1566 M. MALET 



3) to advise and aid the colonists ; 



4) to prepare the way for future progress by scientific investiga- 

 tion ; 



5) to study the problems of agricultural hydraulics and improve- 

 ment of land ; 



6) to aid in the organisation of professional agricultural teaching; 



7) to establish administrative relations with the Chambers of 

 Agriculture and with the Agricultural Societies and Committees. 



In order that this programme might be more efficiently carried out 

 the Agricultural Board was extended and developed in 1915 into the 

 Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Colonisation, which now 

 includes branches for Agriculture, Stockbreeding, Hydraulics and Agri- 

 cultural Improvements, Colonisation, Research and Education, and also 

 the official chemical laboratory for the analysis of samples. 



The Agricultural branch, with which we are specially concerned 

 here, includes a central board and a regional technical board. 



Central Board. — This consists of : 



i) an administrative staff which is concerned with office work and 

 the study of legislative measures and regulations for the protection and 

 improvement of agriculture. 



2) a supervising staff which directs and controls the action of the 

 regional board. 



Regional Technical Board. — This consists of a technical staff drawn 

 from the ranks of the inspectors and sub-inspectors of agriculture, the 

 agricultural advisers and head and under gardeners. 



Inspectors and sub-inspectors of agriculture are stationed in the 

 chief centres (Mequinez, Casablanca, Mazagan, Marakesh), and they act 

 as technical advisers to the military and civilian governing bodies, forming 

 a connecting link with the Central Board in agricultural matters. These 

 inspectors continually travel about the countrj^ and so they are able to 

 take part in enquiries and surveys, to gather on the spot much useful 

 information about the economic possibilities of their own areas, to carr^^ 

 out constant propaganda work and to spread information among the 

 natives. They also instruct the colonists and advise them how to set 

 to work, and finally they give to the experimental gardens and demon- 

 stration fields a bent which is practical and in line with the interests of 

 the districts for which they have been established. 



Every country which is desirous of making agricultural progress 

 nowadays considers it necessary to establish experimental gardens spe- 

 cially adapted for teaching purposes. In West Morocco it has been pos- 

 sible to s.^t up three such gardens at Rabat, Mequinez and Marakesh. 



The garden at Rabat has been in working order since April ist 1914 ; 

 at first it was about 10 acres in extent, but it has since been granted a 

 further 12 I/2 acres. The work of this station is chiefly devoted to kit- 

 chen garden and fruit cultivation. These are already among the chief 

 resources of the immediate neighbourhood of Rabat and the coast region, 

 and their importance promises to be still greater in the future. In ad- 



