, 1892-11-05

time will be too fully occupied Herewith to
allow of no sidework. He would beg IN this
connection to mention that he had heard it
spoken of as ii matter that will be required to
be done already next crop, that sugars will be
sold here OH test planters will, OF course, not
be willing to take the New York tests; nor
will they, naturally enough, be ready to take
the merchants tests; there must be provided all
/ Independent mode at arriving at those tests
if We have a resident chemist here, he would
be asked to make the tests, of course for pay
ment, and this too will give bin more oc-
cupation.- As regards the proposal Of in
PRODUCING the testing of soils, 1t WAS nothing
new: in Antigua for instance the a1.alyzing of
soil is done by q Governments Chemist.
With reg ard 10 the manuring Of the soil, he
must say that from all what he had read and
from his own experience. it seems that natu-
raj manure cannot be dispensed with; artificial
manure is to bs stimula. to theother. There
are sone here who believe that they know all
abolitj soils and manureS; The best thing to
DO 10 convince them is to treat the land scien-
~tiically and show the results. Take Barba-
dos tJr instance 1t is true that Island has
more rain as rule that we here get they
have about q hundred lines more a year than
st. Crolx but you must not believe that was
the only reason why Barbados had been able
to show up a crop of $4,000 hhds against
80, 900 previously. 1t was also to a very
great extent owingto the services rendered
by the Agricultural laboratory there, and
which has saved the planters thousands of
Dollars which might perhaps have been spent
on spurious manures, for from the analyses the
planters learned what to use and what they
were using as manure. And Barbados needs
much manure. From what he had learned
from one of our oldest and most experienced
planters who has just returned from a visit
there, it seems that the soil is but IS
inches deep; the soil here is deeper and richer;
if the use Of manure there has given such re-
suits as those before US, it is reasonable to
suppose and expect that the same appliances
here would give better returns. There they
E@sed but one crop on the land, here wo
raised two, of course cane with grass thorS
they could raise as much as 3 to 4 hhds. the
acre. We have reason to expect favourable
results if we go somewhat the same way and
treat our soil nationally and scientifically.
Anyhow something has got to be dons,
we have the chance now. There are other
points besides, where our mode Of cultivation
gives room for beneficial improvement. Our
canes are planted zoo close if we have good
rains the roots can find no room to expand,
the canes are thin and weak in other places
the canes are more bulky, thicker and
heavier, though perhaps nat as sweet as ours,
but with a good flow Of juice in those places
the caneS grow Earth r apart. Another thing
il that the canes should be stripped to afford
air; this is doue in the Sandwich Islands.
Plants require light, air and moisture if you
exclude the one, there ia a stop. With US,
especially after droughts, the dry leaves are
allowed to remain on the plants, thus
obstructing air and light. Since he on his
Estates Upper & Lower Love had applied
natural manure under the banks after faIlow
p~loughing the piece, the results, particularly
in ratoons, have been very favourable. In
conclusion he would beg to say, that he for
his part would be but too glad to use the
chemist for Analysing the soil OH his estates;
he believed a great deal of good will come
out of 1t, and equally as much as of the ram
and he would recommend the bill for adop-
ton forthwith by the Council.
Bird Member for ChriSuiansted's Country
District (Luaay} said he entirely agreed with
the last speaker in his statements on the
matter before the Council. and he too con-
siderrd it as a step in the right direction,
one wheel should have been made years ago,
and one which we must make if we are to
follow and keep up with our neighbours,
particularly Antigua and Barbados. Even
It we have a smaller quantity of rain here
than in this last named island, still it is to
be supposed and believed that with science