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agricultural instruction among them which had been responded 

 to, to a considerable extent, and he thought indeed that no time 

 should be lost in getting those in suitable districts accustomed to 

 growing cotton on a small scale. 



The matter was left for further discussion. 



Teachers' Course. — The Secretary read letter from Mr. A. B. Mc- 

 Farlane intimating that as the accommodation at the Mico Train- 

 ing College was very limited this year owing to the damage done 

 by the earthquake, he would suggest that the Course be postponed, 

 but if it was considered advisable to hold it with reduced numbers 

 — say 40 — he would be willing to superintend as before. 



After discussion, the Board were of opinion that it was 

 desirable to hold the Teachers' Course as usual in January, 

 even if a reduction in numbers was necessary through want of 

 accommodation. 



Agricultural Course. — Letter was submitted from the Colonial 

 Secretary's Office re Agricultural Course at the Laboratory which 

 had been suspended since the beginning of the year. The 

 Chairman stated that it had been arranged that the examination 

 be held in December, and the Course commencing in January 

 would therefore be attended by the three scholars for 1907, and 

 three scholars for 1908. 



It was intimated that the Apprentices' Quarters at Hope would 

 be complete before December. 



Rat Virus — The Secretary read letter from the Colonial Secre- 

 tary's Office, enclosing copy of letter written to His Britannic 

 Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary in the city of Mexico asking him 

 if he would be good enough to approach the Mexican Government 

 to send on another sample of Rat Virus here, taking all precautions 

 to obviate its being subjected to undue heat. 



The Chemist was asked how he was progressing with the local 

 virus. The Chemist explained that to test the various kinds of 

 rat virus on the market thoroughly and then test the cultures they 

 produced for the destruction of rats on a field scale would take 

 nearly a year. They found it comparatively easy to grow the 

 culture in the Laboratory and he would soon be in a position to 

 ask some of those who were most interested to make tests. 



Vanilla — The Secretary submitted extracts from a report by Mr. 

 Palache of his visit with the Rev. John Maxwell to the Vanilla- 

 producing districts. This was directed to be circulated. 



Letter from Mr. Briscoe re St. Thomas-in-the-East — The Secretary 

 submitted a letter from Mr. Briscoe to the Director of Public Gar- 

 dens stating that he had arranged to spend a special fortnight in 

 the Bath district in cocoa interests, and that he had just been 

 nearly a week in Trinity Ville district with Mr. Barclay but that 

 if he had to spend any further prolonged period in St. Thomas- 

 in-the-East, his travelling allowance would not carry him through. 

 He was directed to do the best he could till the end of the financial 

 year and arrange to pay a visit to St. Thomas for as long a period 

 as possible at the beginning of the next financial year. 



