, 1912-01-13

II iii Di III hIO oJooO'h VI OuIllNh-
don OF the principal crops.
Most of the communications We're sooner
or later adopted by the Imperial Govern.
ment. including the creation OF an ImperiI
Department Of Agriculture For the latter.
on the motion of Mr. Chamberlain, funds
were voted by Parliament on August 2, 1898.
Bhe average amount that has been expended
up to 1898 has been at the rate of cit 400,
per annum. OF this amount some G5,O0J
represented the cost Of the head Office. the
remainder was applied in grants-in-a aid OF
botanical and experiment stations, ngrictll-
tural schools, and other educational services.
in the individual colonies. Up to March
1906 grants were allotted to jamaica to pro
vide the services of an agricultural lecturer,
to British Guiana to assist in improving the.
sugar industry by means Of research and
experiments, and to Trinidad in providing
for the establishment and maintenance of e
botanic and experiment station at TOBACCO.
The Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture
established his headquarters and that of the
central staff and the laboratories and library
of the department at BaI as the more.
central point from which 10 visit the other
colonies. He was charged with the duty of
ad ministrating the agricultural grants in the
colonies of Grenada, ST. Vncent, st. Lucia.
Leeward Islands, and Barbados, and was
consulting officer IN agricultural matters to
the Governors of Jamaica, British Guiana,
and Trinidad. On the invitation of the Gov
errors official visits were paid to the latter
colonies. Six such visits were made at Ja~
maica from 1899 to 1907, three visits to
British Guiana. and eight to Trinidad. The,
Commissioner was also in official commun:ca-
ton with the Governors, of Bermuda. Bahia
mas, and British Honduras, and furnished
them with. advice and information on special
matters relating to those colonies. In the
case of Bermuda the services OF an officer of
the Department we're loaned to the colony
in 1902 in order to deliver Ii course of lee
lures in agriculture to teachers IN charge Of
elementary schools. AS an indication of the
distance 10 be travelled | may mention that
this was equivalent to a voyage from London
to Lisbon and back. Even in the case of the
West Indies themselves, the area over which
the Department extended its interests
was more than 500 miles from north
to south and 1000 miles from east to
west. The services of the mycologists
were loaned to Trinidad in 1906 to
investigate the diseases Of cocoa-nuts and.
cncao; and The services Of the entomotogist
were asked for by the Government of British
Guiana to undertake on inquiry into the ra-
wages of the larger moth borer in sugar-cane
in 1908.
The duties entrusted TO the Department
we're the general Improvement of the sugar
industry and the encouragement Of a system
Of subsidiary industries, IN localities where
sugar could not be grown, or where the con-
ditions were more favourable for the produc--
tiou of cacao, coffee, bananas, oranges, lines,
cotton, rubber, cocoa-nuts, sisal hemp, rice.
~nntmegs, pine-apples, and other crops.
In addition it was proposed that it should
devote attention to the imp ovement of the
breed and con di ton Of cattle, boraes and
small stock, and to the extension of bee
keeping for the production OF honey and
be9sWaX.
AS it was realized that substantial progress
was impossible until the mass of the people
(wholly dependent on the products Of the
soi) we've brought into sympathy with agri-
culture and trained to regard the successful
treatment Of crops as the basis upon which
to build, not only their own welfare, but the
general prosp rity of the colonies, a promi-
nent position was given to teaching the prin-
ciples Of elementary science ana agriculture
both in the primary and secondary schools.
Associated with this policy was the increased
attention devoted to object-lessons, the en-
commencement of orOwinO SDacimen Dlants in,