39 



Agricultural Society and re< imeuded that theentrv Pees amounting 



to four pounds twelve shillings be distributed as special prizes, which 

 I am happy to say, was done. I am pleased to be able to speak in 

 terms of the highest praise of the Prize Holdings in Westmoreland, 

 the prize-winners in the first class were exceptionally creditable. 

 The first prize-winner in the second class also deserves high commenda- 

 tion — the improvement in his holding made by him since the inaugu- 

 ration ciC the scheme is deserving of the highest praise. The clearing 

 up which this worthy competitor gave his holding in his endeavour to 

 win a prize, was most complete. Permanent crops were cleaned and 

 pruned, shade trees lightened in accordance with my suggestions. 

 catch crops likewise cleaned up in such a way that catch crops very 

 seldom are. New wire fences, and a tine gate with Mahoe posts wen 

 erected. Stock were groomed and cleaned until there was not a sign 

 of a tick. The house was put in proper order, new steps and rails 

 painted and whitewashed : the W. C. whitewashed inside and out. 

 yard cleaned up much cleaner than many " Buckra'" yards, and even 

 the round-stick hogstye was whitewashed inside and out. As this 

 competitor remarked, if he did not win the first prize, at any rate he 

 had worked for it. The first prize-winner in the third class, good old 

 Thomas Watson, also richly deserved his prize. A man who was 

 married " the year after freedom," and who still takes the pride in his 

 home and surroundings that he does and keeps them so nice, must be 

 a power for good in his neighbourhood. The Holdings were surpris- 

 ingly good, especially for a parish which I had always understood was 

 " not a small settlers' parish." The amount of cleaning up generally 

 in all the classes is well worth all the money spent on the scheme. 

 It must not be inferred, however, that the whole of the benefits of 

 the scheme consist in the mere cleaning up of " yards," cultivations, 

 fixing up of fences, erection of new gates and making of roads, how- 

 ever commendable these may be. 



' It must be remembered that there is still in the minds of the 

 peasantry a good deal of suspicion of '■ Buckra" and all his works, 

 the biggest and baddest ; ' buckra" of all being the Government, 

 represented, until the advent of the Small Holdings Prize Scheme, in 

 the minds of the average small settler by the Department presided 

 over by the Honourable the Collector General. It would, however, 

 be useless at this time to go into the reasons for these suspicions : 

 Suffice it to say that they exist, and that Instructors in Agriculture 

 have to fight them. It is all very well to send out Instructors, but if 

 the chief and most industrious and reliable portion of the peasantry 

 stand aloof in suspicious contempt, how can the Instructors' labours 

 have the same result as they will have when these people have been 

 persuaded that the agricultural instruction is offered for their benefit, 

 and not as a means for spying out the land and supplying information 

 to the tax gatherer. I do not wish your Boards to take an exag- 

 gerated view of this side of the question, but its existence cannot be 

 denied, and until it is removed the full value of the money spent on 

 instruction can never be realized. Remove it and every pound spent 

 will be worth five times what it is now. Twenty -five years of the 

 Prize Holdings Scheme will quadruple the value of the eighty thou- 

 sand small holdings in Jamaica, and the then Collector General will 

 be able to dispense with what are called runners. That the scheme is 



