mi^u^LLf: 



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A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



i<W V 





Vol. XVI. No. 38t(. 



BARBADOS, MARCH 10, 1917. 



Price \d 



The Growth of the Smaller West Indian 

 Departments of Agriculture. 



HE Reports issued on the Agricultural 

 Departments of the Windward and Leeward 

 Islands continue each year to improve. Those 

 which have just been published, relating to work 

 conducted during 191.5-16, attain to such a high 

 standard of value and interest that we are -prompted to 

 place on record a brief account of the activities to 



which the}' refer, and of the remarkable progress thai 

 has led up to the present satisfactory state of affairs. 



It must be realized that what we now call Agri- 



o 



cultural JJepartnients in these islands began, in mosb 

 cases, as Botanic Stations, consisting principally of 

 ornamental gardens and plant nurseries. The modern 

 Department is an institution possessing external func- 

 tions as well as those of an internal character. A modern 

 Department is more than an Experiment Station, 

 though it carries on experiment station work. It is, in 

 fact, an institution for investigation, for the provision 

 and control of planting material, for the dissemination 

 of information and advice, for the introduction 

 of new industries, and for the organization of agricul- 

 tural communities, particularly in regard to the 

 small land-owner. Its functions are therefore of 

 a very varied and tar-reaching character. Naturally 

 the amount and standard of work that can be done is 

 limited by the extent of the pemonnel and equipment. 

 Thus the larger tropical colonies like British Guiana, 

 Ceylon, and Mauritius possess a staff" of experts and 

 adequate equipment in the way of laboratories and 

 experimental farms to allow of the conduct of extensive 

 investigations. An enormous institution like the 

 ITnited States Department of Agriculture necessitates 

 subdivision into Bureaus, working in conjunction with 

 the State Experiment Stations, each of which is able 

 to carry on scientific studies as well as the investigation 

 of problems immediately relating to agricultural 

 practice. 



Thus we find all grades of Departments of 

 Agriculture, from those staffed by one or two officers, to 

 those which emploj- many hundreds. But the relative 

 size of a Department does not necessarily determine 

 its efficiency. A small Department in a small place 

 can do effective work as well as a large Department in 

 a bigger country. The chief handicap to a smsl'' 



