BRITISH WEST INDIES. 11 



lished. This conservatism is sure to play a great role in the carrying 

 out of this feature of the work, and I am more fully convinced than 

 ever that the American cultivator when he does once enter the field of 

 tropical agriculture will make his mark, as he has in the agriculture 

 of temperate regions, by introducing into the markets of the world a 

 host of new food products. My attention has been called to a large 

 number of tropical fruits that could be grown successfully in Porto- 

 Rico and which would bear shipment by fast steamer to New York, 

 where, if once properly advertised, they would make a market for 

 themselves and become as common as the pomelo or Japanese persim- 

 mon. These fruits are as yet nothing but seedlings, as no work in 

 their amelioration has been done. What they could be bred into, the 

 experienced American horticulturist can easily conjecture. 



A third feature of the department's prospective work has to do 

 with the establishment of agricultural schools on the islands of 

 Dominica, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts-Nevis for the manual 

 training of orphans and destitute children; the employment of teachers 

 in agricultural science in the higher schools and colleges; courses in 

 agriculture of a normal character, to which the teachers in the elemen- 

 tary schools will be invited; and small grants to elementary schools 

 teaching the theory of agriculture. In connection with the educa- 

 tional part of the plans of the new department, traveling teachers or 

 instructors will be sent about the islands, holding meetings similar to 

 the farmers' institutes in America. Agricultural exhibitions or fairs 

 in the different islands will be fostered by small grants for prizes, etc. 



The Imperial Government has already advertised for a new steam- 

 ship line direct from Jamaica to the mother country, with a view to 

 the encouragement of the Jamaica fruit trade, and a second to run 

 between Trinidad, Barbados, and Canada (Halifax). No provision is 

 made to develop the fruit trade with New York, although Dr. Morris 

 informed me that this might ultimately be done. The fear that our 

 tariff might at any time be changed to their detriment has decided the 

 authorities to encourage trade with the mother country and Canada 

 only. 



After a somewhat careful study of the institutions of Jamaica, 

 Barbados, and Trinidad, it becomes evident to me that there is not as 

 vet what an American would consider a modern experiment station in 

 the West Indies. There are well-equipped chemical laboratories and 

 comfortable, well-arranged, botanical laboratories, but no happy com- 

 binations of botanist, entomologist, chemist, and agriculturist, which 

 make up an American experiment station. 



The most fully equipped botanical garden and the most profitable 

 place in the West Indies for American students who wish to learn the 

 elements of tropical agriculture is here in Trinidad, where a comfort- 

 able laboratory and an unusually rich economic botanical garden, under 



