BULLETIN 



OP THte 



r)EPAnr:siENT of agriculxub-e 



Trinidad and Tobag-o. 



Part 2.] 1921. [Vol. XIX. 



NOTES. 



Reorganization of the Department of A.griculture. 



From September 1, 1920 the Department of Agriculture was placed 

 on the new basis provided under Ordinance No. 29 of 1918, which gave 

 effect to the scheme of reorganization laid by His Excellency the 

 Governor before the Legislative Council in Council Paper No. 112 

 of 1918.— {See Bull. Dcpt. Agr. XVIII. 1919. 213-26). 



The principal change involved is that the Board of Agriculture is 

 re-constituted as a purely advisory body. The Government assumes 

 re.-;i)onsibility for the provision in the Department of Agriculture of 

 officers to replace the E)itomologist, Mycologist, and Agricultural Advisers, 

 previously maintained by the Board from funds derived from a special 

 export tax on agricultural produce, now abolished. 



A list of the posts established under the new system and of the ofticers 

 at present appointed to occupy them will be found in another place- 

 An innovation is made in the provision of Sugar and Cacao Agronomists, 

 whose duties will be to study and advise upon the methods of cultivation 

 to be applied in the two principal agricultural industries of the Colony. 

 An Economic Botanist is also to be appointed, to arrange for research 

 leading to the production of improved strains of cultivated plants, 

 especially cacao and coconuts, and for the application of recent methods 

 to agricultural experimentation. 



rians have been approved by His Excellency the Governor for the 

 erection of a new building at the St. Clair Experiment Station to serve 

 as headquarters for the Department. The cost will be met from the 

 surplus funds of River and St. Augustine Estates, in addition to which 

 a svnn of £5,197 from the same source has been lianded over to general 

 revenue. A site for the building lia3 been chosen and work was com- 

 menced in April 1921. 



W.N. 



The Mosaic Disease of Sugai* Oane. 



During tlic past three months a large amount of attention has been 

 directed towards the reduction and if possible the extermination of the 

 Mosaic Disease. Some of the Agricultural Advisers have been seconded 

 for the work and special assistants emplojed. In the Naparimas and 

 in most other outlying districts a considerable measure of success has 

 been attained and there is every hope of extermination. In the districb 

 between San Juan and Tunapuna, however, the disease lias obtained 

 such a firnr hold that with the present staff aud arrangements there is 



