12 LETTEKS ON AGKICULTURE. 



the able management of Mr. J. H. Hart, would enable a young Ameri- 

 can to pursue any line of research relating to the culture of tropical 

 plants. Mr. Hart's interest in American methods and his acquaint- 

 ance with American characteristics would make him a very profitable 

 associate for any student who could be sent. 



The key to the situation lies in the breeding of tropical plants, 

 and already here in Trinidad the first successful attempts at grafting 

 cocoa have been made. Cocoa, coffee, tea, and many other of the 

 tropical food plants will soon be propagated by grafting, and a host of 

 new and better varieties will be developed by hybridizing and selecting. 



In conclusion, I wish to call attention to the object of the expedition 

 which Mr. Lathrop is conducting, which is not to study exhaustively 

 any one country, but to get an idea of its possibilities and ascertain 

 whether or not it would be worth while to send an explorer into it to 

 study its resources, spending months in. such study, and at the same 

 time to pick up such seeds and plants as would be of evident utility 

 should they succeed when introduced into America. Only such species 

 as are already successful as food or otherwise economic plants in the 

 countries visited will be sent. 



We have already sent, or arranged to have sent, the yams above 

 mentioned, a collection of the celebrated Barbados sweet potatoes; 

 four of the most noted varieties of East Indian mangoes; a number 

 of plants of the " Trinidme " lime, the largest lime I ever saw; cut- 

 tings of a new variety of Poincettia, the showiest foliage plant I have 

 ever seen; a collection of Trinidad varieties of Hibiscus, some of which 

 are the showiest of their kind, and will surely be appreciated; a quan- 

 tity of the •'Para'"' grass, one of the most highly prized forage grasses 

 of the Tropics, which will succeed admirably in Florida, it is believed; 

 and seeds of the cashew tree, which bears what in the opinion of the 

 connoisseurs is the most delicious of all table nuts, the cashew nut. 

 The cultivation of this tree could be made to develop into an industry 

 similar to the pecan industry of Louisiana, if properly introduced into 

 Porto Rico or southern Florida. 



JAMAICA YAM CULTIVATION. 



The cultivation in Jamaica of the vegetables known as j T ams seems 

 to date from a remote period, as no one, even of the oldest inhabitants, 

 seems able to recollect when any of the varieties now grown were not 

 sold on the markets. Yam culture has, however, within the last ten 

 years, greatly increased, perhaps doubled, and in the eastern portion 

 of the island the patches devoted to it are more numerous than those 

 given up to any other plant, save the banana, which to-daj' forms the 

 principal export fruit of the island. Fully 40 per cent of the native 

 women who walk to market with baskets of produce on their heads, at 

 this time of vear at least, have their baskets filled with yams. The 



