OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE PARA GRASS. '15 



My Lord, Windward Islands, Barbados, Aug. 31, 1S48. 



Having learned that the Para grass is cultivated in the 

 Government Agricultural Farm at Cura^oa, antl that it might 

 prove very valuable here, I liave procured both plants and seeds 

 of it, which are now growing in Barbados; and I have also sent 

 both to Bermuda. 



I shall here annex a copy of the letters I received along w ith 

 these roots and seeds from t!ie Inspector of Agriculture under 

 the Netherlands Government. 



I have, &c. 

 Right Hon. Earl Grey, (Signed) AVm. Reid, 



^"C. &)C. Governor. 



No. 1. 



Curacoa, June 14, 184S. 



By Colonel W. T. D'Urban I am informed that your Ex- 

 cellency has heard of some particular kind of grass having been 

 introduced into Curacoa from South America, and is anxious to 

 obtain some. 



I give myself in consequence the honour to transmit to your 

 Excellency, by the way of St. Thomas, a box, containing a 

 good many plants of that valuable vegetable called Para grass, 

 to the cultivation whereof great interest is paid on this island ; 

 whereby I take the liberty to add a translation from tlie Dutch, 

 of an article on tliat subject, which has been placed by me in 

 the Curagoa Gazette of Saturday, the 20th April, 1848, and 

 which contains directions on the mode of cultivation of the 

 same, which your Excellency will observe is very plain and 

 easy. 



In offering the above to your Excellency, I must politely 

 request yovir Excellency's indulgence for such orthographical 

 faults as have been committed in the said translation by the pen 

 of a Dutchman, who, in this part of the world, is but seldom 

 in the opportunity of speaking, and thereby cultivating the 

 English language ; begging further your Excellency to believe 

 that 



I am, &c. 

 (Signed) E. J. Hengarde, A.D.C, 



Inspector of Agriculture. 



Para Grass. {Panicum jume?itorum, Humboldt and 

 Kunth.) 



(Translated from the Curacoa Gazette of April 20, 1848.) 

 The islands of Cura9oa, Bonaire, and Aruba have always 

 been known to suffer under the want of sufficient food for all 

 sorts of stock which are reared on the estates, and wherefrom 



