83 
training, even of the most practical kind, can supply the place 
of actual experience on plantations and in factories; but it can 
1 h 
will be constantly on the watch for improvements in current 
practice, and, when they have gained experience, will be quali- 
tied to cope with insect pests and fungous diseases and to intro- 
duce new methods and staples without imprudence when the occa- 
sion requires it. 
The proposed College offers advantages, direct or indirect, to 
every section of the community: to the students themselves by 
increasing their mental resources and economic value: to the 
planters, by providing them with qualified assistance: to the 
peasant proprietors, by placing skilled advice within easier reach 
d by improving the market for their produce: to factory 
owners, by supplying the chemical and other knowledge which is 
now so difficult to obtain: to the labourers, by rendering it pos- 
sible for them to receive higher wages: to the general community, 
by the increase of trade and wealth and, not least, by supplying 
a means likely to mitigate the severity of those periods of economic 
depression which will, I fear, long remain inevitable in the future 
as in the past. Moreover, it is likely to attract students, some of 
them men of experience, from all the tropical parts of the Empire; 
and the West Indies, in common with the British communities 
of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, will no doubt benefit from the 
relations which will be formed and the ideas which will be 
6. Accordingly it seems to me that the peo le of the West 
Indies have now an opportunity, which might we mark an epoc 
in their economic history, of founding an institution which would 
+. 
which the Committee make to such foreign institutions, an 
a few remarks upon similar institutions in the Indian Empire. 
This will afford material for some discussion of the scope of the 
proposed College. 
The Island of Porto Rico already possesses a “ College of Agri- 
culture and Mechanic Arts’’ associated with the University of 
Porto Rico. This College, situated at Mayaguez, was opened in 
1912 in a building furnished at a cost of thirty thousand dollars 
by the Government of the Island, working under the Morrill and 
~ Tt mav be of interest if I somewhat amplify the reference 
a 
This Fund, amounting to fifty thousand dollars, is the same as 
that furnished to similar Colleges in the United States. Within 
a year of its foundation, the College had in attendance over one 
hundred students from all parts of the Island of Porto Rico, and 
i the insular Government, over and above 
to the primary work of teaching the principles and pra 
