98 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



April 7, 191' 



colonies — British Guiana, Jniuaica, and Trinidad — 

 there exists a large class of peasant farmers for whom 

 -agricultural instr :_ ti :; is provided by the Govern- 

 ment. 



Out of this la',1 ' ' tlernent have arisen in the 

 ordinary course of cvo;;, : i >n '.:ortain schemes having for 

 their object the iuinnir.ction of various forms of co-, 

 operation. Bv way oi illustration, mention may be 

 made of the scheme under which the St. Vincent 

 Government purchases peasant cotton and deals with 

 it on a profit-shaiiDg basis. This system, which was 

 instituted in 1010 has now been in operation for six 

 .seasons, and may be regarded as highly successful. 

 -(^uite recently a plant for extracting oil from cotton 

 seed and for making cotton-seed meal has been installed. 

 This meal provides valuable cattle food while the 

 coarser qualities are used locally as manure. Another 

 example is to be found in the assistance rendered by the 

 Government of the same colony in regard to the pro- 

 vision of agricultural credit for the peasant. The 

 Agricultural Credit Societies (Ordinance, passed in 

 191o. has been lespon.sible for the similar enactments 

 in Trinidad and St. Lucia. Co-operative credit societies, 

 founded on the Raitfeisen system are now working 

 satisfactorily in St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Trinidad. 



Associated with the Land Settlement policy are 

 the various prize- lioldings schemes which are calculated 

 to do so much good in thedirecti^onof the improvement 

 of peasant holdines. An extensive competition is 

 ■ conducted annually in (jrcuada and other colornes, and 

 a scheme is now being arranged for in St. Lucia. These 

 competitions are backed up by visits made by agricul- 

 tural instructors, who offer guidance and advice in all 

 matters pertaining to the betterment of the holdings. 



Not directly connected with Land Settlement, but 

 none the less important as efforts in aid of peasant 

 agriculture, are the facilities afforded by Central Sugar 

 Factories in regard to the purchase of peasant canes. 

 Each of the Antigua factories, for example, has an 

 agreement to purchase peasant canes on the basis of the 

 value, at Antigua, of -IJlb. sugar (90 refiners' crystals) 

 p-r lOOlt). of canes delivered. These factories further 

 agn.'e to guarantee a minimum price. Many thousands 

 of tons of cane have been purchased under this 

 system. 



Two other schemes which aid peasant agricul- 

 ture must be referred to. One is the Govern- 

 ment Granary schemes in Antigua and in St. Vincent, 

 by which Indian corn is purchased or stored. 'J'he 

 «.Lh<r is the Lime Juice Factory in St. Lucia, which 



buys limes from the peasants, payment being partly 

 in cash, followed by a bonus distributed at the 

 end of the season, the amount being dependent on 

 the prices at which the produce has been sold by 

 the factoiy. 



Added to the foregoing efforts to aid peasant 

 agriculture, there is the usual routine nursery work 

 at the Experiment Stations, which provides planting 

 material especially for i-aising provision crops, and sugar- 

 cane and cotton. Thus it will be seen that a great 

 deal has been and continues to be done on behalf of the 

 peasant, the Goverments exercising benevolent control 

 and providing the necessary agricultural guidance and 

 advice. 



This policy of promoting the welfare of peasant; 

 agriculture is not always regarded sympathetically by 

 the larger estate owners. In some -juarters it is 

 imagined that land settlement interferes adversely with 

 the labour supply. But actually land settlement tends 

 to operate in the opposite direction, and as is pointed 

 out in an instructive paper in the West Indian 

 Bulletin* on (iovernment Schemes of Land Settlement 

 in Grenada, labour is improved in ijuality and quantity, 

 not in spite of the fact that the peasantry are more 

 independent, but hecaase of it. 



^Lr A. J. JiroL'ks, Agricultural Suiierintendent, St. Lucia, 

 ill a recent communication states that Hi.s Ifonnur the 

 Hod. C Gideon ^[urray. Administrator, was expscted to 

 leave the Colony about ilarch 23. Mr. Murray i< iiroceeding 

 t" France to take up .•■ervice with Hi.s Majesty's forces. 

 Mr. lirooks sta'es that His Honour's departure can only be 

 regarded throughout the islaml as an unfortunate ."iet hack 

 to the agricultural progress of the colony, in which the 

 Administrator took so "reat an interest. 



VEGETABLE SEEDS IN THE TROPICS. 



In connexion with the article that appeared in the 

 Agricultural Jfews of March 10, on the deterioration and 

 methods of preserving ' vegetable seed in the tropics. 

 Sir Oilbert Carter. K.C.M.G., ex-Governor of Barbados, has 

 furnished this Office with some interesting notes in connexion 

 with his personal experience in this matter. He points out 

 that frequently, seed of temperate climite vegetables imported 

 into Barbados, especially from America, fails to germinate 

 satisfactorily even if planted shordy after its arrival. This 

 has been our correspondent's experience during the present 

 season, failure having been experienced in connexion witfi 

 the seed of beetroot, turnips, carrots and kohl-rabi. This 

 has not ari.sen from the depredation of ants, which is .so often 

 respon.sible for bad germination, but simply from want of 

 viability. 



iteferring to the question of raising seed locally. 

 Sir Gilbert Garter points out that it is quite possilile to raise 

 and keep seed successfully in the West Indies if proper means 



♦Vol. XIV,~i^2! '~~ 



