A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 





Vol. XVI. No. 390. 



BARBADOS, APRIL 7, 1917. 



Price Id. 



|i HE fact is frequently overlooked that a great 

 l»deal of the work of agricultural departments 

 l,is concerned with the improvement of 

 peasant agriculture. In the West Indies the policy 

 of assisting the peasant has been steadily pursued since 

 the great depression in the middle nineties. The 

 Royal Commission which visited these islands in 18!t7 

 put forward as a principal recommendation, that then 



revival of prosperity was intimately bound up in the 

 establishment of peasant holdings, and this resulted in 

 the Land Settlement schemes which have proved so 

 markedly successful in several of the islands. Naturally 

 the task of giving instruction and guidance has fallen 

 on the agricultural departments, and a great deal has 

 been achieved in the direction of introducing .sound 

 .systems of cultivation. In his Parliamentary report 

 on the Land Settlement scheme in St. ^'incent, the 

 first to be started. Mr. Tatham in 1911 referred to the 

 results as being of a 'permanent and far-reaching 

 character." 'It would be difficult,' the report states, to 

 over-estimate the progress which has been made 

 through the etfbrts of the Agricultural Department. The 

 officers of this Department have not only dealt with 

 questions concerning the best methods of growing 

 and handling ditferent crops, but also with those of 

 maintaining the fertility of the lands of the small 

 holdings. Instruction has been freely given in the 

 making of drains to prevent washing, by the formation 

 of compost heaps and manure pens: the growing of 

 leguminous and other plants for green-dressing purposes; 

 the utilization of grass and bush as a mulch for permanend 

 crops and arrowroot: the rotation of crops and pasture 

 tallowing. The advice that has been received in these 

 and other matters is producing a class of small holders 

 which i.s a valuable asset to the agricultural progress 

 of the Colony.' 



St. Vincent was the first to adopt the scheme to 

 which the foregoing refers. This occurred in 1899. 

 Carriacou, a dependency of Grenada, followed in 1903, 

 and in 1910 Grenada began on a modest scale which 

 has been steadily extended since. In 1918 St. Lucia 

 entered upon a definite policy also: and at the presenti 

 time a Land Settlement scheiue is under consideration 

 Daiuin tea and Aiuigua. In the larger West Indian 



