)
COCONUTS (NO.)
SALES ($)
LIMES % LEMONS (PDS)
SALES ($)
MANGOES (NO.)
SALES ($)
TOTAL
41,206
$23,914
5,881
$38,891
19,977
$11,979
11,359
$5,311
171,104
$44,007
$124,102
31,284 15,472
$14,793 $2,988
3,232
$5,306
18,066 18,033
$1,973
7,666 18,368
$2,183 $2,664
205,041 111,505
S $18,846
$16,976 $31,782
16,561
4,785
46,376
35,099
10,026
5,411
9,702
4,815
217,612 150,359
13,311
8,249
21,923
15,991
37,945
20,539
26,107
29,860
166,061 173,457
U.S.V.I. BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
1960
11-Dec-90
U.S VIRGIN ISLANDS
CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE COMPARISONS
1960-1987
CONT'D
1975 1970
------ LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION & SALES ---------
HORSES (NO.)
SALES ($)
MULES (NO.)
SALES ($)
SHEEP (NO.)
SALES ($)
GOATS (NO.)
SALES ($)
HOGS (NO.)
SALES ($)
CATTLE
COWS (NO.)
SALES ($)
HEIFERS (NO.)
SALES ($)
BULLS (NO.)
SALES ($)
MILK SALES ($)
224
2050
3,134
$50,736
3,315
$47,150
2,536
$125,226
2,499
$186,219
1,130
$127,773
488
$266,147
$1,042,698
2(
215
08
50
8
2,814 2,631
$36,010 $20,334
3,633 5,849
$45,263 $35,625
1,866
$129,973 $31,497
3,031
$114,150
1,249
$100,755
845
$244,228
$922,830
216 183
29 16
3,122 5,111
4,162
1,454
2,721
898
2,824 2,882 2,947
$395,342
1,153 1,443 1,103
$120,128
625 715 700
$150,709
$1,074,145 $1,264,437 $808,758
1,100 1,100
3,203 2,334
1,323 1,297
3,217 3,867
1,518
988
1,920
1,341
$326,990 $127,129
----- POULTRY PRODUCTION & SALES
CHICKENS (NO.)
SALES ($)
TURKEYS & OTHER (NO.)
SALES ($)
CHICKEN EGG SALES ($)
OTHER EGG SALES ($)
5,326
$2,276
727
$1,013
$13,542
$16,831
$15,216
366
$995
$299,375
$315,586
31,478
$14,703
1,027
$666
$196,362
$211,731
8,669 2,335
696 161
$315,023 $165,191
$296,262 $120,702
5,660 3,860
587
$317,641
$220,870
698
$92,052
* This figure includes vegetables only.
Compiled from "Census of Agriculture, Virgin Islands of
1982 and 1987; published by U.S. Bureau of the Census
the United States" reports for 1960, 1964, 1970, 1972, 1975,
U.S.V.I. BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
11-Dec-90
Making A Difference In Family Life
By
Clarice C. Clarke
Extension Assistant Communications
UVI Cooperative Extension Service
It was about 4 o'clock Saturday afternoon when Ann
Howe, a 36-year old wife and mother decided that it was
time to make a change in her family's lifestyle. With pen
and paper in hand, she made a list of changes from their
diet to finances. The problem she then faced was where
to go and how to go about making these changes.
Ann had married at a very young age, and the oppor-
tunity to further her education had never been realized.
Her world revolved around taking care of her family.
This was not bad. However, there seemed to be some-
thing missing in Ann's life-an aching feeling that there
must be more she can do for herself and family.
Mornings at the Howe's home began with the same
routine. Up at 6:00 a.m., breakfast, bathe the children,
clean the house. It was a routine she had become weary
of.
Being a one-income family, there is a lot of cutting
corners... a little trimming here and there to make ends
meet. The feeling that this must change was constant in
Ann's mind. She could not shake the idea that extra
income is there to be made, only if she could find the
right circumstance.
One day, Ann heard a radio announcement of a
sewing class for beginners at the Cooperative Extension
Service. She decided to call and register. This was the
first step towards one of the major changes in Ann's life.
As Ann did her household chores, her mind raced with
the possibilities that can occur from taking this class.
One major thought became paramount: the savings this
would bring to her family.
"If I learn to sew," she said, "I would have extra
money to use for something else."
Early the next morning, Ann scurried around the
house as she made breakfast for the family. After she got
her family on their way, Ann dressed and drove to the
Cooperative Extension Service. Ann not only registered
for sewing, but signed up for the nutrition, home fur-
nishings, adult sitter and money management classes.
After weeks, she learned to sew for herself and family
and also learned how to prepare a family budget.
As Ann got to know more about the Extension
Service, she became involved in other program areas,
such as home gardening. This was another challenging
task for Ann, for she had never done gardening before,
but viewed this project in the same light that the early
settlers did-a chance to journey into a new frontier.
Hesitant but persistent, she attended every home garden-
ing workshop that was offered. Soon she learned the
difference between soils, which vegetables would grow
S-":" L ':. --g-. *,,
Teaching youths the basic skills in sewing not only stretches the
family Income but also instill pride and confidence.
best, when and how much to plant and what kind of
fertilizers to use. To Ann, this was a wealth of infor-
mation she not only learned but saw a viable way to
stretch her family's food budget.
With help from the Extension horticulturist, her
home gardening became a family project which enabled
the Howe's to establish a home-based business which
now provides an extra income for the family.
Ann Howe has managed to get her whole family
involved in every aspect of Extension, whether it's home
economics, agriculture, 4-H, or natural resources. She
saw an opportunity for her family to learn new skills and
took advantage of it, thus, enhancing the quality of their
lives. Her family became what we call "the Extension
family."
The University of the Virgin Islands Cooperative
Extension Service is an agency that addresses the needs
of families, like the Howe family. It offers programs for
youths that challenges them, as well as provides alter-
natives to careers. It provides programs that help them
gain confidence, develop new skills and assume leader-
ship roles.
This agency also offers research-based information to
local farmers, big and small. It has developed and im-
plemented programs that will help farmers to increase
their production of crops. Issues of major concerns,
such as nutrition, diet and health, are taught to families.
Recently, the Extension Service has provided a choles-
terol testing program which has screened more than
1500 Virgin Islanders, and recommends nutritional
information for a healthier lifestyle. Publications, such
as "The Heart of the Pumpkin-Healthy Cooking with
Caribbean Fruits and Vegetables," provides local recipes
that are designed to augment readily available ingre-
dients with sound nutritional practices.
The Extension System focuses on improving Virgin
Islanders' lives through workshops and seminars which
will result in better homes, farms, health, environment
and communities. The challenge is given to the Exten-
sion Service in its national initiatives. That is-to
provide alternative agricultural opportunities; the
building of human capital, which is developing skills and
abilities in youths so that they can reach their full
potential; conservation and management of natural
resources to develop public awareness and under-
standing of the need to wisely manage our resources;
family economic well-being, which is strengthening
family ties so that they can manage their financial re-
sources better; improving nutrition, diet and health-
providing health and safety education and teaching
reliable nutrition information; water quality; revi-
talizing rural America; competitiveness and profitability
of American agriculture and youth at risk.
Located at
Sunny Isle Frederiksted Cruz Bay
In the Expanded Food and Nutrition Program (EFNEP), a client learns
cooking tips from Extension Assistant Miriam Greene.
The University of the Virgin Islands Cooperative
Extension Service has incorporated these initiatives into
programs suitable to the Virgin Islands community.
However, there is a need to reach more Virgin Islanders
who will benefit from these programs, to make them
aware of our services and to encourage them to use it. As
an integral part of the university system of higher learn-
ing, the Extension Service provides high quality tech-
nical assistance free of cost.
There is an old saying that "time waits for no man." In
other words, call now!
Compliments of
iffany' SShoes
Barren Spot Village Mall
P.O. Box 6227, Sunny Isle, St. Croix
U. S. Virgin Islands 00823
Accelyn T. Morton Julie I. Morton, Managers
809-778-2002
JGood Luck!
from
Family Forist, Inc.
6A La Grande Princesse
P.O. Box 3279 Christiansted, St. Croix
USVI 00822
Tel: (809) 778-8105
Home Management Works
By
Margaret Peters, Extension Program Supervisor
Home Economics/4-H Youth Development
UVI Cooperative Extension Service
Meet the Smith family. It's 7:15 a.m. The car motor is
running. Edward Smith impatiently taps his finger on the
steering wheel.
"It's time to go, kids," hollers Ruby. She is standing in
the doorway with a diaper bag on her shoulder, baby
Tamu on her hip, and a briefcase in her hand.
"But I can't find my big shell. I promised to bring it for
the science table," moans seven-year old Daryl from
somewhere deep in the house.
"But Mom," protests 13 year-old Tonya, I need to
wear my purple shirt and I'm not finished ironing it."
Mr. Smith shuts off the motor, takes a deep breath,
sets his jaws, slings open the car door and stomps toward
the house.
What a way to start the day! Unfortunately, most
people are familiar with at least one family like the
Smiths. Overworked parents and hurried children
combine to make a stressful family life. One agricultural
experiment station reported full-time (40 hrs. per week)
employment for 78% of the farm men and 63% for the
farm women. Examining motivation, attitudes and
practices, they found that these families had an "obvious
need for improved skills in both farm and household
financial management." An analysis of the study by C.
Warfield suggests that "farm families need skills in time
and stress management" as well.
These farm families are not alone. Two-earner non-
farm families and families of employed single parents
also live with daily pressure. They share persistent
concerns about household tasks, child care, personal
development, family relationships and community
involvement. Their lives seem out of control. There is
always too much to do and too little time. Tasks go un-
finished, items get lost, schedules aren't met and tempers
flare.
Just as farming is more than planting and harvesting,
homemaking is more than cooking, cleaning, or stitching
and stewing. Farming, homemaking or any other enter-
prise involves management. When management of
resources is intentional and thorough, businesses, farms
and homes run smoother and reach more goals.
Some resources that can be managed to enable families
to meet goals include energy and ability of family
members; possessions and space in the family dwelling;
human relationships; time; and money. Management
steps are the same for each of these resources. For
example, the process of making a financial plan is the
same as allocating space to family members for activities.
The steps are also the same when solving a family
problem, such as the Smith's, in getting a smooth yet
prompt start each morning.
The first step is goal setting. This step tells what you
really want. This means looking ahead, dreaming a little,
exploring values, setting priorities and then being rea-
listic. For Edward and Ruby Smith, the goal might be to
leave home at a set time with each family contented and
ready for the day's activities.
The second step is to honestly describe the current
situation. This step tells where you really are now. Be
specific about details and include consequence for each
family member. Don't guess. Keep written records.
Ruby Smith may think it takes ten minutes to get to
work but that may be driving time only. It may take
another ten minutes just to get everyone into the car.
The third step is to design a plan for action. It tells you
how to go from where you are now to where you want to
be by describing exactly what needs to be done, what
changes must be made. For example, school bags could
be packed and ready to go before the children go to bed.
In some cases, attitude changes may be necessary to carry
out this step. Family members may need to sacrifice a
little, compromise, put things on hold or redefine
concepts, such as "needs and wants," or "clean house
and good meals." Edward and Ruby Smith might need to
redefine "women's work and men's work."
The fourth step is to carry out the plan for a set period
of time. Involve the entire family. Even family members
who are not directly responsible can be encouraging and
supportive to those who are trying to learn new behavior
patterns. Be sure to applaud success.
The fifth step is to evaluate the process at the end of
the set period of time. If the plan is working, stay with it.
If it isn't working, look at the first two steps again.
Maybe the goal needs to be modified or the current situa-
tion viewed more realistically. Next, revise the plan for
action. Some families may try three or more plans before
they find one that works best for them. It will take effort,
but the rewards are worth it.
References
Bohen, H. and Viveras-Long A. Balancing]obs and Family Life.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981.
Partner, J. Stress in the Dual Farmer Family: A Case Study.
J.C. Penney Forum, May 1983.
Warfield, C. Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station Report,
1989.
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"EAT FRESH ISLAND BEEF'
The Role Of Plants In Medicine
In The U.S. Virgin Islands
By
LaVerne E. Ragster, Ph.D.
Division of Science and Mathematics
University of the Virgin Islands
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
and
Simone O. Heyliger*
College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Florida A&M University
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
The utilization of local and introduced plant species as
resources for food, shelter, clothing, weapons, trans-
portation, and medicine is a common characteristic of
cultures throughout the world. Today, even with the
increasing levels of technological sophistication found in
most of the Caribbean, plants are still an important
natural and cultural resource as they form the raw
materials for many medicines, foods, and material
goods.
The utilization of plants, in the Caribbean and else-
where, apparently developed out of a forced familiarity
with the environment and through trial and error over
the years. European and African methods for using
plants to treat disease came together in the Caribbean
region during the early colonization of the area, pro-
ducing a form of traditional medicine that includes teas,
tisanes, infusions, poultices, and baths as some of the
more;popular forms of remedies. Some practitioners of
folk or "bush" medicine incorporated spiritual aspects
into remedies through religious and magic rituals.
In the past, and to some degree today, information
about plants required to treat illnesses was transmitted
in an oral fashion through master-apprentice interac-
tions. Practitioners were aware of the importance of
using the correct dosage and were familiar with the
peculiarities of individual plant species. Through trial
and error, they learned that the same plant extract that
may be helpful at one dosage may be toxic at a different
dosage, or noneffectual at another. Folk remedies also
acknowledged that poisons and/or active components
could be concentrated more in one part of the plant than
in others, and that these substances could vary in quan-
tity seasonally. Many of the plants used for medicinal
purposes have been given local names based on gross
morphology, chemical characteristics, and behavior
(e.g., Silver Trumpet (Cecropia peltata), Stinking Weed
(Cassia occidentalis), Love Bush (Cuscuta americana).
* 1988 UVI Biology graduate, presently a doctoral candidate at
Florida A&M University.
It is not unusual to find the same species of plants
growing on many of the islands and countries of the
region or to find that communities throughout the archi-
pelago have included many of the same plants in their
folk remedies. However, distinct communities often call
the same plant by different common names and use the
plant to treat different disorders. For instance, Cecropia
peltata is called Trumpet Tree in Barbados, Guyana and
Jamaica; Trumpet Bush in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and
Bwa Cano in Trinidad. Reported uses cover a relatively
wide range and do not always overlap between the dif-
ferent communities. In Barbados, Cecropia leaves are
used to treat diabetes, hypertension, and kidney dis-
orders. In Jamaica, usage extends beyond hypertension,
to colds, and toxemia during pregnancy. In Trinidad, the
leaves are used to treat colds and hypertension, but in
Guyana, decoctions are used as sedatives and to flush the
kidneys, whereas in the Virgin Islands, persons needing
cooling, a diuretic, or relief from indigestion, are treated
with extracts of the leaves.
Throughout the region, misidentification of plants
can and has caused serious health problems for people
using local plants as a part of their primary health care
system. Misidentification can be a consequence of con-
fusion over multiple common names or similarities in
structure between different genera/species or a lack of
knowledge about the effects of the environment on
morphology. The situation becomes even more com-
plicated in places like the Virgin Islands where there is an
increased utilization of western medicines and drugs,
accelerated development of land for urbanization, rapid
expansion in the size and heterogeneity of the popu-
lation, and a decrease in the number of people actively
practicing folk medicine. Under these conditions, the
higher probability of misidentification and misuse of
plants by people with less expertise, supplemented by
less consensus on names, serves to exacerbate the prob-
lems of the unknown and/or serious consequences that
could result from the mixing of folk medicine and
western medicine.
The issue of the role of folk or bush medicine in the
primary health care of people who have traditionally
used plants and will probably continue to do so even if
they can afford or find Western drugs is a world-wide
concern. The United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other
groups, like ENDA-CARIBE (Environment and Devel-
opment of the Third World-Caribbean Group), have
begun to support scientific research on the plants utilized
for medicine by people in different areas. They propose
to use the resulting data as the basis for safer, improved
primary health care that includes local plant remedies.
The TRAMIL project (1984- ), an applied research
venture on traditional folk medicine from Haiti, the
Dominican Republic and the rest of the Caribbean
islands, represents the efforts of ENDA-CARIBE, the
Laboratory of Natural Products of the Faculty of Medi-
cine and Pharmacy at Port-au-Prince, the Federation of
Farmers Associations of Zambrana-Chacuey in the
Dominican Republic, and the team working at the dis-
pensary of Thomonde in the Central Plateau of Haiti,
towards the improvement and rationalization of folk
medicinal practices based upon the use of medicinal
plants. 1
Ethnopharmacological research on selected plant
species used as medicine in Haiti and the Dominican
Republic is being conducted. Four workshops have been
held (Haiti, 1984; the Dominican Republic, 1986;
Cuba, 1988; Honduras, 1989) to discuss the data col-
lected by laboratories and research groups. Following
the first one in 1984, surveys on the common use of
plants in medicine were also conducted in Columbia,
Dominica, Guatemala, and Honduras. The results were
used as the basis for research on an additional list of
selected plants. Very little information was available at
the workshops concerning the specific utilization of the
selected species (81 in 1988) by most English-speaking
islands and countries, including the Virgin Islands.'9' 2
However, there is some overlap with the plants included
in the TRAMIL research and commonly used species in
the Virgin Islands and the rest of the English-speaking
Caribbean. Hence, the toxicology and pharmacology of
the selected plants is of interest to all of the region.
This paper documents (Tables 1-3) the usage patterns
for the Virgin Islands found in the literature and from
interviews with community members known for their
expertise in the area of folk remedies.
The authors were able to find Virgin Islands' uses for
only 61 plants on the TRAMIL II list even though a
greater number grow in the territory. It should be noted
that Virgin Islanders of the past may have used the plants
differently than the more culturally heterogeneous,
sometimes less knowledgeable population of today.
Land use patterns in the Virgin Islands and changing
cultural attitudes have relegated many plants that were
used as medicine in the past to the category of weeds and
"bush" destined to be cut down or paved-over. The
herbarium at the Cooperative Extension Service of the
University of the Virgin Islands (St. Thomas campus) is
well on the way to being the location of a valuable col-
lection and information base on the terrestrial plants in
the territory. Additionally, a long-term project to docu-
ment the plants used in the Virgin Islands for medicine
has been initiated by UVI science faculty on St. Thomas
and the Cooperative Extension Service.
The TRAMIL II (1986) workshop refined the cthno-
pharmacological work that was conducted on the initial
list of 79 medicinal plants determined to be common
therapeutic agents for many groups of people in the
region. The following discussion addresses the corre-
lation between common uses and the chemistry and
pharmacology of these TRAMIL species used in the
Virgin Islands.
Annona muricata L.
Annona m. originally from South America, is
commonly called soursopp" in the Virgin Islands. The
plant is an evergreen tree that may attain a height of 20
feet. The large pulpy fruit with its thin black seeds is
edible and is commonly used to make a dessert or cold
drink. The oblong leaves are most often made into teas
and used in baths. The literature reports"' 1 soursop tea
is given to reduce tension, cool the body, and induce
sleep. It is reported that leaves inside the bed at night
cure pain.8 Personal interviews4 indicate that soursop tea
is also used to reduce the respiratory symptoms of colds
and flu.
Research19 results show that the fruit contains malic
acid, vitamins (riboflavin, niacin, ascorbic acid), amino
acids, and trace elements. The leaves and other parts of
the plant contain a number of alkaloids, including ste-
pharine (sedative), and antherospermine, which has
sedative, anticonvulsive, antiarrhythmia, anesthetic, and
antimycotic properties. High enough levels of these
chemicals could reduce tension and cause drowsiness.
The compound reticuline which has analgesic, spasmo-
lytic, and antibacterial properties could help reduce cold
or flu symptoms. The extracts from the soursop also
contain other alkaloids, steriods, terpenoids, flavonoids,
and phenolic compounds which may be involved in car-
cinogenic activity seen in experiments. Cases of over-
dosing of children when the plant extract is used as a
soporific have been reported, but the carcinogenic capa-
bility of the plant needs further investigation.
Petiveria alliacea L.
"Congo Root" or "Gully Root" is a pantropical
perennial herb that has a very strong smell of garlic when
crushed. In addition to being used in Obeah rituals, teas
are made from leaves to treat stomach aches and to serve
as an analgesic for muscle strains."' This tea can also be
used as a purgative and a vermifuge.5' 1s It has been re-
ported" that a tea made from the root has been used as an
abortifacient in the territory.
Research on the plant indicated a number of sec-
ondary metabolites and the presence of antibacterial and
antimycotic properties. The roots contain steroids, ter-
penoids, saponosides, and polyphenols. There is a need
to verify the toxicity as well as the analgesic and anti-
rheumatic activity reported for the plant.19 In this case,
the pharmacological properties identified do not com-
pletely match with the uses of the plant reported for the
Virgin Islands. Additional information about the chem-
ical compounds in the leaves and roots would be useful.
Chenopodium ambrosoides L.
"Wormgrass" is an herbaceous annual weed with
odorous leaves. Throughout the Caribbean, its main use
is a vermifuge.78'8 17
One verbal report4 indicated that some Virgin Island-
ers use a tea from the leaves to treat colds.
Pharmacological research on the plant indicates the
presence of essential oil throughout the plant containing
terpenes such as ascaridol that have antihelminthic
properties. Even though the essential oil also displays
antibacterial activity, some concern was expressed at the
TRAMIL II workshop about severe toxicity being asso-
ciated with high dosages.19 This plant illustrates con-
sensus between usage and pharmacological activity, but
with a caution regarding dosage levels.
People in the Virgin Islands who use plants as medi-
cine utilize a number of species from the Bignoniaceae,
Euphorbaceaae, Compositae, and Leguminosae families.
Plants in these families have large numbers of secondary
metabolites and toxins stored in various organs, thereby
accounting for their popularity in remedies and potential
danger to users. The value of the pharmacological
studies has the potential to address the effectiveness and
safety of plant remedies used by Caribbean people.
Additionally, the results of these studies can serve as a
much-needed link between folk/bush remedies and
western/official medicine which could lead to many
Caribbean peoples having the best of both types of
practices. There is a lot of work to be done if the region is
to identify and characterize plant or plant part extracts
that have compounds beneficial for treating illnesses
before they are lost to development or disuse. There-
fore, it is extremely important that this work be con-
tinued, completed, and results disseminated to medical
practitioners and the general public if Caribbean people
are to maximally utilize their environment as a part of
affordable primary health care systems that allow self-
reliance.
References
1. Adams, D., Magnus, K. and C. Seaforth. Poisonous Plants
in Jamaica. Jamaica: University of the West Indies, 1963.
2. Browne, M.S., Ph.D. Personal Interview. April, 1988.
3. Croom, E.M. Documenting and evaluating herbal reme-
dies. Eco. Bot. 37:13-27; 1983.
4. Heyliger, S. Personal Interview with I.R. England on St.
Thomas. Notes, Division of Science and Mathematics,
University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, USVI.
March, 1988.
5. Heyliger, S. Personal Interview with Elmira Farrel on St.
Thomas. Notes, Division of Science and Mathematics,
University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, USVI.
March, 1988.
6. Heyliger, S. Personal Interview with Toni Thomas on St.
Thomas. Notes, Division of Science and Mathematics,
University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, USVI.
1988.
7. Honychurch, P.N. Caribbean Wild Plants and Their Uses:
An Illustrated Guide to Some Medicinal and Wild Orna-
mental Plants of the West Indies. MacMillan: Caribbean,
1980.
8. Kuby, R.L. Folk Medicine of St. Croix: An Ethnobotanical
Study. Kansas: University of Kansas, 1979. Master's
Thesis.
9. Jadan, D. A Guide to the Natural History of St. John. Virgin
Islands: Environmental Studies Program Inc., 1979.
10. Lawrence, G.H.M., Taxonomy of Vascular Plants. New
York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1951.
11. Little, E.L. and F.H. Wadworth. Common Trees of Puerto
Rico. Washington: U.S. Department of Agriculture,
1964.
12. Little, E.L., Woodbury, Roy 0. and Wadsworth. Trees of
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Washington: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, 1974.
13. Morton, J.F. Atlas of Medicinal Plants of Middle America:
Bahamas to Yucatan. Illinois: Charles Thomas, 1981.
14. Melendez, E.N. Plantas Medicinales de Puerto Rico: Folk-
lore y Fundamentos: Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto
Rico.
15. Nelthropp, A. Medicinal Plants of the Virgin Islands. St.
Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, 1960s.
16. Oakes, A.J. and J.O. Butcher. Poisonous and Injurious
Plants of the U.S. Virgin Islands. St. Croix: Cooperative
Extension Service, College of the Virgin Islands, 1981.
17. Petersen, A. Herbs and Proverbs. Virgin Islands: St.
Thomas Graphics, 1974.
18. Seaforth, C.E., C.D. Adams and Y. Sylvester. A Guide to
the Medicinal Plants of Trinidad and Tobago. London:
Commonwealth Secretariat, n.d.
19. Thomas, T. Personal interview. Cooperative Extension
Service, University of the Virgin Islands. April, 1988.
20. Weniger, B. and L. Robineau. Seminarie, TRAMIL II.
Proceedings from workshop on folk medicine and phar-
macopera in the Caribbean. ENDA-CARIBE and ACCT.
Dominican Republic, 1986.
21. Weniger, B. and L. Robineau. Elements For al Caribbean
Pharmacopera. Proceedings of TRAMIL 3 workshop.
ENDA-CARIBE and Ministerio de Salud Publica,
CUBA. Cuba, 1988.
22. Woodbury, R.O., and P.L. Weaver. The Vegetation of St.
John and Hassel Island, U.S. Virgin Islands. n.p. 1978.
Table I
TRAMIL II PLANTS PRESENT IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
SCIENTIFIC NAMES
FAMILY
COMMON NAMES
ACALYPHA ALOPECUROIDA*
ALLIUM SATIVUM
ANNONA MURICATA
ANNONA RETICULATA
ARGEMONE MEXICANA
BIXA ORELLANA*
CALOCARPUM MAMMOSA*
CANAVALIA ENSIFORMIS*
CATALPA LONGISSIMA*
CHAMAESYCE PROSRATA
CHENOPODIUM AMBROSOIDES
CHIOCOCCA ALBA
CISSUS SICYOIDES
CITRUS AURANTIFOLIA
Botanical syn. CITRUS LIMETTA
CITRUS AURANTIUM*
CITRUS SINENSIS*
COCOS NUCIFERA
COFFEE ARABICA*
CUCURBITA MOSCHATA*
syn. PEPO MOSCHATA*
CRESCENTIA CUJETE
CYMBOPOGON CITRATUS
DATURA STRAMONIUM
ERYNGIUM FOETIDUM*
EUPATORIUM ODORATUM
EUPHORBIA HIRTA
FOENICULUM VULGARE
GOSSYPODIUM BARBADENSE
GUAZUMA ULMIFOLIA*
HAEMATOXYLON CAMPECHIANUM*
HAMELIA PATENS*
JATROPHA CURCAS
JATROPHA GOSSYPIFOLIA
LANTANA CAMERA
KALANCHOE PINNATA
Bot. syn. BRYOPHLLUM PINNATA
LEONITIS NEPETEFOLIA
MENTHA PIPERATA
MOMORDICA CHARANTIA
MUSA ACUMINATA
NERIUM OLEANDER
NICOTANIA TABACUM
OCIMUM GRATISSIMUM
PASSIFLORA SUBEROSA*
PERSERA AMERICANA
PETIVERIA ALLIACEA
PHYLLANTUS NIRURI
PLANTAGO MAJOR
PLUCHEA ODORATA
PLUMBAGO SCANDENS
PIMENTA RACEMOSA
PSEUDOELEPHANTOPUS
SPICATUS
PSIDIUM GUAJAVA
RHOEO SPATHACEA*
RICINUS COMMUNIS
AMARANTACEAE
LILIACEAE
ANNONACEAE
ANNONACEAE
PAPAVACEAE
BIXACEAE
SAPOTACEAE
FABACEAE
BIGNONIACEAE
EUPHORBIACEAE
CHENOPODIACEAE
RUBIACEAE
VITACEAE
RUTACEAE
RUTACEAE
RUTACEAE
PALMACEAE
RUBIACEAE
CURCURBITACEAE
BIGNONIACEAE
GRAMINEAE
SOLANACEAE
UMBELLIFERAE
COMPOSITAE
EUPHORBIACEAE
MALVACEAE
STERCULIACEAE
CEASALPINOIDAE
RUBIACEAE
EUPHORBIACEAE
EUPHORBIACEAE
VERBENACEAE
CARASSAULACEAE
LABIATAE
LABIATAE
CUCURBITACEAE
MUSACEAE
APOCYNACEAE
SOLANACEAE
LABIATAE
PASSIFLORACEAE
LAURACEAE
PHYTOLACCACEAE
EUPHORBIACEAE
PLANTAGINACEAE
COMPOSITAE
COMPOSITE
PLUMBAGINACEAE
COMPOSITAE
MYRTACEAE
EUPHORBIACEAE
GARLIC
SOURSOP
CUSTARD APPLE*
THISTLE, TISSEL
BROOMSTICK
MAMEY SAPOTE
HORSE BEAN, SWORD BEAN
MILKWEED
WORMGRASS
SNOWBERRY
PUDDING WYS, WYS VINE
PUDDING BUSH (?)
LIME
SOUR ORANGE
ORANGE
COCONUT
COFFEE
CALABASH
LEMON GRASS
JIMSONWEED, THORNAPPLE
FITWEED
SWEET CATTLE, CATTLE
TONGUE
MILKWEED
FENNEL
COTTON
LOGWOOD
PHYSIC NUT
BODY CATA
YELLOW SAGE
LEAF-OF-LIFE, LOVE LEAF
HOLLOW STALK
PEPPERMINT
MAIDEN APPLE
BANANA+
OLEANDER
TOBACCO
BASIL, BALSAM
AVOCADO
CONGO ROOT
CANE PIECE SENNA (?)
PLANTEN
SWEET SCENT
BLISTER LEAF
BAY RUM
BULL TONGUE
GUAVA
CASTOR BEAN
SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM*
SPONDIAS MOMBIN
STACHYTARPHETA JAMAICENSIS
TAMARINDUS INDICA
THYMUS VULGARE
TRICHILIA HIRTA*
ZEA MAYS*
GRAMINAE
ANACARDIACEAE
VERBENACEAE
CAESALPINOIDAE
MELEIACEAE
GRAMINAE
BUSH
SUGAR CANE
HOG PLUM
WORRYWINE, -VINE, VERVEIN
TAMON, TAMARIND
THYME
BROOMSTICK
CORN, MAIZE
* PLANT NOT KNOWN TO BE USED MEDICINALLY IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
+ PLANT BELIEVED TO BE PRESENT IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
? LOCAL USE OF NAME TO BE VERIFIED
Tramil II. Folk Medicine and Pharmacopeia in the Caribbean. Proceedings of workshop. Dominican Republic. November 20-26,1986.
Table II
ADDITIONAL PLANTS USED MEDICINALLY IN THE V.I.
SCIENTIFIC NAMES
ALOE VERA
ACHYRANTHES ASPERA
Bot. syn. ACHYRANTHES INDICA
ALBIZIA LEBBEK
ANNONA SQUAMOSA
BIDENS PILOSA
BURSERA SIMARUBA
CAJANUS CAJAN**
CARICA PAPAYA**
CASSIA ALATA
CASSIA OCCIDENTALIS**
CATHARANTHUS ROSEUS
CECROPIA PELTATA
CROTON ASTROITES
CUSCUSTA AMERICANA
EUCALYPTUS SPP.
EUPATORIUM TRIPLINERVE
GUIACUMA OFFICINALE
HIBISCUS SPP.**
MANIHOT ESCULENTUM
PASSIFLORA EDULIS
PIPER AMALGO
PUNICA GRANATUM
RIVINIA HUMILIS
SWIETENIA MAHAGON1
TABEBUIA HETEROPHYLLA
TECOMA STANS
THEOBROMA CACAO
WALTHERIA INDICA
WEDELIA TRILOBATA
FAMILY
LIL1ACEAE
AMARANTHACEAE
MIMOSOIDEAE
ANNONACEAE
COMPOSITAE
BUSERACEAE
FABEACEAE
CARIACEAE
CEASALPINOIDAE
CEASALPINOIDAE
APOCYNACEAE
MORACEAE
EUPHORBIACEAE
CONVOLVULACEAE
UMBELLIFERAE
COMPOSITAE
ZYGOPHYLLACEAE
MALVACEAE
EUPHORBIACEAE
PASSIFLORACEAE
PIPERACEAE
COMPOSITAE
PHYTOLACCACEAE
MELIACEAE
BIGNONIACEAE
BIGNONIACEAE
STERCULIACEAE
STERCULIACEAE
COMPOSITE
COMMON NAMES
SEMPERVIVY
MAN-BETTER-MAN
TIBBET, MOTHER-IN-LAW'S
TONGUE
SUGAR APPLE
NEEDLE GRASS
TURPENTINE
PIGEON PEAS
PAPAYA
SASPIRILLA, CANDLE BUSH
STINKING WEED
PERIWINKLE
SILVER TRUMPET
MARAN
LOVE VINE, -BUSH, YELLOW
DODDER
EUCALYPTUS
JAPANA
LIGNUM VITAE
HIBISCUS
CASSAVA
BELL APPLE
BLACK WATILE
POMEGRANATE
JUMBIE PEPPER
BUSH
MOHOGANY
WHITE CEDAR
GINGER THOMAS
COCOA, CHOCOLATE TREE
MARSHMALLOW
WEDELIA, SNAKEROOT
These plants were not included in the TRAMIL II list but 4 of them were included on the TRAMIL 3 (**) list.
Table III
SOME MEDICINAL USES OF THE PLANTS PRESENT IN THE V.I.
ABORTIFACIENT
CUSCUTA AMERICANA
GUAICUMA OFFICINALE
HIPPOMANE MANCINELLA
NERIUM OLEANDER
PASSIFLORA EDULIS
PERSERA AMERICANA
PETIVERIA ALLIACAE
SWIETENIA MAHAGONIE
ARGEMONE MEXICANA
BIDENS PILOSA
BURSERA SIMARUBA
CAJANUS CAJAN
COCOS NUCIFERA
CASSIA ALATA
DATURA STRAMONIUM
GOSSYPODIUM BARBADENSE
JATROPHA CURCAS
JATROPHA GOSSYFOLIA
MOMORDICA CHARANTIA
NICOTANIA TABACUM
OCIMUM GRATISSIUM
PETIVERIA ALLIACAE
PHYLLANTUS NIRURI
PULCHEA SPP.
RICINUS COMMUNIS
COCOS NUCIFERA
GOSSYPODIUM BARBADENSE
ALOE VERA
NICOTANIA TABACUM
PIMENTA RACEMOSA
LOVE BUSH
LIGNUM VITAE
MANCHINEEL
OLEANDER
BELL APPLE
AVOCADO
CONGO ROOT
MOHAGONY
ANALGESIC
TISSEL, THISTLE
NEEDLE GRASS
TURPENTINE
PIGOEN PEAS BUSH
COCONUT
SASPIRILLA, CANDLEBUSH
JIMSONWEED
COTTON BUSH
PHYSIC NUT, FRENCH PHYSIC NUT
BELLYACHE BUSH, WILD PHYSIC NUT,
BODY CATA
MAIDEN APPLE
TOBACCO
CONGO ROOT, GULLY ROOT
GERITOUT
CASTORBEAN
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY
ANTISEPTIC
COCONUT
COTTON BUSH
SEMPERVIVY
TOBACCO
BAY RUM
ANTISPASMODIC (ANTI-CRAMPS)
COLEUS SPP.
PHYLLANTUS AMARUS (?); NIRURI (?)
ALOE VERA
CARICA PAPAYA
CATHARANTHUS ROSEUS
MOMORDICA CHARANTA
PUNICA GRANATUM
STACHYTARPHETA JAMAICENSIS
PSIDIUM GUAJAVA
ALLIUM SATIVUM
HIBISCUS SPP.
PETIVERIA ALLIACEA
PSEUDOELEPHANTUS SPICATUS
MOMORDICA CHARANTIA
BITTER THYME
CANE PEACE SENNA
ANTIDIABETIC
SEMPERVIVY
PAPAYA, PAW PAW, PAPAY
PERIWINKLE, OLD MAID, STINKING TOE
MAIDEN APPLE
POMEGRANATE
WORRYWINE
GUAVA
CIRCULATORY PROBLEMS
GARLIC
HIBISCUS
CONGO ROOT
BULL TONGUE
MAIDEN APPLE
COOLING
WALTHERIA INDICA
ANNONA MURICATA
CECROPIA PELTATA
PIPER AMALGO
CASSIA OCCIDENTALIS
PIPER AMALGO
WALTHERIA INDICA
BURSERA SIMARUBA
RIVINIA HUMILIS
SWIETENIA MAHAGONIE
CECROPIA PELTATA
CECROPIA PELTATA
FEONICULUM VULGARE
CONSTIPATION
DIARRHEA
MARSHMALLOW
SOURSOP
SILVER TRUMPET
BLACK WATTLE
STINKING WEED
BLACK WATTLE
MARSHMALLOW
TURPENTINE
JUMBLE PEPPER BUSH
MOHAGANY
DIURETIC
SILVER TRUMPET
DIGESTIVE AILMENTS
SILVER TRUMPET
FENNEL
EXPECTORANT
ALOE VERA
CRESCENTIS CUJETE
LANTANA CAMERA
NICOTANIA TABACUM
PSEUDOELEPHANTUS SPICATUS
THYMUS VULGARIS
EUPATORIUM ODORATA (?)
CISSUS SICYOIDES
PLUMBAGO SCANDANS (?)
SEMPERVIVY, -WIBY
CALABASH
YELLOW SAGE
TOBACCO
BULL TONGUE
THYME
CHRISTMAS BUSH
PUDDING BUSH
BLISTER BUSH, BLISTER LEAF
FEBRIFUGE
PIMENTA RACEMOSA
CYMBOPOGON CITRATUS
CITRATUS AURANTIFOLIA
LEONITIS NEPETAEFOLIA
JATROPHA CURCAS
RIC1NUS COMMUNIS
TECOMA STANS AND TABEBUIA
HETEROPHYLLA (taken together)
BAY RUM BUSH
LEMON GRASS
LIME
HOLLOWSTALK, RABBIT'S FOOD
PHYSIC NUT
CASTOR OIL
GINGER THOMAS AND WHITE CEDAR
HYPOTENSIVE
ANNONA MURICATA
CECROPIA PELTATA
TAMARINDUS INDICA
SOURSOP
SILVER TRUMPET
TAMON, TAMARIND
RESPIRATORY AILMENTS (COLDS and FLUS)
ALBIZIA LEBBEK
ANNONA MURICATA
ARGEMONE MEXICANA
ALOE VERA
CASSIA OCCIDENTALIS
CHENOPODIUM AMBROSOIDES
CITRUS AURANTIFOLIA
CRESCENTIA CUJETE
CYMBOPOGON CITRATUS
THIBET, TIBBET, MOTHER-IN-LAW'S
TONGUE
SOURSOP
THISTLE
SEMPERVIVY
STINKING WEED
WORMGRASS
LIME
CALABASH
LEMON GRASS
EUCALYPTUS SPP.
EUPATORIUM TRIPLINERVE
JATROPHA CURCAS
LANTANA CAMERA
MOMORDICA CHARANTIA
PIPER AMALGO
PSEUDOELEPHANTUS SPICATUS
PULCHEA ODORATA
SPONDIAS MORBIN
TAMARINDUS INDICA
ANNONA MURICATA
CATHARANTHUS ROSEUS
BIDENS PILOSA
JATROPHA CURCAS
MOMORDICA CHARANTIA
NICOTANIA TABACUM
PETIVERIA ALLIACEA
SEDATIVE
PURGATIVE
TONIC
ACHYRANTHES ASPERA
GUIACUMA OFFICINALE
EUCALYPTUS
JAPANA
PHYSIC NUT
YELLOW SAGE
MAIDEN APPLE
BLACK WATTLE
BULL TONGUE
SWEET SCENT
HOGPLUM
TAMON
SOURSOP
PERIWINKLE
NEEDLE GRASS
PHYSIC NUT
MAIDEN APPLE
TOBACCO
CONGO ROOT
MAN-BETTER-MAN
LIGNUM VITAE
URINARY PROBLEMS
PLANTAGO MAJOR
VENEREAL DISEASES
CROTON ASTROITES
CHAMAESYCE PROSTRATA
ALOE VERA
ALLIUM SATIVUM
CHENOPODIUM AMBROSOIDES
JATROPHA CURCAS
PETIVERIA ALLIACEA
RICINUS COMMUNIS
VERMIFUGE
MARAN
MILKWEED
SEMPERVIVY
GARLIC
WORMGRASS
PHYSIC NUT
CONGO ROOT
CASTOR OIL
PLANTEN
Injurious Plants
By
Toni Thomas
Extension Agent Natural Resources
UVI Cooperative Extension Service
During the expeditions of Columbus, according to the
story, explorers reached the beaches of the Caribbean
islands and found the manchineel tree. The round,
yellow fruits of this tree smelled temptingly delicious
and looked very much like the wild apples that they
knew from back home. When the men swallowed the
fruit, however, to their surprise, they experienced excru-
ciating and burning pain. Some suffered convulsions,
shock and torturous death.
Warnings about the dangers of local plants like the
manchineel (Hipponane manchinella) have been passed
on for generations. Plants that could poison or cause
skin irritation became well known. Plants with caustic
sap such as manchineel were handled with care or
avoided. The attractive fruits of the shrub physic nut
(Jatropha curcas), and herbs, such as called stinking weed
or joy juice (Datura species from the deadly nightshade
family, were recognized as potentially lethal.
Very poisonous plants may be used as medicine if
handled carefully. For example, all of the plants
mentioned in this article have been used medicinally.
Even the irritating pain caused by the contact of the
stinging nettle vine (Tragia volubilis) has been used to
stimulate poor circulation in the legs of elderly people.
Because lifestyles have changed, much of the special
knowledge about plants passed on from generation to
generation has been lost.
Why Plants Are Injurious
Many parts of plants, including spines, stinging hairs,
pollens and chemical substances can injure humans.
Plant parts, such as thorns or irritating hairs and toxic
chemicals, protect the plants from insect and animal
predators. There is no cold season in the subtropical
climate of the U.S. Virgin Islands where insects are
destroyed by freezing temperatures. In our climate,
plants have developed defensive mechanisms to protect
themselves from constant insect attacks. Other environ-
mental factors, such as soil and rainfall, also affect the
presence or absence of poisonous principles in plants.
Some plants are poisonous under nearly all conditions
while others are poisonous only under some conditions
and during certain seasons.
Almost all plants have some level of toxicity. Organic
compounds such as alkaloids can be poisonous to
humans; other substances like certain non-toxic
glycosides may be harmless themselves but may change
to form toxic products after they are eaten. In some
plants, toxic inorganic elements accumulated mostly
from the soil may also be toxic. Plants are grouped
together into families based on floral characteristics.
Plants in some families have more toxins than plants in
other families.
In this region, the EUPHORBIACEAE (poinsettia or
castor bean, etc.), SOLANACEAE (tomato, stinking
weed, etc.), and APOCYNACEAE (oleander, etc.) are
examples of families which have many members with
poisonous compounds. The milky latex sap often found
in these families is usually toxic.
Poisonous Imports
Some plants were brought to these islands by Africans
who hid the seeds from slave traders. These smuggled
plants were thought to have special power and were
known to be poisonous. Jumbee bead vine (Abrus pre-
catorius), probably carried to Africa by Arab traders,
bore a striking red and black shiny seed used for jewelry
and money. When the hard coating of this seed was
broken, the contents could cause rapid death when
eaten. Another prized and potentially deadly poisonous
plant brought by Africans was the shrub castor bean
(Ricinus communis). The seeds of this West African
shrub yielded an oil which served as a lubricant, medi-
cinal laxative and potent poison. Slaves who had knowl-
edge of the deadly poisons in these African plants were
empowered with a form of weaponry against potential
enemies.
Other toxic, but beautiful, exotic plants have been
introduced to these islands. Oleander (Nerium oleander),
poinsettia (Euphorbia plucherrima), and even the bulb of
the innocent-looking Barbados lily (Hippeastrum equestre)
contain chemicals that could trigger allergies, seriously
irritate the skin and cause death. One of the most
poisonous plants on these islands is an ornamental small
tree ironically called the lucky nut (Thevetia peruviana).
It is full of a deadly white latex which may cause hearing
failure. Children have died from eating only two of the
fruits.
Plants Causing Injury
Inflammation and irritation occur when plant parts like
spines, thorns, bristles, stinging hairs or needle sharp
oxalate crystals inflame and injure the skin or mucous
membranes. Caustic saps and latex from plants can cause
burning and blistering. Plant families, EUPHORBI-
ACEAE (manchineel, lucky nut); APOCYNACEAE
(frangipani Plumeria species); and ARACACEAE
(dumbcane Dieffenbachia seguine) have many members
with irritating saps and latex.
I
STragia Volubilis
"Stinging Nettle"
fenbachia seguine) have many members with irritating
saps and latex.
Some plants contain chemicals which sensitize skin to
sunlight, causing a sunburn-like rash, itching and blis-
tering. Contact with the herb wormwood (Chenopodium
ambrosioides), a commonly used bush tea and the essen-
tial oils from citrus plants like lime bush, (Citrus auranti-
folia) can cause this type of sensitivity.
Contact with other plants can result in delayed hyper-
sensitivity. It may take days or weeks for inflammation
or tissue damage to appear. Some local plants suspected
in this category are: bird pepper (Capsicum annuum),
Christmas bush (Comocladia dodonea), mango (Mangi-
fera indica), cashew (Anacardium occidentale), and
wormwood.
Dangers Of Plants Causing Allergic Reactions
The problems caused by plant derived allergens range
from hay fever, skin rashes and asthma to the life-
threatening reaction of anaphylactic shock.
In humans, plant compounds such as pollens, saps or
essential fragrances can trigger immune system dis-
orders. A person sensitive to allergens over-reacts to
plant pollens and spores. Substances called proteins
released from the flower during pollination can also
inflame the mucous membranes of man. Airborne
pollens and microscopic spores from fungi on plants and
in soil affect the respiratory system and skin. Casha trees
(Acacia species), mango (Mangifera indica), and Bermu-
da grass (Cynondon dactylon) and Guinea grass (Panicum
maximum) are some well-known plants with pollens that
cause allergies. The grass family (POACEAE), aster
family (ASTERACEAE) and pigweed family (AMA-
RANTHACEAE) have many members that cause aller-
gies throughout the world. These families are abundant
in our region. The number of patients suffering from
respiratory allergies in the U.S. Virgin Islands are in-
creasing according to local doctors.
Certain plant saps and chemicals can cause symptoms
when the skin is exposed to them. Milky latex from
plants such as the shrub milkweed (Calotropis procera)
and the vine allamanda (Allamanda cathartica) or papaya
(Carica papaya) causes irritating skin allergies. Plants can
also cause allergies when eaten. Results may be vomi-
ting, diarrhea, hives or even death in severe cases.
Research on Caribbean plants causing allergies is very
limited, and not much is known about which native
pollen bearing plants cause problems.
Slow Poisoning
Not much is known about plants that may slowly
poison or cause hypersensitivity and disease. These
plants are often used regularly as food or drink. This is a
significant health concern. More scientific research is
needed to prove whether habitually used plants are
toxic.
As mentioned earlier, past generations of Caribbean
people possessed considerable knowledge about how to
use local plants. Information was carefully prescribed
about which specific plants should be used for remedies,
the best times for gathering plants, preparation and
dosages. Occasionally dangerous plant toxins can be
neutralized when they are boiled, and often times toxi-
city varies with quantity. For example, two leaves of a
potentially toxic plant can be used in a remedy, whereas
three leaves may cause a toxic reaction. These details are
important to knowledgeable herbalists.
ISLAND FURNITURE HOUSE
ISLAND FURNITURE HOUSE
P.O. Box 756, Christiansted, St. Croix
U. S. Virgin Islands, 00821
Aida Torres Manager
Ph: (809) 778-5930 Fax: (809) 778-0020
The interest in "bush teas" remains a viable and
important part of the cultural tradition of the U.S.
Virgin Islands. However, use of local medicinal plants
can be dangerous if traditional guidelines for methods of
selection and preparation are disregarded. On the other
hand, findings from current scientific research suggest
that some traditionally used herbal remedies do pose
health hazards.
i T.. CROIX CABLE
"wWe're growing
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P.O. Box 5968
Heron Commercial Park
Christiansted, St. Croix
TV U.S. Virgin Islands
778-6701
24 Hours
of
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7 Days a Week
NEIGHBORHOOD
CAR SALES
NEIGHBORHOOD CAR SALES, your auto connection that gives you
a touch of class, brings to the island, especially for you, the greater
variety of taxi vans, cargo vans, church vans, trucks, used cars (small,
medium and large), and special ordered new and used cars.
Located just across from Gannet Hardware. Stop by and wheel a deal
with Rodgers for the vehicle of your choice!
P.O. Box 8560 Sunny Isle, St. Croix USVI 00823 (809) 778-5007
F
4-G Sion Farm
Christiansted
Island Dairies
DAIRY PRODUCTS
Island Dairies Milk is 100% pure milk,
directly from the cows.
778-5060 778-5050
MILK
(/2 pints, quarts, /2 gallons, 6 gallon)
Nonfat
Buttermilk
Chocolate
Cream
Eggnog
JUICES
(/2 pint, 10 oz., Y/ gallon)
Orange
Passion Fruit
Guavapineapple
Ice Tea
Apple Juice
ICE CREAM (4 oz., pint, quart, z gallon, 22 gallon)
Vanilla Butter Almond
Chocolate Coconut
Strawberry Pineapple
Rum Raisin Frozen Fruit
Pistachio Cherry Vanilla
Coffee Chocolate Chip
Butter Pecan Banana
FROZEN NOVELTIES
Rainbow Coconut Bar
Banana Bar Ice Cream Sandwich
Deluxe Ice Cream Bar
BUTTER
Lurpak Butter
0 -- -
The Importance Of Rangeland To Man
By
Olasee Davis
Extension Specialist Natural Resources
UVI Cooperative Extension Service
Of the earth's land surface, 43% is occupied by range-
land, 11% by farming, 31% by commercial forests, and
15% by ice. All areas except the ice-covered regions of
the world produce forage for domestic and wild animals,
water and space for recreation. Rangeland supplies addi-
tional products to our economy such as minerals,
construction materials, medicines, chemicals, fuel, and
areas for preservation of endangered species. Regardless
of whose figures are used, rangelands are the primary
land type in the world.
As elsewhere in the world, rangeland plays a major
part in the Virgin Islands agricultural industry. Roughly
75% of our agricultural land is devoted to animal hus-
bandry. These areas include pasturelands, shrublands,
grasslands, and open forestlands which decorate the
landscape on St. Croix. The wide difference in the
topography throughout the Virgin Islands explains the
differences in climate, soil, rainfall, and vegetation that
make up the rangeland ecology.
Wildlife
Rangelands provide a wide range of economical bene-
fits. For example, rangeland in the Virgin Islands
supports the cattle, goat and sheep industry and con-
tributes to our local economy. Virgin Island rangelands
serve as a habitat for nearly all the land-dwelling wild
animals, and our dry open forest contains the largest
number of species of birds in the Virgin Islands.
In the United States, wildlife contributes roughly 10%
of the gross national product. For other countries, such
as Kenya, the income from tourists viewing wildlife is of
critical importance to the country's economy. As with
the state of Texas in particular, income generated from
selling hunting privileges can exceed that from livestock
on open rangeland. Rangeland wildlife is used as a source
of meat for human consumption in many African and
South American countries.
Water
Another resource that rangeland provides is water.
On St. Croix, a large part of our groundwater occurs
under rangeland. Jolly Hill, for example, is one of the
major underground water supplies which is surrounded
by open forest and pastureland. Areas like this play a
major part in providing water for the residents of St.
Croix. Even in the Western United States, water is be-
coming more important than forage as a rangeland
product. These areas not only provide water for resi-
dents but also for the agricultural industry.
Rangeland on St. Croix Soil Conservation Service Photo
Recreational Product
The increasing population in the Virgin Islands will
make rangelands more important as a place for man to
engage in outdoor recreational pursuits. Hiking, biking,
camping, picnicking, horseback riding, hunting, fishing
and rock hunting are some of the important recreational
uses rangelands have to offer in the Virgin Islands. Thus,
open space and natural scenery is important to the
islands' economy, and more open range areas must be set
aside in order for recreation to play a greater part in our
economic development.
Marketable recreational products, such as hunting
and camping, could provide additional income to the
local ranchers who have large acreage.
FROOUCTS AND USES
Wood and Minerals
Wood is an important product on rangelands.
Although the Virgin Islands does not presently produce
timber, there is potential for lumber production on a
small scale. Timber, livestock, and wildlife production
occur concurrently on many range places, such as in
Africa, the United States and other countries around the
world. Integrated rangeland management can enhance
our islands' economy.
The amount of rangeland in the world is expected to
decline substantially in the future. Rangeland in Africa
and South America is being converted into farmland. As
the rapid growth in population continues in the Virgin
Islands, open land, particularly on the island of St.
Croix, will decrease to a fraction of what it used to be.
Regardless of these changes, rangeland will continue to
be the predominant land type in the world.
Woalr
Open space ond recreolion
The rangeland ecosystem and its products. (From Blaisdcll el al. 1970.)
Plant Products
Rangelands produce a wide variety of plants that
could be very important in meeting our economic needs.
Salt-tolerant seashore saltgrass (Distichlis spicata) at
Sandy Point on St. Croix has considerable potential to
be a productive forage species on land with prolonged
drought and excessive salinity. Today, many rangeland
shrubs are being developed and used for landscaping
purposes. On the eastern end of St. Croix, there are
shrubs, particularly cactus (Mammillaria hahniana) and
other species (Cerus peruvianus) that can be used as orna-
mentals in local landscaping.
Guayule (Parthenuim argentatum) is a desert shrub
found in the western region of the United States which
contains rubber that can be used for tires, medical sup-
plies and other items. Some of the desert forbs and
shrubs in the Virgin Islands contain substances that may
inhibit cancer growth and have other medical properties.
Needless to say, many rangeland plants in the Virgin
Islands have the potential to be developed into valuable
domestic food and forage species using new genetic engi-
neering techniques.
References
Blaisdell, J.P., V.L. Duvall, R.W. Harris, R.D. Lloyd and E.H.
Reid. 1970. Range Research to Meet New Challenges and
Goals. J. Range Mgmt. 22:227-334.
Air Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 1982 Production
Yearbook. United Nations FAO Statistics Series No. 47.
Rome, Italy.
Williams, R.E., B.W. Allred, R.M. Denio, and H.A. Paulsen,
Jr. 1968. Conservation, Development, and Use of the World's
Rangelands. J. Range Mgmt. 21:355-360.
U-
McDonald's
Virgin Islands
ST. THOMAS
Wheatley Shopping Center
FAX Number
774-3240
(809) 774-5488
ST. CROIX
Ville La Reine Shopping Center
Golden Rock (Miracle Mile)
Business Office
FAX Number (81
778-1300
773-2852
773-3119
09) 773-4032
Water Conservation And Development
A Virgin Islands Priority
By
James K. Newman
District Conservationist USDA SCS
It is well-known that the lack of fresh water is the
major limitation for development of agriculture in the
Virgin Islands. Not only does the lack of water restrict
agriculture, but industry, business, and the ordinary
home owner must pay dearly for fresh water for washing,
cooking, drinking and other basic daily necessities of
life. As the population of the Virgin Islands continues to
grow, so does the demand for our limited water supply.
But from where will this water come?
While heavy industry may be able to afford the
expensive process of desalinization of sea water, agri-
culture and home owners must depend on less expensive
sources. But does a less expensive and dependable source
exist? The answer to this question is, yes, a less expensive
source of water does exist in the Virgin Islands. In fact,
this source is free, reliable and pure. This source
provides St. Croix with over 44,000,000,000 gallons of
water per year or about 2,400 gallons of water per
person per day. It provides St. Thomas with over
16,000,000,000 gallons of water per year or about
1,000 gallons of water per person per day and it provides
St. John with over 10,000,000,000 gallons of water per
year or over 7,000 gallons of water per person per day.
This source is called RAINFALL.
With such an abundant source of pure water, why do
we continue to have a shortage of water? The pattern in
the Virgin Islands is that rainfall generally occurs during
only two months of the year, around May and
September. When so much rain falls in such a short
period, most of it runs off the land and is lost to the sea.
Of course, we can't expect to catch every drop of
water that falls over our islands, but just a small portion
of this rainfall can satisfy our needs if it is properly
managed. In fact, if we could capture and store just 10%
of the rainfall over the island of St. Thomas, the
domestic needs of every St. Thomas resident would be
met. In St. Croix, less than 5% of the island's total
rainfall is required to meet residential domestic needs.
It is apparent that if we could only develop storage for
a small percentage of our total rainfall, our needs would
be satisfied. The idea of storing rain water for future use
is not new. Cisterns of one form or another have been
used for hundreds of years in the Virgin Islands. In the
past fifty years retention ponds have been constructed to
store water for agricultural use. The earth itself is able to
absorb rainfall and store it as groundwater.
During the past several decades, there has been a
tremendous increase in population, and urban develop-
ment covers a lot of land which was once able to absorb
much of our rainfall. Now all the water rushes off paved
roads, parking lots and driveways and is lost. However,
by using paved surfaces, water loss can be turned into
water conservation by using the cistern concept.
Although runoff from paved areas may be too contam-
inated for direct consumption, it can provide an excel-
lent supply of water for farms and home gardens. Luis
Berry, a St. Thomas farmer, uses this method of water
conservation to make production on his farm possible
and even profitable. By diverting storm water runoff
from a road into a cistern, Mr. Berry is able to use water
from the rainy season for production during the dry
season.
While it is true that we already have hundreds of
storm water retention ponds in the Virgin Islands, most
of these ponds have the capacity to store only a small
fraction of what runs off after a heavy rain. Many of
these ponds are filled with sediment from years of col-
lecting water and need to be cleaned to increase their
capacity.
The Virgin Islands Government has a program speci-
fically for the construction and renovation of ponds.
This program is considered the most important and
potentially beneficial program within the local agricul-
ture department, especially for St. Croix where the
potential for pond development is highest. The funding
available for this program, however, is not enough to
meet the water conservation needs of the Virgin Islands.
St. Croix has several areas with potential for the
development of water reservoirs with many times the
capacity of existing ponds. Reservoirs can serve
domestic, industrial, and agricultural needs. The realiza-
tion of large scale water development will take a co-
operative effort among many government agencies, full
support from the entire community, and tenacious
leadership.
While a serious water development effort is
important, there are many things we can do at home
which can help to conserve our precious water now. For
example, dripping faucets waste 200-300 gallons of
water a month, costing hundreds of dollars per year. Our
toilets also waste a tremendous amount of water since it
takes about four to six gallons of water per flush. Using
water dams or water-conserving flush mechanisms, saves
water. One way to save 30% to 90% of shower water is
by installing low-flow shower heads and learning to
shower with as little water as possible. By doing this, a
person can save 40 gallons of water per shower.
The solution to our water problem, then, is to develop
adequate storage for our rain water when it does fall and
to learn to use this water efficiently. The Virgin Islands
has the natural resources to maintain an adequate fresh
water supply. We only need to make the investment now
for adequate storage facilities and learn to conserve so
that in the years to come we will have the water we need.
For more information on how water conservation can
save energy and money, visit your local Energy Office at
the Queen Magdalene Court, #38 Queen Cross Street or
call 772-2616.
o 8 so a co 40 'o
60 66 1 6 6
SCHUSTER'S SERVICES
&
BLUE MOUNTAIN WATER
WATER DELIVERY BOTTLED WATER
P.O. Box 948
Christiansted, St. Croix
United States Virgin Islands 00821
Office: (809) 778-6177
Res: (809) 778-8386
Lowell O. Schuster
I I
FREIGHT FORWARDING
S* TRUCKING
AIR CARGO
MOVING/SHIPPING
SPACKING/WAREHOUSING
778-9160
Box 4310 Kingshill, St. Croix 00851-4310 Alexander Hamilton Airport
FAX 778-9003
I
'WI0 c' mI
- CIAIDEF 0 -'! 001
Governor Alexander A. Farrelly joined by Dr. Darshan S. Padda,
UVI's Vice President, DEDA Commissioner Eric E. Dawson, Sena-
tor Bent Lawaetz and Dr. Arthur A. Richards, UVI President as
"Agriculture Day" April 7, 1990 was declared officially opened.
At the 1988 Agriculture and Food Fair, the Claude O'Markoe
School booth display captured the attention of fairgoers. Their
creative representation of Virgin Islands agriculture inspired
the cover of the 1989 Agriculture and Food Fair Bulletin.
(Photo by Carrol B. Fleming)
The official opening of the 1989 Agriculture and Food Fair.
One of the special events of the 1989 Fair was the "Pigeon Peas
and Rice Contest." Louise Samuel was the prestigious winner of
this event.
PNNNP
Mr. McComely Bully receiving the 1989 prestigious Farmer of
the Year award from Governor Alexander A. Farrelly and Dr.
Darshan S. Padda, UVI's Vice President. One of the major highlights of "Agriculture Day" 1990, was the
(Photo by Carrol B. Fleming) performance by the Buffalo Soldiers as they entertained the
crowd.
I A member of the
Civil Air Patrol di-
Srecting traffic at the
main entrance of
L the Fair.
(Photo by Carrol B.
Fleming)
= I -AM
aI
A participant in the "Farmer's Mar-
ket for many years, George Moore
proudly accepts a ribbon for his
pumpkin in the 1987 Fair from Dr.
Arthur Peterson, Director of Rules
and Awards.
(Photo by KC)
Students from
Charles Emanuel
charmed the crowd
at the 1988 opening
ceremonies.
(Photo by Carrol B.
Fleming)
iFairgoers watched and listened attentively as Extension Agent
Sue Lakos explained the proper care and handling of livestock.
(Photo by Carrol B. Fleming)
The Dubarry family displaying their plants
Agriculture and Food Fair.
1986 Farmer of the Year, Albert Edwards receiving a beautiful
mahogany clock from Delegate to Congress Ron De Lugo and
Dr. Darshan S. Padda, UVI Vice President.
(Photo by Liz Wilson)
Dr. Darshan S. Padda, UVI's Vice President for Research and Land
Grant Affairs, proudly showing a UVI/CES Agriculture Program
exhibit to Governor Alexander A. Farrelly.
Cutting the ribbon signaled the official opening of the 1984 Agriculture and Food
Fair. The ribbon cutting was done by USDA's Dr. Joan Wallace, assisted by
Governor Juan Luis, Lt. Governor Julio Brady, Agriculture Commissioner Patrick
Williams, Senator Sidney Lee, UVI President Dr. Arthur A. Richards, Delegate to
Congress Ron De Lugo and UVI Vice President Dr. Darshan S. Padda (Fair Vice
President).
John Turnbull accepting the 1982 "Farm Family of
the Year" award from Governor Juan Luis.
(Photo by Liz Wilson)
Police Pre-Cadets food booth
received the most awards for their
variety of dishes at the 1984 Fair.
(Photo by Liz Wilson)
Vieques Folk Dancers entertained fairgoers at the 1985 Fair.
(Photo by Liz Wilson)
Miguel Colon posed with Lt. Governor Julio Brady and Com-
missioner of Agriculture Patrick Williams after receiving the
1985 "Farm Family of the Year" award.
(Photo by Liz Wilson)
4-H'er Germaine Chery presented Governor Juan Luis with a
souvenir of the 1982 Fair, as Commissioner of Agriculture
Rudolph Shulterbrandt looked on.
/Phntn hv Liz Wil.kn)
Dr. Darshan S. Padda joined by AES Aquaculture staff in ex-
plaining the hydroponic project to UVI President Dr. Arthur A.
Richards at the 1981 Fair.
Clinton George, Director of UVI Exhibits, explains UVI Land-Grant programs
to Governor Alexander A. Farrelly and DEDA Commissioner Eric E. Dawson.
(Photo by Carrol B. Fleming)
Pigeon races were an added attraction at the
1989 Fair.
(Photo by Carrol B. Fleming)
4-H'ers displaying their calves at the 1989 Fair. (Photo by Carrol B. Fleming)
C 7 CO EST
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ce Contest tasting various dishes prepared by food booth
Water Research
For The Virgin Islands Community
J. Hari Krishna
Director Water Resources Research Center
and
Robert H. Ruskin
Research Specialist Water Resources Research Center
The Water Resources Research Center (WRRC)
located at the St. Thomas campus of UVI conducts
research that benefits the Virgin Islands community.
Water research sponsored or conducted by WRRC in
the past has included diverse areas such as water quality,
water conservation, water use, water law and water
management. Examples of recent studies conducted by
the Water Resources Research Center are given below.
Cistern Water Quality
Since cisterns are an integral part of the Virgin Islands
structures for water storage and supply, studies were
conducted to evaluate the quality of the cistern water
systems. Water samples were taken from private homes,
public housing complexes, hotels, resorts and guest
houses. In all, 450 samples were collected and analyzed.
Results revealed that about 62% of the water samples
did not meet the safe drinking water standards. A ma-
jority of those that did not comply with the drinking
water standards were private homes where no chlori-
nation was practiced.
Several recommendations can be made to improve the
quality of cistern water:
1. Remove overhanging trees and branches from the
roofs to reduce vegetative matter and bird and
animal droppings from washing down into the
cistern.
2. Install screens at the gutters to prevent leaves and
other large objects from washing down (screens
may have to be checked and cleaned periodically to
ensure free passage for rooftop run-off).
3. Clean cisterns at least once every five years and
remove any organic matter and other foreign
objects that might have washed into the cistern.
4. Chlorinate the cistern water by adding ordinary
household bleach. Five ounces of bleach should be
added per 1000 gallons of water. (Gallons =
Volume in cubic ft. x 7.48). Depending upon the
quality of the water, re-chlorinating at least once
every three months may be considered.
5. If none of the above can be done, the water should
at least be boiled for about five minutes before
drinking.
Legionella Survey
In the early 1980s, several cases ot Legionnaire's
disease (caused by Legionella bacteria) occurred on St.
Croix. A study conducted on St. Thomas in 1985 indi-
cated, among other things, that 63% of the samples were
positive for Legionella.
To determine the extent of Legionella occurrence in
the territory at the present time, the WRRC conducted
tests on water samples from all three islands. Fifteen
cisterns were selected from homes, businesses, schools,
hotels, guest houses and public housing complexes. Six
of the 15 cisterns or 40% of the cisterns sampled indi-
cated the possibility of Legionella contamination at one
time or another during the year-long study. In terms of
actual samples, however, approximately 10% of the total
samples yielded bacterial colonies matching those for
Legionella. It was interesting to note that all the
Legionella cases were detected in unchlorinated cisterns
of private homes. These results provide further evidence
to support chlorination of cistern water supplies.
Evaluation of Bottled Water Quality
Seventeen brands of bottled water sold in the U.S.
Virgin Islands were analyzed by the WRRC Laboratory
at UVI for bacteriological water quality. The brands
included carbonated waters, as well as non-carbonated
waters from the U.S. mainland, Europe, and of local and
regional origin. All 100 samples met the Safe Drinking
Water Standard for total coliform of < 1 per 100 mL.
However, small amounts of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (an
opportunistic pathogen) were found occasionally in
local and regional brands. Carbonated waters, regardless
of origin, were generally superior than non-carbonated
waters.
The Water Resources Research Center is cooperating
with the Department of Planning and Natural Resources
to develop standardized regulations for bottled water
which are fair and reasonable for the bottlers, yet
provide adequate protection to public health. Most local
bottlers who responded to a questionnaire survey sup-
ported establishing uniform standards for bottled water
in the territory. It is planned to periodically test bottled
water in the territory until the standards are established
by law.
Future Studies
Groundwater is receiving increasing attention for
supplying the water needs of the Virgin Islands. The
Water Resources Research Center will evaluate selected
groundwater samples from both St. Croix and St.
Thomas to determine if the water is bacteriologically safe
for drinking purposes. In cooperation with the U.S.
Geological Survey, volatile organic will also be moni-
tored by using a portable gas chromatograph. If any of
the public supply wells monitored appear to be contami-
nated, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority
will be notified.
On the cutting edge of science on the one hand, and by
catering to the immediate needs of the Virgin Islands on
the other, the Water Resources Research Center looks
forward to providing continued professional services for
our community.
Cee-N-Em Cards & Stationery
CARDS OFFICE SUPPLIES .
Barren Spot Mall
P.O. Box 4266, Kingshill, St. Croix
U.S. V.1. 00851-4266
Ph: (809) 778-3563
Cynthia D. Hodge Emrith V. Hodge UVI/STr hillside water catchment (Photo by Clara Lewis
BUNIERS OF ST. C( IX
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Tan Tan An Open Treasure
Of The Virgin Islands
By
Martin B. Adjei
Research Assistant Professor Agronomy
UVI Agricultural Experiment Station
It is called tan tan which, in the African vernacular
(Twi) language of the Akan people, literally translates
ugly ugly (i.e. very ugly). That name is symbolic of the
general belief and misconception of tan tan as a scrubby,
noxious weed in the Virgin Islands and throughout the
Caribbean where the plant is endemic. The classifi-
cation of a plant as a weed is relative to the location and
purpose. This means that the most aggressive, ecologi-
cally successful and dominant plants such as tan tan are
also most likely to frequently fall within that classifi-
cation. This article addresses some aspects of the origin,
types, successful migration and multipurpose potential
of tan tan in the Virgin Islands.
Tan tan (Leucaena sp.) belongs to the great family of
plants called legumes or nitrogen-fixing. There are 14
recognized species of the genus Leuceana within the
legume subfamily Mimosoideae. These are all native
trees or shrubs of the Americas ranging from Peru in
South America to Texas, U.S.A., with the center of
origin in the Yucatan of Mexico. The most common
species is Leucaena leucocephala, the white-headed
leucaena. Even though more than 100 cultivars and
botanical varieties of L. leucocephala are known, these
are broadly classified into three types:
1) Hawaiian types: short, bushy, early flowering
varieties growing up to 5 meters (16 ft) high. They
include wild tamarind and tan tan which grow wild in the
Caribbean. Their continuous flowering produces many
seeds and they become aggressive competitors. Their
value lies particularly in their ability to revegetate and
stabilize eroded hillslopes.
2) Salvador types: tall, late flowering tree-like plants
growing to 20 meters (66 ft) in height, with large leaves,
pods and seeds and thick branchless trunks. Some of the
best known are the Hawaiian 'Giants', K8, K28 and
Guatemala. They are planted as a source of timber, wood
products and industrial fuel.
3) Peru types: tall, late flowering plants growing to 15
meters (49 ft) in height like the Salvador type, but with
extensive branching even low on the trunk. They
produce little trunk, but extremely large quantities of
foliage grow on the branches. Notable in this group is the
Australian cultivar 'Cunningham' (from 'Guatemala' x
'Peru') which gives much more edible forage than Peru.
In the early 1960's when the first of the 'Giant leucae-
nas' were released by scientists in Hawaii and Australia,
claims were made about the species which raised an eye-
brow. A tree whose products a farmer can eat, feed to
livestock, harvest for firewood or charcoal, use to build a
A Leucaena (tan tan) protein banK commonly tound on St. uroix.
house, spread as green manure on a maize field or plant
to stabilize and enrich soil? A tree that is easy to plant and
grows as fast any tree known? Of course, the claims
sounded too good to be true and yet, as these multi-
purpose uses became realities throughout the tropics,
leucaena species have become known in many languages
as 'miracle trees'. The successful introduction of leu-
caena species into Pacific countries such as Indonesia,
the Philippines, India and Australia, East and West
Africa, coupled with the diversity of this versatile plant
have generated several confusing names as well: ipil ipil,
gian ipil and bayani (Philippines); kao haole (Hawaii);
lamtoro (Indonesia); kababul and subabul (India);
guaje, yaje and uaxin (Latin America); tangantangan
(Guam); wild tamarind, river tamarind, jumbey and tan
tan (Caribbean).
Adaptation and Agronomic Characteristics
It is important to recognize the outstanding agronomic
characteristics which enable tan tan to grow so well in the
Virgin Islands. It requires long, warm growing seasons,
doing best under full sunlight. However, unlike other
tropical legumes, tan tan seedlings tolerate shade well.
Most natural stands occur below 500 meters (1640 ft) in
areas of 600 to 1700 millimeters (24 to 67 inches) rain-
fall; growth rate is slower at higher altitudes. The plant is
known for its drought tolerance because of a substan-
tially developed tap root system which enables it to
obtain water and nutrients from soil strata that are inac-
cessible to most other plants. Lateral or side roots are
few, but occur mainly near the surface and are respon-
sible for carrying the nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium
nodules, characteristic of leguminous plants. Workers
in Hawaii and Australia have found that the leucaena-
Rhizobium partnership is capable of fixing up to 600
kilograms of nitrogen per hectare (536 pounds per acre)
yearly from the atmosphere into the soil. Root hairs are
infected with beneficial micorrhiza fungus which helps
obtain phosphorus and other nutrients. Although tan
tan can tolerate a wide range of soil conditions from
sandy to heavy clay, it grows well only in neutral or alka-
line (especially limestone) soils and, hence, is especially
well-suited to Virgin Islands conditions. It is also salt
tolerant and is found growing in exposed coastal areas,
but will not tolerate prolonged flooding or waterlogged
soil conditions. Leucaena has a high biomass production
which can go up to 20,000 kilograms of forage dry
matter and 80,000 kilograms of timber dry matter per
hectare yearly.
What then is the value of tan tan to the Virgin Islands?
Use as Forage
Tan tan produces large quantities of foliage year-
round for ruminant animals such as cattle, sheep and
goats on the Islands. This fodder is palatable, digestible
(60 to 70% of dry matter) and rich in protein (15 to
24%) representing the organic form of fixed nitrogen. Its
forage is comparable in quality to imported protein sup-
plements such as soybean and alfalfa meals and provides
an important protein supplement for ruminant live-
stock, especially in the dry season when grass has dried
up. Forage yields are influenced by the variety, the
harvest interval, and climatic and environmental condi-
tions. Generally, annual forage dry matter yields ranging
from 10,000 to 20,000 kilograms per hectare and a
crude protein yield of 1800 kilograms per hectare can be
obtained from Salvadorian or Peruvian types when har-
vested every 12 weeks. This crude protein yield is
capable of supplying requirements of 5 cattle on a
hectare (2.5 acres), yearly. Some of the highest cattle
yields in the tropics have been obtained on leucaena-
supplemented diets. Tropical fish such as tilapia appar-
ently can also use tan tan effectively as a high protein
supplement.
Protein banks or solid leucaena stands probably con-
stitute the best system of management, and the most
efficient method of utilization is to allow cattle short
periods (30 to 60 minutes) each day to graze leucaena
before grazing grass pastures. However, these protein
banks may also be used for green chopping.
Leucaena contains the amino acid mimosine. Mimo-
sine content of seeds is about 10%, young leaves up to
10% and edible forage 4-5%. In ruminants, mimosine is
immediately converted in the rumen to dihydroxypy-
ridine (DHP), a goitrogen that reduces blood thyroxine
levels. Within the Caribbean region, most indigenous
ruminant livestock (cattle, sheep and goats) contain
bacteria in their stomach that produce appropriate
enzymes to digest DHP from leucaena without any toxic
problems. However, non-ruminant animals such as
horses, pigs and poultry do not digest leucaena leaves
properly without pretreatment such as heating to break
down the mimosine and related DHP. Mimosine causes
hair and weight losses, goiter, and ill health in non-
ruminants.
Wood and Energy Production
The single-stemmed 'giant' leucaena species grow
rapidly to yield a medium hardwood of 0.6 specific
gravity. Under ideal conditions, they grow more than 10
meters (33 ft) high in three years, reaching their maxi-
mum height of 20 meters (66 ft) and diameter of 21 to
37 centimeters (8 to 15 inches) in eight years. Many sites
in the tropics have recorded annual wood yields of over
100 cubic meters per hectare (1,412 cubic feet per acre).
Leucaena wood works well for carpentry, maturing to a
pale brown and can make good flooring. Heating value of
dry wood measured in Jamaica is about 4250 kilo-
calories per kilogram which is 39% of the energy value of
fuel oil. Leucaena charcoal also has good properties and
72.5% (7250 kilocalories per kilogram) the energy value
of fuel oil. In the Philippines, it was estimated that one
hectare of leucaena provided the equivalent of 25 to 30
barrels of oil per annum. Additionally, the stumps of cut
wood regrow readily coppicee), as the plant "defies the
wood cutter." In equatorial climates, such as the Philip-
pines, cutting cycles of 4 to 6 years are being used com-
mercially to produce wood pulp for paper. In Jamaica, a
company of energy specialists has developed a novel fer-
mentation facility for converting leucaena foliage into a
non-toxic feed, fertilizer and convenient gas. All these
are timely good news for the Virgin Islands.
Cropping Systems
Perhaps tan tan's most important feature, which is
also the least commercially exploited on the Virgin
Islands, is its ability to enhance soil fertility by fixing
nitrogen in root nodules. Farmers in southeast Asia have
exploited these 'living nitrogen factories' for decades by
interplanting leucaenas in their maize fields. Dense
hedgerows of leucaena are planted 3 to 6 meters (10 to
20 ft) apart with food and vegetable crops planted
between the hedges. This agroforestry system is called
hedgerow intercropping or alley cropping. The leucaena
hedges can be harvested periodically and the leaves and
young stems ploughed into the alleys as green fertilizer
and mulch. Extensive research in Africa has indicated
that hedgerow intercropping is an economically viable
land-use system, permitting continuous cropping on the
same land that could not otherwise sustain intensive
agriculture. Alley cropping has been used successfully in
the cultivation of maize, rice, cassava, yam and beans in
Hawaii, Nigeria and the Philippines and can be adapted
to the Virgin Islands. Research is presently under way at
the University of the Virgin Islands to test the alley
cropping system on sorghum/leucaena grown for silage.
The ecological success of tan tan from the onset of its
introduction to the Virgin Islands in the early 1960's was
spectacular, so much so that it has alienated itself to the
general public. Consequently, there has been very little
research on this plant. The biggest barrier to increasing
use of tan tan is institutional rather than biological.
Although the trees provide a wide range of services and
products to farmers they are not widely managed as field
crops for sale on the market, and therefore, do not
attract the favorable attention they deserve at the terri-
trial level. A new level of cooperation among research,
extension and territorial government is needed if
farmers, livestock owners, and industrialists on the
Virgin Islands are to reap the full benefits from the
multipurpose and valuable tan tan.
What then shall we call the miracle tree? Take your
pick from the names on the world scene ipil-ipil,
guaje, yin hur hwan, lamtoro, koa haole, tangantangan,
horse tamarind, leadtree, subabul, jumbey or tan tan.
A Leucaena/Sorghum intercrop under low input management at
AES, St. Croix.
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Ackee &Ah-Key
By
Errol A. Chichester
Horticulturist
V.I. Department of Economic Development and Agriculture
Two years ago, during the 1989 Agriculture and Food
Fair, the ackee fruit (Blighia sapida) displayed by the
Department of Economic Development and Agriculture
nursery, under the heading "KNOW YOUR FRUITS"
drew much attention from fairgoers. Many were intrigued
at the physical characteristics of the mature, ripe fruits.
Almost everyone at the display was seeing ackee for the
first time and thought it had an amazing resemblance to a
dog's face. The fruit with its red capsule contains three
seeds which are oriented in such a way that they create an
image of a face. The two smaller seeds look like eyes and
the larger a mouth.
Some of the questions that were asked of the fruit
were: "What is that?" "Is it a fruit?" "Does it grow
here?" "Which part do you eat?" "Where can I find a
tree?"
Thus, the purpose of this article is to answer these
questions and educate the public about the ackee.
Of all the Caribbean Islands, ackee is grown mainly in
Jamaica and is considered a Jamaican fruit. However, it is
a native of West Africa (Guinea), from where it was
introduced to Jamaica by Captain William Bligh in 1793.
Ackee trees, though grown in the Virgin Islands, are
not common here. There are about fifteen trees on St.
Thomas and ten on St. Croix. Perhaps, the oldest and
most widely known is the tree on the Schuster's property
in Estate Concordia along Morningstar Road on St.
Croix. Before hurricane Hugo damaged the tree, it was
very productive almost year-round. One fairgoer in her
fifties recalls playing under the tree and listening to
stories told to her about the tree by her mother.
Ackee or vegetable brain (seso vegetal in Spanish) is
sometimes planted for the whitish seed covering. The
ackee fruit is red with three lobes. Upon ripening, the
fruit splits open, revealing the dark brown glossy seeds
which are partially covered by a whitish colored edible
meat or flesh that is attached to the fruit by a red or pink
poisonous membrane.
Two of the three sections of the fruit have infertile
seeds. The third section which has a larger seed is the
only fertile (will germinate) seed.
Though ackee dishes are enjoyed by many people,
especially in Jamaica, it is a fruit which requires much
care when harvesting and preparing. The fruit must split
open on its own and must be used fresh if it is to be used
for preparing dishes. If the unsplit (unripe) fruit is eaten,
it may result in poisoning. Using the flesh from an imma-
ture fruit or one picked from a broken branch is toxic
and may cause death. In addition, when the flesh is
pulled from the fruit, it must not include the red or pink
membrane as it may result in poisoning.
Ackee is usually parboiled in water with salt and then
stewed, or fried with butter, or boiled in soup. When
cooked, it looks like the brain, hence, the Spanish name
seso vegetal (vegetable brain). Ackee and saltfish is a
favorite dish of Jamaica and is considered the national
dish of that island. Here are some recipes for ackee.
Ackee Fruit
*Salt Fish and Ackee (Jamaica)
Preparation time about 10-15 minutes
Cooking time about 30 minutes
To serve 4.
You will need
1 lb. soaked salt fish
18 ackees
4 rashers streaky bacon
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, de-seeded and sliced
4 tablespoons oil or 2 oz. butter
black pepper
Just cover salt fish with cold water and bring to the boil.
Remove pods, seeds and centres from ackees, tie in a
muslin bag, add to the boiling fish and cook for 15
minutes, drain. Flake fish, discarding the skin and bone.
Fry the bacon, remove and keep hot. Saute the onion and
pepper rings in the bacon fat, drain and keep hot with the
bacon. In the same pan, heat the oil or butter, add the
fish and ackees and heat through. Turn on to a heated
dish and garnish with bacon, onion and pepper rings.
Serve hot with plenty of black pepper. This is a national
dish in Jamaica.
Seso Vegetal, Akee
* Curried Ackee
Preparation time 7 minutes
Cooking time 25-30 minutes
To serve 4-5.
You will need
6 ripe ackees
salt
1 oz. butter
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 onion, sliced
1 chili, de-seeded and chopped
1 oz. flour
1/2 pint (U.S. 1/4 cups) coconut milk
squeeze lime juice
SLeafy twig (above), flowers (left), fruits (below),
two-thirds natural size.
Illustration adopted from Trees of P.R.
b\ and the V.I.
lobes
Remove pods, seeds and centres from ackees. Boil in
salted water for 5 minutes, drain. Heat the butter, add
the curry powder, sliced onions and chili and cook for 5
minutes or until onion rings are transparent, but not
brown. Stir in the flour, seasoned with salt and very
slowly add the coconut milk, stirring all the time. Put the
ackees in the sauce, add lime juice and simmer over a low
heat for 15-20 minutes, until ackees are tender but still
whole and the sauce is almost absorbed. Serve with plain
boiled rice.
Note
Canned ackees can he bought at shops where West
Indian foods are sold, giving everyone in most parts of
the world a chance to taste this Jamaican tree vegetable.
*Recipes taken from "Caribbean Cooking For Pleasure" by
Mary Slater, 1970.
Have You Thanked A Tree Today?
By
Christopher Ramcharan
Research Assistant Professor Horticulture
UVI Agricultural Experiment Station
Unceasing efforts are presently being made worldwide
to preserve the environment, cut down on pollution and
clean up the air, land and water. An integral part of these
activities include saving the rain forests, reforestation in
denuded areas and protecting trees whenever possible.
In low-lying, semi-arid areas subjected to high solar
radiation and constant winds, water loss through evapo-
transpiration can be high and often exceeds rainfall.
Short of constructing costly and often unsightly artificial
sun shelters and windbreaks, trees represent the only
remedy for reducing high sunlight and wind effects.
Such a scenario is unfolding today in the Virgin
Islands. While intense sunlight, low annual precipi-
tation (42 inches per year) and continuous trade winds
are good for tourism, the effects are treacherous on soil
and water conservation efforts in the islands. These
problems are compounded by the philosophy of many
that any positive development includes the indiscrimi-
nate removal of trees to be replaced by man-made
structures. The arrival of Hurricane Hugo last year did
almost irreparable injury to many of our trees that were
already in poor condition due to neglect, unprofessional
pruning and root injury caused by roadway and con-
struction crews. Unless such a situation is remedied and
replanting begins, many fine tree specimens throughout
the islands will succumb with the inevitable disastrous
ecological and environmental effects.
To refresh the memories of those who already know
and to inform those who take trees for granted, the
following emphasizes the aesthetic and biological values
attributed to trees:
-Trees help supply oxygen we need to breathe. An
acre of fully grown trees provides enough oxygen to
keep 18 persons alive for one year.
-Trees help keep our air fresh by exchanging the
carbon dioxide for oxygen.
-Trees, through their leaf surfaces, trap and filter out
ash, dust and pollen from the air.
-Trees dilute gaseous pollutants in the air as they
breathe.
- Trees produce shelter and habitat for birds and other
animals.
- Trees lower the air temperature by enlisting the sun's
energy to evaporate water from their leaves.
- Trees increase humidity by releasing moisture from
their stems, branches and leaves.
-Trees are a source of food and materials, from
orange juice and lemonade to the unique taste of
tamarind and soursop and mahogany wood of
worldwide fame.
-Trees slow down forceful winds.
-Trees cut noise pollution by acting as barriers to
sound.
- Trees shade us from direct sunlight better than any
sombrero. They offer a welcome sight in parking lots
on hot sunny days.
Trees camouflage harsh scenery and unsightly areas
like garbage dumps and auto graveyards.
-Trees break the onslaught of pelting raindrops on
the soil surface and give the soil a chance to soak up
as much water as possible.
Tree leaves, when shed, cover the ground to keep the
soil from drying out.
Tree leaves, by decaying, replace organic matter and
minerals in the soil.
Tree roots hold the soil and keep silt from washing
away and blocking guts and polluting coral beds.
-Trees soothe the psyche with pleasing shapes and
patterns, fragrant blossoms and seasonal splashes of
color.
The following, adapted from Helen O. Hoyt's "What
Trees Teach," is a tribute to our trees in the Virgin
Islands.
I am taught by the Mahogany to be rugged and strong,
In defense of the right, in defiance of wrong.
I have learned from the Coconut, that beauty to win,
The love of all hearts must have sweetness within.
The Ficus, with its branches wide-spreading and low,
Awakes in my heart hospitality's glow.
The Casuarina tells of constancy. In its sweet voice,
It whispers of hope till sad mortals rejoice.
The Tamarind, in its wrapping of green gray,
Shows that beauty needs not to make gorgeous display.
The Teak, having fibers tenacious and strong,
Teaches me firm resistance to battle with wrong.
The Cassia tells me with its quivering leaves,
To be gentle to every sad creature that grieves.
The Manjack teaches me to be pliant, yet true;
Though bowed by rude winds, it still rises anew.
The Royal Palms point upward in praise,
My voice to kind Heaven they teach me to raise.
I am taught generosity, boundless and free,
By showers of fruit from the dear Kenip tree.
The Mango tree blushing with fruit yellow red,
Tells of God's free abundance that all may be fed.
In the beautiful Breadfruit, so green to the sight,
This truth I discern; It is of inwardly might.
The firm-rooted Ginger Thomas, like a sentry of old,
Show that virtues deep-rooted may also be gold.
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I
Grafted What?
By
Errol A. Chichester
Horticulturist
Department of Economic Development and Agriculture
Though many grafted workshops have been
conducted by the Cooperative Extension Service and at
the Agriculture and Food Fair, many people still use the
term "GRAFTED" incorrectly.
For instance, some questions and statements that I
hear regularly are: "Do you have any of the big grafted
mangoes?" "I want an avocado tree that bears the big
grafted one." "I have a mango tree that bears the big, red
grafted mango."
These remarks all reveal the misconception of
grafting, or grafted trees. Thus, it is my hope that this
article will give a better understanding of the term
"GRAFTED."
Grafting is a horticultural technique in which a 3-5"
stem section (scion) cut from a mature superior plant
(already bearing fruit) is inserted into a closely related
seedling or'immature plant (root stock) to form one
living plant. Grafting could also be done on a mature tree
to change the variety. The plant on which such a process
is done is said to be "grafted" (Figure 1).
SCION Small piece
of shoot from a
mature tree with -
several dormant
buds; forms the
upper part of the
tree.
ROOTSTOCk Usually
trees grown from
seeds (seedlings) but
could be a mature
bearing tree that has
been cut back; forms
the lower part of the
tree.
Figure 1 Grafted tree
The process of grafting is limited to dicots, i.e.; mango,
avocado, mesple, sugarapple, citrus, mamey, soursop,
etc., and cannot be done on monocots such as palms or
grasses.
Since the scion of a grafted plant is taken from a
mature plant, grafted fruit plants will start flowering
between six months to three years. Sometimes flowering
occurs before six months or after three years, depending
on the growing season and the section of the tree where
the scion was taken (Figure 2). However, in the case of
early flowering plants, it is advisable to remove flowers
D Adult (mature) phase
STransition phase
1Juvenile phase
Figure 2 Maduration
phases on a mature
seedling.
or fruits to allow the trees to develop and grow more
shoots for the first couple of years. If fruits are allowed
to stay on the tree, it may retard subsequent growth as
photosynthates and nutrients that should be utilized by
the tree in growth will be diverted towards fruit
production. Additionally, trees at this stage may not be
strong or big enough to withstand the weight of the fruits
and this may result in the breakage of the graft union or
branches.
Contrary to what many people believe, grafted trees
do not always remain small or short for their natural
lives. Grafted plants are very much alive and growing and
will get tall over a period of time. A good example are the
mango trees located at the local Division of Agriculture.
These trees were all grafted, yet they have attained a
height of 30-40 feet over time. However, there are
varieties, such as the Julie mango, that spread out rather
than grow upright, and though its growth is slow in
comparison to other varieties, it does not remain small
throughout its lifetime.
Another misconception is that any large-fruited
avocado or mango is a "grafted fruit." Only the tree is
"grafted" not the fruit. The fruit is either a Julie, Carrie,
Palmer, Keitt, Haden, Lula, Pollock, Pico, etc.
There is also the notion that once the tree is grafted, it
will produce large fruits. This is false. If the scion that
was grafted on the seedling is from a tree which produces
small fruits, then the grafted plant will produce small
fruits. On the other hand, a large fruit could easily be
produced by a seedling tree if it was derived from a large-
sized fruit. Therefore, a grafted tree can produce large
and small fruits depending on what was grafted onto the
seedling.
"Grafted coconut" is another term that needs clarifi-
cation. There is no such thing as a grafted coconut.
Coconut is a monocot, meaning the stem is fibrous or
stringy and, thus, cannot be grafted. The correct term
that should be used is "dwarf coconut," of which there
are the yellow, green or red "Malayan Dwarf." These
trees, however, do not remain dwarf or short indefinitely
as most people believe. As each coconut frond (leaf)
drops, the tree height increases. The reason for calling
them dwarf is that they produce earlier and at a shorter
height than the common coconut or Jamaican tall.
So the next time you hear someone talking about a
grafted avocado, mango fruit, or coconut, you now have
enough information to explain to them what the term
"grafted" pertains to horticulturally.
GALLOWS BAY
FOODS, LTD.
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The Quality of
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Reflects the clean shore breezes
that freshens our pastures and blue
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Our healthy flocks of cattle give
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to please islander and tourist alike.
SUPPORT ALL LOCAL AGRICULTURE
CASTLE NUGENT FARMS GASPERI
Best Wishes
& Success
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20th Annual
Agriculture
and Food
Fair of the
Virgin Islands.
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A.H. Rise Mall,
(At the waterfront)
Phone 4-7195
4-7848
St. Thomas
Nisky Center
Phone 4-5060
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Phone 8-2750
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Now with loans up to $5,000.
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Tree Borers
By
Jeff Keularts
Extension Program Supervisor, Plant Protection
UVI Cooperative Extension Service
Like every other group of organisms, trees have many
enemies. Apart from man, some of the most noticeable
ones are insects. There are leaf feeders, leaf miners, leaf
rollers and tiers, flower and fruit feeders, twig girdlers
and borers, stem borers and root borers. Every part of a
tree may be attacked by one or more kinds of insect.
Insects feeding on leaves, flowers and fruits are usually
relatively easy to control. Those which bore into stems,
twigs and roots are provided excellent protection from
their own enemies by the very organism they attack.
Once the insect is inside the trunk or branches of a tree it
takes more than a casual approach to kill it. Living inside
woody tissues requires special adaptations for these
species as well as their natural enemies which makes
them very interesting organisms.
Most tree boring insect species usually attack trees
successfully only when these trees are injured, under
stress, or otherwise not healthy. Wounds caused by
branches severed by strong winds or cuts made by cars,
lawn mowers and weed whackers banging into them
provide entry points for many organisms harmful to the
plant. The repair of damaged parts requires a lot of
energy from the trees; energy which then can not be
available for the defense against attacking insects. In fact,
any condition which diverts the tree's resources from its
defense mechanisms makes it more vulnerable to suc-
cessful attack by the enemies. A few insect species, like
some powder-post beetles, are able to penetrate seem-
ingly perfectly healthy trees. One of the largest and most
damaging of these is a borer known only by the name
Apate monache which attacks citrus, guava, flamboyant,
tamarind, and many others. The adult beetle is %" (15
mm) long, brown and cylindrical in shape. The peculiar
position of its head makes this beetle easy to recognize.
The adults tunnel in the branches of trees and even in the
trunks of small ones. The seriousness of such infestation
is noticed when these small trees start dying. Females lay
their eggs in the old tunnels of the freshly killed trees and
the young complete their development in the dead and
dying tissue.
Another group of easily recognizable tree borers are
the long-horned beetles, so called because of the unu-
sually long antennae. Frequently their antennae are
longer than their entire bodies. These insects can vary in
size from 1/6" (4 mm) to 2" (50 mm) depending on the
species.
Many fruit trees can lose branches to long-horned
beetles, the young of which are often called round-
headed borers. Although the adult beetles are easy to
recognize, they are not always readily found on the trees
they attack. Many have only dull colors and are, there-
fore, well camouflaged when they are present on the tree
surface. The females lay their eggs in the cracks and
crevices of the tree bark. Upon hatching, the young
larvae eat their way through the bark and into the wood
with their strong jaws. Of course, the young are rarely
found until it is too late. They are inside the tree twigs,
branches or trunk and they make their presence known
when most of the damage has been done. They feed on
the woody tissue and, thereby, eventually cut off the
food supply to the outside parts of the tree. The result is
wilting of the leaves on the affected twigs and branches
and eventually these parts will break off at their most
seriously damaged point. Once wilting is noticed, the
location of the borer can be determined fairly easily by
the presence of the relatively sharp boundary line
between healthy and wilted leaves. However, by this
time most of the damage has obviously been done and it
would be too late to save the branch.
More than one kind of borer can attack the same tree.
Citrus trees can be seriously damaged or killed by Apate
monache borers, but a fairly small long-horned beetle can
also inflict damage to these fruit trees. The small twigs of
the carambola tree can be completely hollowed by an
even smaller species.
One of the most remarkable long-horned borers,
which has become especially noticeable after the 1989
hurricane, is the 'trap door' borer. The adult of this
beetle is about /" (17 mm) long and fairly incon-
spicuous. The larvae, whitish creamy grubs will, upon
reaching maturity, chew round holes in the bark of the
tree leaving the bark coverings attached in a few places.
After pupation, the stage of the insect during which it
changes its shape from grub to adult, the beetle leaves the
tree through this trap door. Many of the Christmas pines
which were severely damaged during the hurricane
became infested with these beetles, with large numbers
of the trap doors present along the entire trunk. This
heavy infestation following the wind-caused injuries
gave many of these trees their death blows.
Beetles in several families besides the powder-post
beetles and long-horned beetles can infest tree trunks
and branches. Shot-hole borers, bark beetles and
metallic wood boring beetles are some of these but they
are not as prevalent or infest only dying or dead parts of
trees and shrubs.
Not as widely known as the activities of borer beetles
is the fact that the larvae of some moths may penetrate
woody plant parts. By far, the most important borer
moth economically in the Virgin Islands is the mahogany
shoot borer which belongs to the same family as many
webworms and pod borers. This insect attacks ma-
hogany, Spanish cedar and other young trees in the small
plant family. Infestations have been so serious that they
have caused many mahogany plantations to be aban-
doned in tropical America. Larvae bore into the stems
and terminal shoots, especially of young plants. As a
result of the damage to the parts, the growth pattern of
the affected trees is changed; height growth is inter-
rupted and many new branches are formed. After
continual attack these trees may die or will be severely
distorted, making commercial production of mahogany
frequently impossible.
Unfortunately, very little can be done to stop damage
to the trees once the borers are inside their trunks or
branches. The surface of these tree parts can be treated
with an insecticide in an attempt to kill adults emerging
or alighting on them to lay their eggs. Only few products
are registered for this particular use. One of the long time
favorites, lindane, can not be used at all on fruit trees and
only on a few ornamentals in its present formulations. A
few formulations containing chlorpyrifos ("Dursban")
can be used but may be ineffective if not applied at the
right time; when adults are about to emerge or lay their
eggs. This time is different for the various kinds of
insects and, unless close attention is paid to adult insects'
activity on and around the tree, the correct time to apply
an insecticide may be missed. Frequent inspections are
rather cumbersome and time-consuming tasks. A much
more effective way of keeping the majority of borers
from damaging trees and shrubs is to keep the plants
healthy. Providing these plants with the proper care and
nutrition and an adequate water supply will keep them
healthy. They will grow vigorously and become less
attractive to the boring insects. When wind or other
I ,I* :1
outside forces cause limbs and small branches to break
off, proper pruning would speed up the tree's recovery
process. Of course, man induced injuries are easy to
avoid. Unfortunately, this approach is not successful in
thwarting mahogany shoot borer attack. Investigations
of the use of sex attractants in the prevention of infesta-
tions by this moth are presently in progress and seem
rather promising.
At least equally important for a successful borer
control program is sanitation. Infested branches should
be cut off in such a way that no signs of tunneling are
visible at the cut surface, and all pruned materials should
be removed from the area. Leaving the dead and dying
tree parts lying about allows many young insects to
complete their development right where their hosts are
and enable them to infest new trees. Even if healthy trees
are cut down or tree parts pruned in a routine main-
tenance program, they should be properly disposed of to
avoid providing breeding places for borers and other
pests.
NOTICE
Pesticide Recommendation Disclaimer Clause
This publication contains pesticide recommendations
that are subject to change at any time. These recom-
mendations are provided only as a guide. It is always the
pesticide applicator's responsibility, by law, to read and
follow all current label directions for the specific pesti-
cide being used. Due to constantly changing labels and
product registration, some of the recommendations
given in this writing may no longer be legal by the time
you read them. If any information in these recommen-
dations disagrees with the label, the recommendation
must be disregarded. No endorsement is intended for
products mentioned, nor is criticism meant for products
not mentioned. The author and the Virgin Islands
Cooperative Extension Service assume no liability re-
sulting from the use of these recommendations.
I rHBI wPEEK
PESts
Youngsters anxiously await their turn to look at pests through a microscope.
Advances In Hormone Treatments
Affecting Reproduction In Livestock
By
Stephan Wildeus
Research Associate Professor (Animal Science)
UVI Agricultural Experiment Station
Many research findings have found ready applications
on the farm level and have been of benefit to the live-
stock industry. These advances have affected all aspects
of animal production, ranging from nutrition (i.e., slow-
release trace mineral boluses), animal health (i.e.,
molecular-genetically engineered diagnostic probes) and
management (recombinant DNA-derived bovine
somatotropin). Among those advances many have come
in the area of animal reproduction. The technologies of
freezing semen and artificial insemination of cattle and,
now, the non-surgical transfer of embryos in the same
species have been applied on the farm level for some
time, while many others, such as ultrasound exami-
nation for pregnancy and fetal numbers in sheep, are just
now finding a widespread use.
This article will attempt to provide a short and selec-
tive summary of some of the technologies, developed or
under development, that affect the reproductive pro-
cesses of common livestock species through the use of
hormone-based treatments. Some of these techniques
have been used extensively on the farm level, while
others are in the process of receiving clearance by the
regulatory bodies, still others exist at present only at the
research level.
The process of synchronizing the estrous cycle of farm
animals allows the farmer to better control mating, parti-
cularly when associated with artificial insemination. It is
also a prequisite for the alignment of the estrous cycle of
the donor and recipient in the embryo transfer process.
Synchronization is achieved by either shortening or pro-
longing the luteal phase of estrous cycle by means of a
hormonal treatment regime. The estrous cycle is
shortened by regressing the corpus luteum on the ovary
by means of prostaglandins, thus initiating a new cycle,
while the cycle is extended by supplying exogenous pro-
gesterone to the animal through some form of slow
release implant.
These synchronization schemes are greatly aided by
the development of more powerful synthetic analogues
and derivatives of the naturally occurring hormones, as
well as by improved methods of administration. The
most frequently used techniques for estrous synchroni-
zation in cattle are either the double injection (10-12
days apart) of a prostaglindin analogue or the synthetic
progestagen implant (9 days implantation period),
combined with an estrogen (estradiol valerate) injection.
Success with both systems can be quite high when herds
have adequate levels of fertility and are well managed. In
sheep the use of a progestagen-impregnated vaginal
sponges (placed in the animal for 14-18 days), combined
with an injection of pregnant mare serum gonadotropin
(PMSG), has become the method of choice, not only to
synchronize estrus, but also to induce out-of-season
estrous and ovulation in the seasonally breeding sheep in
temperate environments.
Reproduction in Female Domestic Animals
(A) CORPUS
LUTEUM I FOLLICLES
FOLLICULAR
LUTEAL PHASE
PHASE
(s)
TREATMENT
TO SHORTEN
LUTEAL PHASE
ARTIFICIAL
(c) CORPS /
LUTEUM
t I
TREATMENT
END OF
TO PROLONG TREATMENT
LUTEAL PHASE
Modifications of the estrous cycle to achieve synchronization with
profiles of a normal cycle (A), a shortened cycle (B) and extended
cycle (C) (after Hunter, Physiology and Technology of Reproduc-
tion Domestic Animals, 1980).
Along with the need to synchronize the estrous cycle,
techniques to boost the ovulation rate (superovulation)
are necessary to make embryo transfer viable. Hormonal
treatments for superovulation are based on the use of
exogenous gonadotropins to augment the effects of
endogenous gonadotropins (originating in the pituitary
gland) and are administered at the same stage of the
estrous cycle when the endogenous hormones control
the development of follicles containing the ova on the
ovary. The hormones of choice have been PMSo,
already mentioned above, and follicle stimulating
hormone (FSH), which is obtained from extracts of the
pituitary gland of slaughtered animals.
Major constraints with the use of these hormones
have been the variability in the superovulatory response.
Research is under way to improve the timing and the
dose level of the hormone injections to obtain a satis-
factory and more predictable yield of eggs. Since the
preparations are obtained from slaughtered animal ex-
tracts, there are often problems with the purity of the
products. The incorporation of luteinizing hormone
(LH) into a FSH superovulation regime (days 12-17 of
the estrous cycle in cattle) was found to be useful.
Recently, the use of monoclonal antibodies to PMSG
has also been evaluated to neutralize any fertility re-
ducing effects of PMSG on the animals' endocrine
system after the stimulation of follicles had been accom-
plished. Despite the refinement in techniques for super-
ovulation and subsequent embryo transfer (embryo
transfer is now routinely accomplished non-surgically
on the farm for both beef and dairy cows), this tech-
nology is still costly and only economically feasible for
animals with demonstrated genetic merit.
Genetically superior donor Non pedigree recipients
of oestrous
Cycles
Superovulatio,
Breeding
Recovery of
embryos
1
i
Further transplant
operation after
3-4 months or
return to normal
breeding
Oestrus
Transfer of
embryos
Pregnancy
49
Valuable offspring
195 ^1_ I
Principle steps in the embryo transplantation process, including
hormonal synchronization of estrous and superovulation (after
Hunter, Physiology and Technology of Reproduction in Female
Domestic Animals, 1980).
In the dairy industry, gonadotropin-releasing
hormone (GnRH) and its analogues have found an in-
creasing use in the management of post-partum dairy
cows. GnRH is naturally secreted by the hypothalamus,
a gland located at the base of the brain, and is responsible
for the release of FSH and LH from the adjacently loca-
ted pituitary gland. The availability of GnRH analogues
has allowed their use in cows experiencing post calving
complications (retained placenta, cystic ovary) and
reduce the calving interval in these animals. Cows have
also been injected with GnRH at the time of insemi-
nation and some improvements have been observed in
the conception rate. However, much of the research has
pointed to the fact that improvements are usually only
observed in herds with already high reproductive
efficiency.
Considerable research has been under way to evaluate
the use of immunization against reproductive hormones
as means to improve reproductive performance. One
treatment regime already commercially available from
this line of research is the steroid immunization of sheep
to improve ovulation rate. The ewes are actively immu-
nized against androstenedione, a gonadal steroid, and
receive a booster injection 2 to 4 weeks prior to
breeding. The response to immunization has been
variable, but generally provides a mild and more con-
trolled increase in ovulation rate than can be achieved
with PMSG. The product available for sheep has been
widely used in Australia and has only recently been
introduced to the U.S. Other immunization schemes
under investigation are concerned with estrogens,
GnRH (immunocastration), inhibin and prostaglandins,
but have not been developed for commercial application.
The seasonal breeding patterns of sheep under
temperate climatic conditions, which is partially con-
trolled by the annual variation in daylight, has been a
major constraint in the production systems for this
species. Research has been directed at finding means to
extend the annual breeding season, thus shortening the
lambing interval and allowing for the year-round
production of lamb. There is some variation between
and within breeds in the ability of sheep to breed "out-
of-season" and attempts have been made to extend
seasonal breeding through selection. However, work has
also been directed towards the manipulation of the
hormonal basis for seasonal breeding, which is con-
trolled through optical stimuli regulating the release of
melatonin from the pineal gland in response to darkness.
The administration of melatonin to induce out-of-
season breeding in ewes has been investigated both as
subcutaneous implants and as feed additive. Sheep ini-
tiate their seasonal breeding in fall in response to a
decrease in daylight, which translates into the secretion
of larger amounts of melatonin due to longer periods of
darkness. Supplying exogenous melatonin prior to the
breeding season will, therefore, mimic shorter day length
on the endocrine level and trigger the feedback system of
GnRH, gonadotropins and ovarian steroids. Until now
Vi'i partum cows or ewes outside their breeding season.
These types of hormonal treatment regime are currently
very much in an experimental phase.
sA number of other hormones and systems for the
manipulation of hormonal feedback are under investi-
gation, but are far from a point where commercial
Application can be considered or has even become
evident. With recent advances in biotechnology the
production of biological material on a larger scale has
Become economically feasible and, combined with the
development of powerful hormonal analogues, the use
SR of hormone treatment in livestock reproduction can be
expected to expand.
Virgin Islands White hair sheep ewe with lambs.
the results to melatonin administration have not been PATALIDIS / DESIG NERS
consistent and further research is needed.
In recent years, the role of opioid peptides in the regu- 4100 Sion Farm S/C, Suite 2
lation of hormonal secretions controlling reproductive St, Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 00820-4496
processes has been established. Though the compounds
usually affect a wide range of physiological processes in Telephone: (809) 778-6560 '
the body, some have been identified to specifically772-5205
inhibit the release of GnRH from the pituitary. In turn, Fax: (809) 772-5205
antagonists to these peptides, such as naloxone, have A
been evaluated for their ability to stimulate the secretion JUDITH ANN PATALIDIS, A.S.I.D.
of GnRH and, therefore, induce ovulation in post-
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Serving the Horticultural Community for Over 54 Years
Raising Rabbits In The Virgin Islands
By
Kofi Boateng
Extension Program Supervisor
UVI Cooperative Extension Service
Rabbit meat is a popular food in Africa, Europe, the
Middle East, and other parts of the world including the
Caribbean. Rabbit meat is also gaining popularity in the
United States where it is sold not only in specialty stores,
but in major grocery stores.
Domesticated rabbit produces all white meat, which is
low in calories compared to other meats. Rabbit is
recommended by the American Heart Association for
low sodium diets and its ease of digestibility. Rabbit
meat contains more protein and less fat than beef, pork,
chicken and lamb. It contains 20.8% protein compared
to 16.3% for beef, and 10% fat, compared to 28% in
beef. In addition, it is less expensive per serving than
beef, pork or lamb.
In the Virgin Islands, raising rabbits is ideal for small
farms and urban areas where other livestock projects are
not practical. Rabbits are excellent for school projects,
pets, fund raisers; and raising and breeding them for
show is a popular hobby. Rabbit fur is also used in
making coats and hats.
Rabbits are small and clean, they respond to kind
treatment, they are easy to work with and fun to watch.
Raising them can even be a way to make money. It is not
difficult to raise rabbits successfully, but it cannot be left
to chance either. It requires careful selection, proper
equipment, sanitation, planned mating, and good
management techniques.
In the Virgin Islands, the breeds that are common are
the large and giant types. The large type reaches maturity
at about 9 to 11 pounds and the giant type at over 12
pounds. Some of the breeds found locally are the Amer-
ican Chinchilla, which reaches maturity at 9 to 12
pounds, has a gray surface fur and a deep blue-gray
underfur and white belly; the Californian, with a mature
weight of 8 to 10/2 pounds, has a white body with col-
ored nose, ears, feet, and tail; the Flemish Giant, whose
mature weight is 13 pounds and over, with a steel-gray,
light gray, sandy white or fawn color; and the New Zea-
land, which normally attain a mature weight of 9 to 12
pounds and body color of red, white or black.
Getting Started
To start a rabbit enterprise, it is recommended that
two does and a buck be purchased from a good reputable
source which keeps production records and practices
good sanitation. Make sure they are eight weeks old, for
they adjust better to new surroundings at this age. It will
also give enough time to get acquainted with them and
learn their behavior.
Members of the 4-H Youth/Development Program pose proudly with
their rabbits.
Housing and Equipment
Good housing is a must in rabbit production. Rabbit
hutches can be built from scrap lumber and wire mesh.
Because of warm weather and rain, shade and protection
for the rabbit must be provided, by placing the hutches
under a tree or on the protected side of a building.
Provide individual hutches for mature rabbits. Hutches
should be about two feet high, about two and one half
feet deep, and three feet long. The hutch should be light
and movable. Plans and specifications for building these
hutches can be obtained from UVI Extension Service
animal science program.
Equipment used in rabbit operation should minimize
labor, provide efficiency in easy management and proper
sanitation. Nest boxes should be provided for does. A
good design takes into consideration size and shape,
warmth, ventilation and sanitation. In the Virgin Islands,
as a rule-of-thumb, provide a nest box that is 10 inches
high by 12 inches wide by 18 inches long. Feeding and
watering equipment is a necessity. Containers large
enough for several feedings are most convenient.
Crocks, four inches high by eight inches in diameter are
recommended for feeding. These containers do not tip
easily and have a lip which prevents rabbits from scratch-
ing out and wasting feed. A feed hopper holding several
pounds of feed is another solution. For watering, a two
quart screw-top bottle is the easiest way to make fresh
water constantly available.
Handling
Proper handling and carrying techniques must be
learned as soon as rabbits are purchased. Rabbits are
generally gentle and will not bite, but they do become
frightened and can hurt themselves or the handler if they
jump suddenly. Never pick up a rabbit by the ears; they
are very sensitive and the rabbit will be hurt and may
become nervous. Rabbits should be picked up by gently
grasping the loose skin over the shoulders and neck. As
the hind feet leave the floor, place your hand under the
hindquarters for support with the feet pointing forward.
Feeding
Regular feeding and careful attention to the nutri-
tional needs of the rabbits should result in healthy
breeders and large, frequent litters. Rabbits are herbi-
vorous which means they like to eat plant material.
Rabbit pellets can be purchased at most local feed
shops. These pellets contain the necessary nutrients that
the rabbit needs; therefore, no extra feed is needed. The
pellet bought should contain 15 to 18% protein and be
fed according to the package instructions for the rabbit's
weight category. Newly purchased rabbits should be fed
their regular diet at first, and gradually shifted over to a
new feed. Sudden dietary changes can cause digestive
problems. If rabbit pellets are not solely being used, the
rabbit should receive hay for dietary fiber and protein as
well as vitamins and salt in the form of a salt lick. Table
scraps can be fed to rabbits as treats or diet supplements.
Feed only uncooked vegetables such as lettuce and
potato peels. Fresh grass clippings and stale bread are
also allowed, but never feed meat.
One feeding per day in the evening is used by many
rabbit raisers because rabbits are evening feeders by
nature and are more at ease then. However, rabbits can
be fed both in the morning and evening. Two feedings
per day especially recommended for does with babies.
Fresh water should always be available to the rabbit.
Breeding
The reproductive life of rabbits begins at about 6 to 8
months of age and lasts one to three years. Does should
be mated when they reach maturity. If mating is delayed
breeding difficulties may occur. The gestation period of
rabbits, or the period from mating to kindling (giving
birth), is 31 to 32 days. Some litters may be kindled as
early as the 29th day or as late as the 35th day, but in the
V.I. it has been observed that rabbits normally kindle
between the 30th and 33rd day.
With a gestation period of 31 to 32 days and a nursing
period of eight weeks, a doe can produce four litters in a
12-month period. Does of heavy producing strains can
be mated six weeks after kindling if they are in good
condition. The doe is generally fertile for breeding 13 of
every 16 days. It is not necessary to depend on external
signs of heat to determine when a doe is to be bred. A
definite schedule must be made and should be followed.
Always take the doe to the buck's hutch for service.
Mating should occur almost immediately when the doe
is placed in the buck's hutch. When the mating is com-
pleted, return the doe to her own hutch; make a record
of the date of mating and the name or number of the
buck and doe. Maintain one buck for each 10 breeding
does. Mature, vigorous bucks can be used several times
a day for a short period. Interbreeding of rabbits (father
to daughter, sister to brother) is not an advisable practice.
Unfavorable traits are intensified in each succeeding
generation by this type of mating.
As soon as the doe is pregnant, begin giving her as
much food and water as she will need, on a daily basis.
Place a clean nest box and nesting material such as wood
shaving or dry leaves in the hutch four weeks (28 days)
after breeding; soft paper towels also work as excellent
bedding.
The doe will normally chew the nesting material and
line her nest with fur pulled from her body. She will
probably give birth to her young at night. Do not disturb
the doe during kindling or on the following day. On the
second day, gently check the young in the nest box.
Count the babies and remove any that are dead or
deformed.
Young rabbits open their eyes 10 or 11 days after birth
and begin leaving the nest at three to four weeks. At this
time, a creep feed should be added to the doe's regular
food.
Weaning of the young rabbits should be done at about
eight weeks old. At this stage, the young rabbits are re-
moved from their mother and are considered ready for
butchering. Do not feed the rabbits for 24 hours before
butchering.
Accurate and thorough record-keeping is essential to
the efficient operation of a rabbitry. Each rabbit should
be identified by an ear tattoo or tag.
Disease Control
Sanitation in the rabbitry is the best disease control
method. Remove manure, soiled bedding, and contami-
nated feed from the rabbitry daily. Wash the watering
and feeding equipment frequently in hot soapy water.
Rinse in clean water, drain well and place in the sun to
dry.
Isolate animals suspected of being diseased. Leave
suspected animals in isolation for at least two weeks, or
until you can determine definitely whether they are
dangerous to the health of the herd. Newly acquired
rabbits and those returned from shows should be placed
in quarantine for at least two weeks.
In spite of sanitation and quarantine, sickness can still
occur. Sore hocks is a condition caused by scraping and
bruising of the rear legs on the cage floor and by contact
with urine. Clean the cage; give the rabbit a board to sit
on; wash sores and apply idodine daily until the sores
heal. Ear mites are small parasites causing infection and
scabbing inside the ear. First, swab the area with olive oil
or mineral oil to remove the scabs and pus. Then saturate
with a mixture of one part iodoform, ten parts ether, and
25 parts olive oil. Flea and tick powder sold for cats are
also effective. Disinfect the cage to prevent reinfection.
Mastitis occurs in does and is a bacterial infection. The
breasts become swollen and tender, and the doe may
refuse to nurse her young. Treatment requires antibio-
tics, administered by a veterinarian.
Overgrown toenails can cause foot deformity and
catch on wire flooring. Trim them as needed with cutting
pliers, cutting back almost to the cane.
For additional information on raising rabbits or any
other type of livestock in the Virgin Islands, please stop
by the Cooperative Extension Service and we will be glad
to assist you.
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Sunny Isle Shopping Center
H P.O. Box 5289
St. Croix, U. S. Virgin Islands 00823
STel: (809) 778-5069 Fax (809) 778-6258
Naem Suid, General Manager
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A PERFORMANCE BREED FROM THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
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Seagrass Meadows:
Pasturelands Of The Sea
By
Mary Lou Coulston, Ph.D.
Extension Specialist
Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service
University of the Virgin Islands
Seagrass meadows are one of the most vital and pro-
ductive habitats of tropical coastal waters. They are the
marine equivalent of terrestrial pastures. Cows, sheep,
horses, goats, turtles and fish all eat grass as part of their
diet, but turtles and fish eat grass that grows under our
salt water seas. Seagrass communities are highly pro-
ductive, and rapidly transform simple nutrients into rich
food resources. These foods mainly benefit marine
animals, but seagrass has also been harvested as a feed
supplement for sheep and chickens, and even as land
fertilizer.
Seagrasses are not members of the grass family (Gram-
ineae). They are members of the lily family (Liliacea) like
onions, garlic, and aloe vera. These flowering plants
blossom once a year, and have a true root system. Sea-
grasses' horizontal rhizomes grow sideways under the
sand giving rise to green leafy shoots. In this manner the
seagrass meadows expand laterally. The plants take in
nutrients both through the root and through the leafy
blades.
There are about fifty species of seagrasses in the world,
but only three are prominent off our Virgin Islands
shores. Turtlegrass, the largest grass, with a flat blade was
named for the sea turtles that feed on it. Manatee grass,
with a long, thin, rounded blade usually grows mixed
with turtlegrass. Shoal grass is an early colonizer and
grows in disturbed areas. These grasses can be found
growing in shallow inshore areas. Many species of exotic
and beautiful algae can also be seen growing among the
grasses.
The seagrass meadows of the Caribbean are a very
important food source and serve many other beneficial
functions. They provide an important habitat and hiding
place for juvenile fish and other economically-significant
animals such as conch and lobster. During early devel-
opment, juvenile fish and invertebrates escape predation
by hiding under and between the blades of seagrass.
These small animals obtain food by grazing on seagrass
blades where epiphytes (another rich food resource) are
found in abundance. There are sponges, hydrozoans,
flatworms, tunicates and many species of algae that play
out their entire life cycles on the blades of seagrass. Small
animals living in the seagrass beds are a food source for
the larger reef-dwelling animals that travel between the
reef and the adjacent grassbeds to feed.
With their extensive underground root and rhizome
system the seagrasses stabilize the sediments on the
bottom and prevent erosion, in much the same way that
land plants keep our soil in place. Blades of seagrass slow
the movement of water through an area, promoting sedi-
mendation of organic and inorganic particles. The vast
seagrass meadows along our shores prevent the shoreline
from eroding away while picking up fertilizing sediments.
Sediment particles are trapped, and thus can serve as
nutrients for the plants and animals. Some species of fish
extract food from the sand by eating it and straining out
the useful food material.
A typical seagrass meadow shown with one of its characteristic
grazers, the hawksbill turtle. b
(Photo by Michael P. Herko)
The critical functions performed by the seagrass com-
munity makes aggressive protection of seagrass beds
essential. One of the most harmful sources of destruc-
tion to seagrasses comes from dredging and filling coastal
sites for development. Many such operations are
common in the Virgin Islands where seagrass beds are
destroyed without regard to the impact of their loss.
The loss of such critical habitats does not necessarily
have to occur if a developer is required to restore or
transplant seagrass lost due to negligence or economic
necessity. In fact, because seagrass habitats are so valu-
able, many local and federal agencies are requiring
habitat restoration programs in nearby areas as com-
pensation for seagrass areas destroyed by dredge and fill
operations. The practice of habitat conservation and
restoration is common along the East and Gulf coasts of
the United States and is protected under federal, state
and local permit regulations. The same laws apply in the
Virgin Islands to protect and conserve these valuable
fishery habitats.
A juvenile Caribbean lobster finds protection from predation among
the seagrass blades. Many such valuable fishery organisms rely on
seagrass meadows for protection and food during their early years.
(Photo by Michael P. Herko)
One such case in the Virgin Islands involved the
dredging of the Third Port in St. Croix in 1987. The
permit process established the protection of the seagrass
areas along the shores destined for dredging. The Virgin
Islands Port Authority was required to transplant three
acres of seagrass to replace the habitat destroyed during
construction of the Molasses dock at the Third Port Site.
Island Resources Foundation (a non-profit scientific
organization) was contracted to bring in a team of
environmental specialists to transplant the seagrass.
With the assistance of Ocean Systems Research divers,
three species of seagrasses were transplanted: turtlegrass,
shoal grass and manatee grass. Eight people took twelve
days to transplant three acres. Six to eight inch plugs
were planted on meter-square centers throughout the
recipient three-acre plot.
The seagrass transplant was a success. Although only
one acre survived initially, the seagrass has now grown
outward to colonize new areas. Juvenile fish, lobster,
conch and many other marine organisms now inhabit the
newly-established seagrass meadow. Once a year the
transplant site is revisited and evaluated for additional
seagrass growth and colonization by marine organisms.
There is no doubt that the transplanted seagrass repre-
sents a permanently established ecosystem as even
Hurricane Hugo was unable to uproot the well-anchored
new seagrass meadow.
It is hard to put a value on one acre of seagrass but
consider that one acre of seagrass in one year's span will
produce approximately 11,572 to 26,710 pounds of
seagrass (based on several studies of tropical seagrass).
That means seagrass for food, shelter, as substrate for
organisms to settle on, and seagrass which will decom-
pose to provide food again for microbes and micros-
copic animals. Researchers have evaluated one acre of
seagrass to be worth from $86,000.00 to $125.000.00,
based on its value as a fishery habitat.
Large development companies and port authorities
are not the only culprits in the on-going destruction of
undersea seagrass beds. Considerable damage is done by
boat anchors, boat propellers and boat grounding which
have contributed substantially to the destruction of sea-
grasses. Most destruction, however, comes from care-
lessness. These destructive forces cut roots and rhizomes
causing substantial damage to the underwater terrain
make the recovery process slow and difficult. In these
cases, it is up to the individual to act responsibly towards
the marine environment and help protect valuable sea-
grass communities. Development operations, as well as
the activities of local utilities, must be required to
respect and preserve these valuable natural resources.
References
Coulston, M.L. 1987. Pilot experimental seagrass trans-
plantation project. Prep. for Island Resources Foundation
under contract to V.I. Port Authority.
Fonseca, M.S., W.J. Kenworthy and G.W. Thayer. 1986.
Restoration and Management of Seagrass Systems: A Review.
Intl. Symp. Ecol. Mgt. of Wetlands, June 16-20. College of
Charleston, Charleston, S.C.
Thorhaug, A., B. Miller and B. Jupp. 1984. Seagrass restora-
tion in Caribbean nearshore areas. Final Report U.S.A.I.D.
Program. Dept. of Biol. Sci. Florida International Univ.
Williams, S.W. 1987. Assessment of anchor damage and
carrying capacity of seagrass beds in Francis and Maho Bays
for green sea turtles. VIRMAC III Research Series. Island
Resources Foundation. St. Thomas.
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Poinsettia
- The Symbol Of Christmas
Olasee Davis
Extension Specialist Natural Resources
UVI Cooperative Extension Service
Historically speaking, poinsettias (Eyphorbia pulcher-
rima) are new to modern agriculture. Native to Mexico,
poinsettias were first cultivated by the Aztec Indians,
who considered poinsettias a symbol of purity. Red dye
was made from its flowers and fever medicine from its
milky latex sap.
Not only were poinsettias prized by Montezuma, but
when 17th century Franciscan priests found the brilliant
plants blooming during the season of Advent, they used
poinsettias to decorate the nativity scene during their
Christmas celebration.
The Europeans first noticed poinsettias during the
17th century. John Balme, a botanist, described the
plant as having large green leaves and a small flower sur-
rounded by bracts as if to protect it.
In the Virgin Islands, wild species of poinsettias still
thrive in our island's soils. Poinsettias were initially
brought to the mainland by the first American Ambas-
sador to Mexico, Joel Robert Poinsett. He was also a
botanist. In 1825, he sent some of the plants to his
hometown in Greenville, South Carolina. From there
the plants were distributed throughout the world to
growers.
Early in the 1920's, poinsettias' popularity took a
major jump when Albert Ecke and his sons began to
grow poinsettias alongside other cut flowers in Eagle
Rock Valley in Southern California. It is now the city of
Los Angeles.
Eventually, Ecke and his sons tried poinsettias as a
potted plant, thus changing history. Several selections
were tried. Then, in the 1920's, a variety called Oak Leaf
was introduced in New Jersey. That variety established a
market for poinsettias until the 1960's. Many of these
early poinsettia types carried the Ecke family name as a
testimonial to the importance of this pioneer horticul-
tural family.
Poinsettias are a tropical to sub-tropical plant, not
suitable for growing in temperate climates. Well into the
1950's, poinsettias were being hybridized all over the
world, with many growers introducing their own new
varieties. This third phase of the plant's history has seen
horticulturists develop types that stay shorter; types that
"self-pinch"-causing better basal branching; varieties
that tolerate cooler greenhouse temperatures; and above
all, types that hold their' foliage better and longer
indoors.
Today, plant magazines and local nurseries in the
Virgin Islands, highlight the wide diversity of poinsettias
available. Red blooms are common, but there are all
shades of red, from brilliant bright red to deep crimson.
There are several shades of pink and outstanding white
types. There are even types with variegated bracts,
speckled red, pink and white.
There are no significant insect or disease problems
when poinsettias are grown as a house plant; however,
when plants grow outdoors, they are very susceptible to
foliage feeders such as white flies. These pest problems
can be controlled by applying pesticij-s or moderate
pruning.
In early December in the Virgin Islands, poinsettias
begin to blossom, which symbolize rl-i Christmas is
drawing near. The St. George Village 1Botanical Garden
has a lovely spectrum with lush blossoms of red and
white poinsettias during Christmas time that last
through most of the winter months.
For years poinsettias were thought t(i e poisonous. In
1971, researchers at Ohio State University revealed that
portions of poinsettias caused no change in behavior; no
symptoms of toxicity and no death among a test group of
rats. Some people, nevertheless, are susceptible to the
sap when it comes in contact with their skin. Although
scientific proof showed that poinsettias are not detri-
mental to people when handling the plant, the Con-
sumers Product Safety Commission still demands
warning labels be attached to poinsettias that are for sale
to the public.
If you purchase poinsettias from local nurseries or
grocery stores, here are some tips to ensure that your
poinsettias survive during the holiday season:
1) When selecting a poinsettia, look for tightly clus-
tered, small central flowers with crisp, bright
foliage. Green foliage down to the soil line indi-
cates the plant has active, healthy roots.
2) While some poinsettias require daily watering,
others need it less frequently.
3) Indoors, poinsettias need at least six hours of
natural light, preferably near a window to retain
their color. The poinsettia's life is shortened con-
siderably by continuous dim light or darkness
when indoors.
4) A temperature range of 60 to 85 degrees per day is
ideal for prolonging its color. Poinsettias flourish
in high humidity.
5) Place plants out of the reach of young children and
animals.
After the Christmas season, poinsettias can continue
to grow during the year and will retain their bright green
foliage for months. To bring a poinsettia plant to bloom
for another Christmas season, it requires pruning, ferti-
lizing and proper sunlight. As spring approaches,
remove faded and dried foliage. If the plant is in a pot,
replenish the soil with a commercially prepared sterile
mix. Then lightly fertilize every three to four weeks.
In the early summer months, cut back all stems and
branches about 22 inches to promote side branching.
This goes for both inside and outside poinsettias.
Poinsettias in pots should be repotted into larger con-
tainers using a sterile growing mix, if available, or a good
soil. Plants that are indoors should be placed outside for
the summer, first in indirect, then in direct sunlight. This
helps the plant to adjust itself to the outdoors.
All poinsettias are short-day blooming plants. Flower-
bud and bract formation are controlled by photoperi-
odism. In other words, poinsettias need short days and
long nights to produce red, white or pink flowers.
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The Grove Place Baobab Tree
By
John Rasford, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
College of Charleston
The African baobab (Adansonia digitata) is one of the
world's most unusual trees appreciated for its striking
appearance and its many uses. It is widely dispersed in
the Caribbean and throughout the tropics generally, but
it remains a rare tree outside its native Africa. The
United States Virgin Islands has many fine specimens of
this extraordinary tree. There are approximately 110
baobabs in St. Croix, 4 in St. Thomas and 1 in St. John.
Of these, 16 could be described as old trees and they fall
into two distinct groups: there is in St. Croix the
immense multistem tree at Grove Place which is unique
- it is the biggest baobab in the Virgin Islands with a
circumference of 55 feet. Then there are the other fifteen ^
old trees that are approximately half the size of the Grove
Place tree. This tree at Grove Place is without doubt the .
oldest baobab in the Virgin Islands. It was probably
introduced to St. Croix sometime in the eighteenth
century and it is either the first tree introduced, or one of
the last surviving members of the first trees that were
established. L.
Size and age are not the only things that set this tree
apart from all other baobabs in the Virgin Islands. It is
the only multistem tree with four trunks one of which is
very small. A few of the other trees have two trunks,
while most have only a single trunk. Whether they have
one, two or four trunks, the most outstanding feature of
all mature baobabs like the one at Grove Place is that
their gigantic trunk or trunks often seem strangely out of
proportion to the trees' short or moderate height and
their thick, rapidly tapering branches.
The African baobab is the best known member of the
genus Adansonia which contains some nine species: one
is found in Australia and the other eight are confined to
Madagascar. The genus was named Adansonia in honor
of the French botanist Michel Adanson who encoun-
tered the tree while traveling in Senegal from 1749 to
1753. Bernard de Jussieu was Adanson's teacher, and it
was his report of Adanson's finding that led Linnaeus to
mention the tree in his Species Plantarum published in
1753. Digitata, the name of the species identifies the
finger-like leaflets of the baobab's large, alternate,
compound leaf. The leaf can have anywhere from 2 to 7
leaflets with 5 being the usual number. Simple leaves or
compound leaves with 2 or 3 leaflets appear on seedlings
and young trees, and on twigs that develop from the
trunk or large branches of mature trees. They also seem
to appear in greater numbers with the first leaves of
spring or early summer. The baobab's enormous size
testifies to its remarkable ability to store water, an essen-
Sne urove viace iree
tial ability in the dry tropics to which it is naturally
adapted. Shedding its leaves in the winter dry season also
conserves moisture.
In the spring and early summer, the baobab produces
large, waxy, hibiscus-like flowers that are white or
cream-colored and hang upside-down on long stalks.
They sometimes appear as early as May and can continue
blooming into late September and early October. These
night-blooming flowers, which are strongly scented, are
bat-pollinated. From the flowers develop large, woody,
gourd-like capsular fruits up to 12 inches in length and 4
inches in diameter. They are generally oblong in shape,
and covered by what seems like brown velvet. Each fruit
weighs from 3 to 12 pounds and can contain anywhere
from 30 to 400 seeds. The seeds are firmly embedded in
a white or creamy acidic pulp which is laced together by a
mass of tough, stringy fibers that also divide the interior
of the capsule into compartments or segments similar in
appearance to that of an orange, grapefruit or any other
citrus fruit.
The Grove Place baobab differs from all other trees in
the Virgin Islands with respect to size, age, and number
of trunks, but that is not all. There are other important
differences: it produces more fruits each season than I
have seen on any of the other 9 bearing trees (one of
which the tree along the Creque Dam road was
killed by hurricane Hugo). This holds true for the 1990
crop as well. The Grove Place tree has more fruits this
year than any other tree even though three quarters of its
fruiting branches were destroyed by Hugo. These fruits
are produced on long stems. They taper towards the end,
giving them a more pointed rather than oval appearance.
They have a more pronounced nipple at the tip; they are
hairier; and they are a golden brown or rust brown in
color. The fruits of all the other trees I have seen on St.
Croix are brownish-green color and are generally oval in
shape, although they vary considerably in size.
Another important way in which the Grove Place tree
differs from all others is that it grows in the center of a
village that is of historic importance in the history of
Africans in St. Croix. This is similar to Africa where the
tree is frequently found growing at the center of villages
and in central places in towns. Of all the trees in St.
Croix, this one is a likely candidate for having been
introduced to St. Croix by Africans. It is the only tree
that has served as a public gathering place sheltering the
weary as well as people gathered for tea meetings and the
meetings of workers in the early days of St. Croix's labor
union. Today, people still gather at this tree to commem-
orate the history of St. Croix's labor movement and the
union to which it gave rise. The other large trees of St.
Croix are found in frontyard and sideyard ornamental
gardens, in abandoned pastures, in the parking lot in
Christiansted (not far from the public library) and along
roadsides.
The Grove Place baobab is appreciated for both its
inspirational and practical value. It is hard not to be awed
by its tremendous size, bizarre form and aged appear-
ance. This is a tree whose imposing presence excites our
curiosity. Surprise and wonder are common responses
of those who encounter a mature baobab for the first
time, and these responses are not far removed from a
feeling of reverence for this unusual tree. The Grove
Place tree is indeed the pre-eminent example of Africa's
"tree of life" in the Virgin Islands.
The Grove Place tree is not only practically valued for
its shade as previously noted, but for the edible pulp and
the seeds of its fruit. People around the world recognize
that the pulp of the baobab is similar in taste to that of
the true tamarind (Tamarindus indica) and the baobab is
given a variety of different names linking it to the tama-
rind. One of these names is Guinea tamarind which has
been reported for St. Eustatius and it is one of the local
names for the tree in St. Croix. In Jamaica and Domi-
nica the baobab is called monkey tamarind, and in India,
e Creque Dam Baobab Tree killed by Hugo
there are several common names that also identify the
tree as a kind of tamarind.
The other Crucian name which is the one that is most
well known is Guinea almond. Rudy O'Reilly, an Exten-
sion Agent for Natural Resources with the Cooperative
Extension Service of the University of the Virgin
Islands, suggests (and I concur) that this name identifies
a similarity in taste between the seeds of the baobab and
those of the tropical almond (Terminalia catappa).
Insofar as the seeds of the baobab taste like those of the
tropical almond, it can also be said to bear some resem-
blance in taste to the seeds of the sweet almond (Prunus
dulcis var. dulcis) as reported by Irvine (1961:186).
While there are reports indicating that the fruit of the
baobab has been a source of food and beverage in St.
Croix for over 100 years, there is also clear evidence that
its importance in this regard has declined over the past
thirty years. Some school children I interviewed at
Grove Place School were generally unfamiliar with the
tree. Other individuals in their 20's and 30's said they
only ate the fruit when they were small, but not now. I
have often seen the fruits lying uncollected under the
tree. I have also harvested them from the lower branches
of the tree by hand and with a stick. If the fruits were
coveted, we would expect that they would be picked
from the easily reached branches and collected as soon as
they fall. This is not the case.
Although today the fruit is not eaten in St. Croix as
much as it was in the past, there are still many people
who enjoy it. In May 1986, Zoraida Jacobs, then
Program Leader with the University of the Virgin Islands
Cooperative Extension Service, arranged for me to speak
to about 30 school children at the Grove Place tree. As
soon as we finished talking, they collected many fruits
from under the tree, broke them open in the road and
began eating. They also took a good number of fruits
with them in the van on their return to school.
Veronica Gordon, who is responsible for more young
baobab trees in St. Croix than anyone else, sells the fruit
at the Agriculture and Food Fair and in Frederiksted.
They range in price from 25 to 75 cents each depending
on size. She said there is always a market, and the fruits
she sells were collected from the Creque Dam tree
(which was destroyed by Hugo) and from the trees at
Butler Bay. She has never sold fruits from the Grove
Place tree because she thought the fruits would be col-
lected by people in Grove Place. This is not necessarily
true, however, for I have often seen the fruits uncol-
lected under the tree.
Writing or drawing on the trunk of baobab trees is a
common occurrence throughout the tropics because the
trunk is soft and easily excavated or scarred. This is one
interesting characteristic of baobabs like the one at
Grove Place that grows in the most active areas of human
environment. The trunk of these trees are frequently
used as a public writing surface, drawing pad and notice
board. Names, initials, dates, messages, drawings of
animals and drawings of the heart with the arrow
through it are not uncommon. In fact, there are pub-
lished articles correlating the movement of early Euro-
pean travelers in Africa and Australia with the markings
they left on baobab trees.
The Grove Place tree, like the two in Roosevelt Park in
St. Thomas, is used as a public notice board. On several
occasions I have seen political posters, dance announce-
ments and other advertisements stapled, nailed, glued or
tied to these trees. Even when there are no posters, the
scars on the trunks of these trees from previous notices
can readily be seen upon close inspection. As we would
expect, evidence of attachments are only found on the
side of the tree that faces the public.
There is one unfortunate use of the Grove Place
baobab tree that should be mentioned here: since hurri-
cane Hugo it has served as a public dump site. When I
saw this tree in 1985 the area around it was nicely kept
and there were benches where people could take advan-
tage of the shade. When I saw it in November of 1990,
the benches were gone and the area around the tree was
littered with debris from hurricane Hugo (including
branches from the tree) and with household garbage.
There were beer cans and bottles; the plastic used to hold
the cans together in a six-pack of beer; soft drink bottles
and cans; cardboard boxes and small pieces of old
lumber; an old street sign still attached to the post; old
newspapers and empty motor oil plastic containers.
Prominently displayed on the side of this tree was a sign
which read "No Dumping." One can only hope that this
situation will not continue for long and that in a short
while the sign will no longer be necessary. It is a poor way
to treat a provider and companion to generations of
Crucians. It is also an embarrassment, for the tree is
featured in the island tour of many visitors to St. Croix.
i4,
i- y
"i ^S^v ^L^'s
ourier aay III ana Iv I rees
The conservation of all St. Croix's baobab trees is
important, not only in terms of the population as a
whole, but especially with respect to the different
varieties. In this regard, the Grove Place tree is particu-
larly worthy of attention. As previously noted, it is unique
among the ten or so fruiting trees in the Virgin Islands. I
have interviewed individuals who said the young trees
they have planted came from seeds from the Grove Place
tree. Until these trees fruit, however, it will be difficult
to say that there is another baobab that is a similar
variety to the Grove Place tree. Until such time, the care
of the Grove Place tree is the preservation of a unique
variety of baobab in the Virgin Islands.
Butler Bay Roadside Tree killed by Hugo
Notes
1. Although a full picture cannot be presented in this paper,
each baobab tree on St. Croix has been named according to its
location in the environment and its position in relation to
other trees. Illustration 1 shows variations in the shape of
fruits from the same tree and from different trees. The fruits
illustrated represent the overall variation present in St. Croix.
Only the Butler Bay IX tree (on top of the hill by the house)
has long cumberlike fruits. The Butler Bay V tree (the third
tree on the left hand side of the road after one turns into Butler
Bay) had the biggest fruits with the greatest number of seeds
and the best market value. Most trees had fruits similar in
shape to those of Butler Bay IV tree (the second tree on the left
hand side of the road after one turns into Butler Bay). These
oval shaped fruits vary in size with those of the Butler Bay IV
tree representing the smallest fruits of this type. The outline
drawings were made from the actual fruits and each drawing
was reduced twice, each time by 64 percent. The size of each
fruit in relationship to each other is therefore accurate.
2. Walter Knausenberger, who was with the Natural Re-
sources and Pest Management Program of the University of
the Virgin Islands Cooperative Extension Service, recorded
the name cushion tamarind (an obvious reference to the hairs
on the fruit) from one small boy referring to the Grove Place
tree.
Reference
Irvine, F.R. 1961. Woody Plants of Ghana (With Special Refer-
ence to Their Uses). London: Oxford University Press.
____^ Cruzan Garden I Tree
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Fruit Variation
On the same tree and be-
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Grove Place Tree (a, b, c);
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(e) (f)
Butler Bay V tree (g, h); Butler Bay IV (i, j, k).
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Farmer of the Year
1990
Mr. Rupert Barnes received the Farmer of the Year Award for his many years of
dedicated farming and commendable recovery after Hurricane Hugo from Governor
Alexander A. Farrelly and Dr. Darshan S. Padda (right), UVI's Vice President for
Research and Land-Grant Affairs.
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the body, some have been identified to specifically Fax: (809) 772-5205
inhibit the release of GnRH from the pituitary. In turn,
antagonists to these peptides, such as naloxone, have
been evaluated for their ability to stimulate the secretion JUDITH ANN PATALIDIS, A.S.I.D.
of GnRH and, therefore, induce ovulation in post-
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THREE LOCATIONS 52 KING STREET, CHRISTIANSTED 773-6727
64 KING STREET, FREDERIKSTED 772-3301
TO SERVE YOU ARAWAK BLDG., POST OFFICE SQ. Gallows Bay 773-1101
A. H. HUMMERT eedco.
If You're in a Growing Business, Let Us Help You Grow TM
Before you buy, call Arthur Petersen, our Caribbean
Expert for a Quote
WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS FOR:
Lawn & Garden Supplies Greenhouses Auto-watering
Equipment Plant Containers Fungicides
Fertilizers & Fertilizer Injectors Insecticides
Ornamental Plants & Cuttings Soil Conditioners&
Growing Mediums Flower & Vegetable Seeds
Horticultural Supplies
Regional Sales Office
P.O. Box 484, Frederiksted, St. Croix, V.I. 00841-0484
(809) 772-4129
Home Sales Office
2746 Chouteau Ave. St. Louis, Missouri 63103-0646
(314) 771-0646
WUW TELEX
856586 HUMMERT SEED
OFFICE WATTS
800-325-3055
FAX No. 314-771-5203 or 809-772-9289
Call or write for a free copy of the A.H. Hummert Seed Co.
Catalog of Horticultural Supplies.
Serving the Horticultural Community for Over 54 Years
Jointly
Sponsored
By
The V.I. Department of
Economic Development and Agriculture
and
The University of the Virgin Islands
Cooperative Extension Service
Agricultural Experiment Station
Antilles Graphic Arts
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