176 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO BULLETIN. [XVIII. 4. 



the Empire which has had a continuous existence of one hundred years. 

 To mark the Centenary it was hoped to publish this year, as a number 

 of the Bulletin, a historical sketch of the Gardens and a descriptive 

 account of the principal economic and ornamental plants of the Colony 

 and their uses, etc. Pressure of other work, and a reduced staff, has 

 prevented this being done, but the work is so well advanced that it will 

 probably be possible to issue it as No. 1 or 2 of the Bulletin for 1920. 



Appreciation of Cane Farmers' Competitions. 



In a recent number of the Louisiana Planter a summary is given of 

 the Report on the Cane Farmers Prize Competition in Trinidad, of 1918, 

 and the value of the method as a means of Agricultural Education 

 pointed out. 



The suggestion is then made that similar competitions would serve a 

 useful purpose in Louisiana. " It is a recognized fact that the hill 

 lands of Louisiana and of Mississippi have made, and can again be 

 made to produce, as high as 200 bushels of Indian corn per acre. 

 As the common production is scarcely one-tenth of these prize figures 

 we only cite them in order to show what can be done even under 

 adverse conditions and the desirability of testing out these matters by 

 prize competition and so we may all learn a lesson from our confreres 

 in Trinidad and inaugurate prize competitions for sugar cane produced 

 here in Louisiana." 



Sugar Research Association. 



"The West India Committee Circular of December 25, 1919, reports 

 that at a Conference of Research Associations held during this month, 

 Mr. A. J. Balfour, who presided, said, in his introductory address, that 

 the industrial progress of mankind was going to be in the future more 

 and more dependent upon the alliance of science and industry, and upon 

 the co-operation of different branches of science with each other. It was 

 only upon our increasing knowledge of the powers of nature that we 

 could hope to improve the material lot of men. That knowledge could 

 only be gained by the cultivation of pure science, of knowledge for its 

 own sake, by contriving to educate men who, with no thought of self- 

 advancement, were consumed by a curiosity to know, and, when, that 

 stage had been passed, by learning how to apply the knowledge which 

 they had disinterestedly acquired to the great purposes of industrial 

 development. 



" One of the Research Associations represented at the Conference is 

 styled the British Empire Sugar Research Association, which has been 

 formed to establish an Empire Scheme for the scientific investigation of 

 the problems arising in the sugar industry. Another aim is to encourage 

 and improve the technical education of persons who are, or may be, 

 engaged in the industry. The Association is working in co-operation 

 with the Imperial Government Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research. The scope of the work includes the improvement of the 

 sugar-cane, the various methods of extracting sugar, of refining it, and 

 the best methods for the use of sugar as a raw material. Another point 

 is the discovery of the best uses of the after-products of bothfactorj' and 

 refinery. Sugar planters should heartily support this Association, as all 

 research work on sugar will directly benefit them. The registered offices 

 are at Evelyn House, 62, Oxford Street, London, W." 



