LIBRARY 



NEW YORK 



BOTANtCAL 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. oakden. 



Vor.. VII. No. 170. 



BARBADOS, OCTOBEK .",1, 1908. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Phmtors and JJeiianmeiits of 



Agriculture. 



This implies that while the officers of the Department 

 must be interested in the work of the phmters, the 

 planters in turn must also be interested in the work of 

 the Department. 



This latter duty is sometimes imperfectly recog- 

 nized, and the feeling may arise that the interests of 

 the planter.?, so far as the Department is concerned, 

 will be safeguarded without much effort on their own 

 pait. 



'i'he interest required is not merely that which 

 consists in I'cading, .and possibly applying, the sugges- 

 tions, ;md the information cont.ained in the reports, 

 eic, which cnianaiC from the Department, but involves 

 .also the effort to keep the Departmental observers 

 informed of the various points in the daily round of 

 jdanting woik, so that points of success, as well as 

 jioints of difficulty, may be correctly appreciated by 

 l)oth sides. 



The ideal eoiiditioii woe.ld probably' be reached if 

 the results of reaping each crop were submitted by the 

 jilanters to the Agricidtural Officers, so that the 

 icasons for suec-esses and fiilures might be investigated, 

 and recorded. It is obvious that both sides would 

 benefit by this procedure. 



A gi-eat deal of the planter's daily work may be 

 made to have an experimental and scientific value with- 

 out much effort, provided only that observations are 

 made and reeoids kept. ( For example, the effect of 



the .application 



,1 any 



liianuii' 



rijay be measured by 



CO 



HE \aluc of the work of a Department 

 of Agriculture depends largely on the 

 intimacy of the relations between the 

 planters and the scientific officers of the Department. 



leaving a portion of the tirld untreated and comparing 

 the i-emaindcr with that. At present it is customary to 

 apply the dressing to the whole field so that there is no 

 knowing what would have hajip-ned if the manure had 

 not been used. A few observations of this kind care- 



