354 TEINIDAD. 



is about 50 bags, and yet he ships nearly 100, some of which 

 may have been purchased, the balance being stolen goods : but 

 how to obtain a conviction, when you are asked, for instance, to 

 identify the article as yours ? As easy to identify cacao beans as 

 to identify grains of corn or oats. 



It is clear that, under such circumstances, some stringent 

 and comprehensive measure ought to be adopted, and rigidly 

 enforced, and some scheme devised for the more easy discovery 

 of the offenders. The cacao planters are unanimous in re- 

 commending the adoption of the following plan as a remedy : all 

 cacao dealers, especially the shopkeepers in the country and 

 villages, should be bound to keep books in which they would 

 enter the name of the vendor, the date of the purchase, the 

 condition of the article when received, whether cured or uncured; 

 the name, or designation of the property. This would afford the 

 means, in case of need, to trace the origin of all cacao in stores. 

 The matter is, at least worth the consideration of the legislature ; 

 agriculture is the mainstay, the foundation of our social fabric, 

 and therefore calls for the fostering care and protection of the 

 State. Mechanics'' institutions are supported by the public for 

 the instruction and improvement of artisans : apprenticeship 

 laws are enforced for securing competent masons, carpenters, 

 shoemakers, and other tradesmen : and why, in a country 

 strictly agricultural, should not public establishments be formed 

 with a view to teaching the elements of agricultural science, 

 together with the art of husbandry ? The tillage of the soil is 

 generally regarded as the province of the ignorant. This is a 

 prejudice, and one which must have an injurious reaction on the 

 success of agricultural pursuits. To be well conducted, no 

 operation, perhaps, requires more practical knowledge or greater 

 proficiency, to be improved. This prejudice probably owes its 

 origin to the following circumstance : the growth of plants is 

 the result of the combined actions of natural agents and not of 

 any mechanical appliances. If the intervention of man had not 

 for effect to favour the action of those agents, then the ignorant, 

 matter-of-fact ploughman would evidently be as good a hus- 

 bandman as the well-informed and skilful agronomist, and of 

 all occupations agriculture would be the simplest and easiest. 

 But this is not the case : for agriculture consists in combining a 

 series of operations, so as to obtain from a given quantity of 



