78 
With regard to instruction in agricultural matters, a Prize 
Holding Competition to encourage peasant holders was started 
in 1908. Cocoa was the principal crop grown. 
Keen competition was shown amongst the peasants for the 
first year or two, but gradually their interest declined and fell 
off altogether in 1913. 
With a depletion of the staff during the war, the Department 
was not in a position to make further efforts towards helping 
peasant holders, and now that the Lime Experiment Station has 
become established and. very little time and opportunity is 
available for this kind of work, it has become a difficult matter 
to deal with; especially when such schemes involve close 
watching and frequent visits entailing considerable time upon 
tedious journeys over difficult country. 
Courses of reading and examinations in practical agriculture 
were established under the direction of the Imperial Department 
ur 
knowledge that would be useful in connection with their practical 
work. The scheme was successful and did much good until 
agriculture along with other industries was upset and disorganised 
by t the war. 
ow, when the war is over, high wages paid in America and 
elsewhere have had the effect of drawing away from the island 
many of the returned soldiers and efficient agricultural workers. 
Consequently the reading courses -are still in abeyance and 
likely to continue so until those concerned show a desire to take 
advantage of an opportunity of extending their knowledge and 
fitting themselves for more remunerative positions. 
Agricultural Cadet training.—The training which has been 
given for some years in Dominica and other West Indian islands 
received a set back in this island at the beginning of the war 
when the Science Master left the Grammar School. 
This system of training is of a much higher grade than that 
of the ordinary agricultural instruction given to the sons of 
peasant holders, requiring, as it does, that those boys who wish 
to become Cadets must receive their education at the Grammar 
Schoo 
Latin and Science are two subjects between which boys can 
make their choice after they have reached an advanced stage. 
Naturally those boys who intend taking up agricultural work 
select the science training under the Science Master, and thereby 
get a thorough grounding in such subjects as Chemistry, 
Botany, &c. 
The science training given at the Grammar school is thus 
part of the cadet system, for as soon as the boys have completed 
their work ‘at school they enter the Botanic Garden for a period 
of 12 months to es an insight into the practical side of agricul- 
ture. By special arrangement a cadet may be allowed a further 
period of 12 months in the Garden if he so desires. 
