>12 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWb. 



July 29, 1916. 



in connexion with the land settlement of ex-service 

 ;men after the war. 



The Government of St. Vincent has the further 

 ■distinction of being the first British Crown Colony to 

 .introduce legislation and machinery for the establish- 

 ment of agiicultural credit societies under the Raitfei- * 

 .sen system of unlimited liability. The matter had 

 ■been the subject of much discussion for many years 

 previously in Trinidad, and in British Guiana. But 

 St. Vincent was the first to take the lead, although 

 •even there it did not take place until so recently as 

 1913. It has to be remembered in this connexion that 

 St. Vincent was better constituted than most other 

 islands as an experimental ground for such a credit 

 scheme, the peasantry l)eing comparatively sojjhisti- 

 ■cated, partly as the result of the educational influence 

 •of a properly carried out land settlement scheme. At 

 the same time nothing would have been done had it 

 not been for the enterprise of an energetic local 

 -Government. 



The co-operative credit scheme has taken hold in 

 •St. Vincent and may be said to have proved very 

 successful, considering the many initial difficulties 

 which matters requiring mutual trust involve. In 

 1915, the Government of Trinidad passed a credit 

 ■Ordinance based on the St. Vincent one, and in the 

 same year the Government of St. Lucia did the 

 same. Recent information indicates the spread of 

 this economic effort to Dominica, while in Grenada 

 the question of credit in kind, if not in money, 

 is now under consideration by the Government of that 

 Colony. 



Reviewing the facts outlined above, it will be 

 admitted that St. Vincent is an island of considerable 

 interest in regard to the history and development of 

 State economic effort, and it will be seen that two mo.st 

 important schemes — land settlement and co-operative 

 credit — first had their West Indian origin in that 

 Colony. 



While St. Vincent has also movofi in the direction 

 of unofficial economic schemes, that is to say, in the 

 direction of purely commeicial organization, it is in 

 Antigua that one finds this kind of effort in its most 

 pronounced manifestations. The establishment in 

 1918 of an Onion Growers' Association was not only 

 an event of interest but has since proved itself to be 

 an event of great commercial value. The co-operative 

 method of dealing with the Antigua onion crop which 

 this association of growers employs, has been referred 

 to so often in these pages that it is unnecessary to 



repeat the information here. The essential point to 

 note is that the scheme proved so successful that last 

 year both Montserrat and the Virgin Islands formed 

 associations on similar lines, and these associations 

 were affiliated to the original Antigua combination. 

 Nevis, while ic may not have a definitely established 

 association, is at any rate making efforts to develop 

 an onion industry along the lines indicated by the 

 Associations in sister Presidencies. This affords a clear 

 and distinct case of the spread of economic effort, and 

 it is of a particularly satisfactory nature because the 

 diffusion has been confined to the units of the same 

 Colon}' — the Leeward Islands. 



Antigua has recently established, as one result of 

 the West Indian Cotton Conference held in St. Kitts 

 last March, a Cotton Growers' Association. The object 

 of this body, which includes all the principal growers, 

 is to regulate and deal with all matters affecting the 

 islands mdustry as a whole, and it may be prognosti- 

 cated that similar associations will sooner or later 

 spring up in other cotton-growing islands, especially if 

 the Antigua Association shows that it is of material 

 value in connexion with the progress of the industry. 

 Looking further ahead, if several of these associations 

 arise, it may be expected that this will be followed by 

 a general association for the whole of the West Indies, 

 and one can conceive the organization of annual general 

 meetings that should be of great benefit to so complex 

 a business as the growing of cotton and its disposal. 



In concluding the subject of the spread of economic 

 effort in the West Indies, reference may be made to 

 what was originally an experimental project in St. Lucia. 

 We refer to the St. Lucia Government lime juice 

 factory, established in 1913. This was inaugurated 

 to assist primarily the small growers of limes, but it 

 was hoped that its successful working would prove 

 a useful demonstration for the larger estates, in the 

 direction of showing the advantages that accrue from 

 steam concentration and other methods making for 

 increased efficiency of manufacture. That this hoped 

 for result has been achieved is shown by the fact that 

 several estates in St. Lucia have put up similar steam 

 plants as a result of the demonstration. 



Further, the demonstration has had its effect 

 externally, for the Government of British Guiana sent 

 a special representative last year to enquire into and 

 report upon the working of this model factory, with the 

 result that a fiictory run on similar lines has been 

 established in that Colony. 



