184 

 695. -AGRICULTURAL SHOW. 



The triennial Show of the " Trinidad Agricultural Society was 

 opened by His Excellency Sir Henry Moore Jackson, on Tuesday. 

 February 14th and terminated on Saturday 18th instant. 



The Exhibition was a satisfactory exposition of the products of 

 the Island both major and minor, and in the quality of the samples- 

 there was certainly a great improvement, and fewer articles of inferior 

 quality were staged. 



A large number of suitable samples were secured for the Colonial 

 ;ii id Indian Exhibition. 



The Botanical Department exhibited samples of Essential Oils, 

 Decorative Plants, Onions, Yams, Ginger and Dark Red Cacao and for 

 the latter a Diploma for best sample was awarded. 



696.-MULCHING. 



We have so often advocated the practice known as mulching that 

 it would be almost superfluous to recur to it for sometime to come, but 

 the present short article afford such strong additional evidence of the 

 eeononiy of the practice, that I "clip" for the benefit of our Trinidad 

 friends from the Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society. 



" It is so easy, sometimes, to write or speak and tell the culti- 

 vator what he ought to do. but the idea of what one's advice involves 

 should always be well considered. It is so easy for instance to say to 

 a settler to say that after planting cotton seed in a dry district he 

 must mulch thickly over his land with dry grass. The cutting of 

 grass alone to thatch or mulch over an acre of land is a heavy task ; 

 then there is the spreading of it ; then there is the drawing of it off 

 into long lines, to enable the weeding to be done later ; then the 

 recovering. Yet this mulching if done, after rain, will almost assure 

 safety from drought, and it is an investment of time or labour which 

 will pay good interest. Not only is the soil thickly thatched with 

 dry grass, kept cool and moist, but ultimately the mulch crumbles 

 and leaves a good useful addition of manure on the soil. We are in 

 lor a spell of dry weather in the " spring " from all indications and 

 mulching should be undertaken immediately, if it has not been 

 dime already." 



697-STERILIZED FRUITS- 



The following paragraph which is a record of an actual experiment 

 carried out in the Tropics, is of sulhcient importance to induce us to 



1 1 produce it in full. 



For many years pasl it has been known that the essence of all 

 preservative methods is to destroy the germs contained in the 

 material to be preserved, and after that destruction, to prevent 

 access of other germs. 



This appears to have been effectually accomplished by the 

 Jamaica Botanical Department and we hope during the ensuing year 

 to have a similar experiment on sight at the St. Clair station. 



