98 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



April 1, 1911. 



the illustrations of such effort, nor do they inchide the 

 great extent to which the resources of Jamaica, Trin- 

 idad ami British (iuiana are being developed by com- 

 mercial bodies. They are merely cited as being 

 instances of the large degree to which the exigencies 

 of trade and the supply of raw material are increasing 

 continually the amount of agricultural effort through- 

 out the world. They havd a larger interest in the 

 present connexion — an interest which is bound up 

 with the fact that they nearly all illustrate the greater 

 measure in which the necessity is being recognized for 

 obtaining the co-operation of the scientific adviser, in 

 order that the best results may be achieved. The 

 interests of agricultural commerce demand the exist- 

 ence of the agricultural department, and often require, 

 further, the services (if the trained expert immed- 

 iately employed by those under whose direction the 

 commercial activities are sustained. 



The second stimulus to agricultural effort, as has 

 been stated, is concerned with the exjtressed desire on 

 the part of individuals for the adoption of some definite 

 policy, for the purpose of the improvement of agricul- 

 tural conditions in a given instance. This desire may 

 arise through the existence of a declining state of 

 a particular industry, through untoward natural or 

 economic circumstances; these may be the prevalence of 

 pests in the first case, or that of unfavourable trading 

 conditions in the second. It may also be caused through 

 the recognition of the need for the development of new 

 industries, either to replace the old, or to provide 

 additional means of agi-icultiiral activity, especially 

 for the sake of the diversification of crops. There are 

 instances, too, where this desire for increased agricul- 

 tural eftbrt has not led only to the attempt to gain the 

 interest of those who are responsible for the administra- 

 tion of the (Jovernment or for the provision of agri- 

 cultural advice; the individuals themselves have 

 decided to attempt a large part of the work, and this is 

 why the present generation is in possession of the 

 results, among others, of the labours of Lawes and 

 Gilbert at Rothamsted, of Coke of llolkhain, and of 

 the Dukes of Bedford. 



The stimulation of agricultural efifort through the 

 aid of agricultural and botanical departnu^nts has its 

 first and gri'atest illustration in the work of the Royal 

 Botanic Oardens, Kew. Reference is made to this in 

 a recent article* by Sir W. T. Thistleton-Dyer. from 

 which some of the facts mentioned here .-ire taken. 



m — ■ — "^ -~~ 



*\Vhat .Scifiice lias Done f. r tlie \\\st Iiuiies. Nature, 

 February S>, 1!»11, p. 477. 



For many years, Kew was almost solely responsible for 

 the work that was done for tropical countries in plant 

 economy, entomology and mycolog}'. It would not be 

 possible to indicate here, even approximately, the extent 

 to which this has been the case. The value of its work 

 in the past, in the identification and distiibutiim of 

 economic plants, cannot be judged adequately; the fact 

 of its being through Kew that the introduction of useful 

 rubber plants into India, Ceylon and the Federated 

 Malay States originally took place, and the circumstance 

 that it was largely on account of its useful advice that 

 the Government of India was able successfully to intro- 

 duce Cinchona into that country, are sufficient to give 

 some idea of the scope of its work, and of the accurate 

 foresight with which its schemes ha\ e been carried out. 

 In the plan of its activities which was sanctioned by 

 Parliament, recognition was made of its duties in rela- 

 tion to commerce and agriculture: in fine, in the words 

 of the article to which reference has been made above, 

 'The history of Kew... affords one of the earliest 

 instances... of the recognition of the duty of the State 

 to promote scientific knowledge in the public interest.' 

 Among matters that affect more nearly the concerns of 

 the West Indies is the circumstance that it was from 

 Kew that the first suggestion came for the application 

 of the principle of chemical selection for the improve- 

 ment of the sugar-cane: and, as is stated in the article 

 ipioted above, it was this institution that directed the 

 attention of the Colonial Office to the importance of 

 the selection of varieties raised from seed, for the same 

 purpose. 



Turning from the consideration of detail, the 

 history of the past and present activities of Kew is 

 illustrative of the work that is now being done by 

 a number of agricultural and botanical departments, 

 each placed where it will most usofnlly serve its purpose. 



It has been stated already, that the work of Govern- 

 ments is most usually concerned with the administra- 

 tion of schemes that ha\ e luen indicated as necessary 

 through other channels. Some of the most extensive 

 work of the kind has been done by the Indian Govern- 

 ment, i)artieiilarly in relation to tea and rubber. In 

 the West Indies, part of the agricultural activity in 

 .some of the islands, especially St. Vincent and the Vir- 

 gin Islands, is directly regulated and fostered by the 

 local Government; and there is, in relation to the for- 

 mer island and Barbados, the circumstance that the 

 Governments were responsible for the appointment of 

 a Commission to investigate the sugar-cane diseases 

 which caused great losses during certain years in the 

 decade 1890-1900. In St. Vincent, too, (Jovernmentis 



