Vol. X7I. No. 402. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



295 



In Barbados the first action taken was the prohibition 

 by the Government of the export of articles of food. A 

 Committee of planters later on invited all planters to send 

 in returns stating how many additional acres they would 

 undertake to plant in tweet potatoes. In May 1917, 

 however, the Legislature passed an Act bearing on the subject, 

 which shows that the Government of Barbados is fully 

 aware of the necessity of producing more lood.stuflFs locallj'. 

 Seven Commissioners were appointed by the Governor with 

 ample powers to execute the provisions of the Act, the aim of 

 of which was to enforce the duty of growing ground pro- 

 visions on every occupier of 3 or more acres of arable land. 

 The term 'ground provisions' is by definition in the Act made 

 to include corn, peas, beans, and all plants producing 

 crops which provide foodstutfs fit for man. This Act 

 orders that every owner of .3 or more acres of arable 

 lantl shall, within twenty-one days from the passing of 

 the Act, make a correct return of certain particulars accord- 

 ing to a specified schedule. On the receipt of the returns 

 the Commissioners shall send every owner a notice of the 

 number of acres in which he is required to plant ground 

 provisions; the kinds of such provisions, and the number of 

 acres he is required to plant: the time or times at which he 

 is required to plant, and the time or times he is required to 

 reap the crop or crops. The area so requistioned is not to 

 exceed 10 per cent, of the arable land of any owner. 



Inspectors are appointed to see that these orders are 

 carried out, and that the land so utilized is kept in good 

 condition. 



The penalty for wilfully neglecting to comply with the 

 directions of the Commissioners is, on conviction, a fine of 

 £10 for every day of such neglect, or if such neglect is not 

 a continuous one, a fine not exceeding £-500. 



This Act continues in force until March 19 IS, and by a 

 clause attached to it magistrates are empowered to sentence 

 to be flogged any male guilty of stealing ground provisions. 



Barbados is the only island which has taken such strong 

 compulsory measures towards the increase of food supplies. 



The result has been, as may well be supposed, a very 

 marked increase in the cultivation of food crops. Probably 

 Barbados has set an example of legislation which the other 

 islands may well follow. 



Turning now to the Leeward Islands it may be said that 

 the Agricultural Departments in the various islands have 

 continuously endeavoured to show that it would be of the 

 greatest benefit to cultivate food crops more largely. In 

 June last year the question was brought prominently forward 

 in Dominica. It did not seem however to attract much 

 attention, but in ilay this year, the Administrator of the island 

 addres-sed a circular to the [)lanters, pointing out the serious- 

 ness of the situation, and requesting them to do all in their 

 power to extend the area under provision crops. Since then 

 there is evidence that much new land is being so cultivated, 

 and it is expected that in a few months there will be an 

 abundance of locaUy produced vegetables. 



In Montserrat the Commissioner of the island sent out 

 in May a circular asking for returns of the extent of land 

 under rood crops ; at the same time the Government purchased 

 a supply of seed corn and black-eye peas for gratuitous 

 distribution among the peasant cultivators. The planters 

 are now in many instances growing larger quantities of 

 sweet potatoes, and are also stimulating the lab.urers to 

 grow provisions by renting land for this purpose at a low 

 rate, and in some cases allowing the labourers to use the 

 land without any rent. 



In Antigua public attention was directed to the 

 food question early in 1916 by the Agricultural and 

 Commercial Society. Experiments were succesfully made in 



producing mixed bread from wheat flour and sweet potato 

 meal, and from wheat flour and corn meal, which latter, with 

 the approval of the Medical Officer, has been u.sed in the 

 prison dietary since .May 1916, and lately has been much 

 used by the general public. During the early part of this 

 year the Government granary and corn drier have been 

 put into good order, and as soon as the crop of corn is 

 mature, the Government will be prepired to buy corn to 

 be dried and stored. The Central Board for Co-operative 

 Societies is in every direction vigorously pushing the 

 campaign for increased production of foodstuffs, and the 

 officers of the Agricultural Department are taking greit pains 

 towards the same end. The Government have offered lands, 

 in some cases free, to peasants on condition that ground pro- 

 visions are grown. Both owners of estates and peasint 

 proprietors are now planting much land in vegetable food- 

 stuffs, and absent owners of large properties have issued 

 instructions to their attorneys and managers to plant all 

 available land in such crops. 



In the presidency of St. Kitts-Nevis the Administrator 

 sent a circular in May this year to all the planters in the 

 islands of St. Kitts, Nevis, and Anguilla, calling their 

 attention to the shortage of imported foodstuffs, and asking 

 that each estate should devote at least one-tenth of its arable 

 acreage to the production of ground provisions. The planters 

 have willingly consented to this, and the resu't is that it is 

 estimated that at least 1,754 acres vrill .shortly be planted in 

 corn or other food crops. Bread of a mixture of flour and 

 sweet potato meal has met with a favourable reception in 

 St. Kitts. 



The Government of British Guiana has appointed 

 a committee to enquire into and report upon the feasibility of 

 local manufacture from the vegetable products of the colony 

 of suitable substitutes for, or adjuncts to, imported wheat 

 flour, and to the possibility of largelj" increasing the output of 

 the raw materials. This Committee issued an Interim Report 

 on March 10, 1917. The committee reports that meal prepared 

 from rice, Guinea corn, and maize can be employed most 

 efficiently as adjuncts to wheat flour in the making of bread; 

 and that meal from other locally grown crops, such as 

 cassava, sweet potatoes, tannias, and eddoes, together with 

 meal obtained from locally grown pulses, such as pigeon peas, 

 black-eye peas, Lima and bonavist beans can be satisfactorily 

 used in the same way. In order to stimulate largely 

 increased production of such crops as maize, Guinea corn, and 

 cassava, the committee advise that the Government should 

 erect factories for the conversion of such raw materials into 

 marketable products, and that the factories should be worked 

 on a profit-sharing basis between the Government as 

 proprietor and the farmers as producers. 



The Sugar Market.— The following remarks on the 

 sugar situation are taken from the last report to hand of 

 Messrs. Gillespie Bros, and Co., dated New York, August 31, 



1917;— 



The latest news is that the Government will endeavour 

 to fix a price for raw sugars that will enable refiners 

 to sell their products at 7Jc. per D>. This would mean 

 that producers must be willing to accept not over 5c. 

 per tt). c. A f. for 96° test centrifugals. It is doubted very 

 much in the trade whether the Cuban growers will accept 

 any such figure, but until a final price basis has been settled 

 upon, trade will be light and prices very uncertain. 



