404 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



December 23, 1911. 



FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES. 



RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AGRI- 

 CULTURAL SHOWS. 



A booklet bearing the title Recommendations for the 

 Work of the Department in Assisting the Agricultural Shows 

 of Bengal, by E. J. VVoodhouse, M.A., Economic Botanist to 

 the Government of Bengal, has )>een issued recently by the 

 Department of Agriculture of that Province. This commen- 

 ces by pointing out that the number of scientific officers 

 belonging to that Department iloes not admit at present of 

 the giving of much direct assistance with regard to agricultu- 

 ral shows. For the purpose, more funds and a greater num- 

 ber of qualified officers are required, and it is considered to be 

 absolutely essential that some organization should exist in the 

 Province that is capable of drawing attention, in each district, 

 to the recommendations of the Agricultural Department, at 

 least once a year. It is held that agricultural shows in Ben- 

 gal are now well established, .so that it remains for the 

 Agricultural Department to direct the efforts rightly and 

 economically. 



Up to the present, the Department has assisted at shows 

 by (a) giving grants to exhibitions and (b) lending exhibits 

 which are placed in the charge of an inspector. Suggestions 

 for work of the Department in additional ways are made as 

 follows; (c) the giving of special prizes of agricultural imple- 

 ments or seeds, for exhibits of crops grown from planting 

 material supplied by the Department or according to methods 

 recommended by it; (d) the payment of the fares of selected 

 cultivators, and the supply of food to them during the time 

 of the show; and (f) the drawing up of schedules to assist in 

 judging the exhibits. 



One of the difficulties of the Department his arisen 

 through the holding of several shows on a particular date, 

 owing to their being made to coincide with some time of 

 festival; it is suggested that this could be remedied by spreading 

 the dates of the shows over a definite period, in order to 

 give more time to the Department for the moving of its 

 exhibits. Under the conditions that are dealt with, the 

 most convenient duration of agricultural shows appears to 

 be three to six days. 



As regards size, the exhibits of the Bengal Agricultural 

 Department are intended to be of two dimensions; the larger 

 for the more important shows, and the smaller each designed 

 for a particular group of .shows. Tn connexion with these, 

 recommendations are given concwning iJic constitution of the 



Departmental Staff to accomjiany the exhil)its: it is consi- 

 dered that at least two inspectors, with their assistant staffs, 

 are required for each exhibition. During such time as the 

 duties of these are not required for agricultural shows, they 

 would be availalde for touring through the different districts, 

 for attending meeting.s of agricultural associations for purposes 

 of demonstration, for making special enquiries during the off 

 season, for taking the place of officers on leave, for under- 

 going training in special subjects, or for making preparations 

 in connexion with the forthcoming show season. 



It is recommended that the large exhibits of the Depart- 

 ment should comprise the following: the general crop exhibit- 

 examples of crops recommended, as well as of manures and 

 implements; mycological and entomological sections; material 

 such as photographs, diagrams, maps and leaflets: plant speci- 

 mens and group labels; the la.st are used to mark each separate 

 section of the exhibit The labels on the samples are printed 

 on stiff cards, divided into two or three portions, one for 

 English and the others for one or more vernaculars; they are 

 filled in by hand, fitted with eyelets with a Triumph eyelet 

 l)tinch, and fastened to the exhibition bags by means of brass 

 paper fasteners. 



The purpose of the photographs is to illustrate the work- 

 ing of agricultural im[)lement', as well as to show the differ- 

 ence between varieties of crops. The diagrams summarize 

 the experimental results obtained by the Department, and 

 are used in conjunction with photographs of crops. The 

 maps are prei)ared from the rainfall and crop statistics of the 

 province, and are intended to show the dependence of various 

 crops on rainfall, soil and other conditions. The leaflets 

 chiefly form an addition to the diagrams, as a means of pre- 

 senting the results of experiments. 



Information concerning the nature of the smaller 

 exhibits is followed bj a section dealing with the duties of 

 agricultural officers at exhibitions. This contains details 

 concerning the arrangement of bags of crop samples on 

 the show benches; where these are large they may be placed 

 in two rows one behiml the other, alternately in the rows, 

 while the small bags may be of such a size as to permit of the 

 making of four rows, from back to front, those in the first 

 and third rows, and those in the second and fourth rows, 

 being one behind the other. In this section, a .series of 

 interesting suggestions for officers inspecting exhibitions is 

 included. This is followed by advice as to the nature of 



