464 



NATURE 



[March 17, 1898 



Mr. Atkinson may perhaps say that this method ' ' depends upon 

 completing the square " ;-this is true in a sense, of course ; but the 

 point of view is really different from the " method of completing 

 the square " usually found in text-books. Practically, the usual 

 method is clumsy, and inferior to the solution by formula ; and 

 from the theoretical point of view it is objectionable, because it 

 obscures the real nature of the problem. And I feel sure that 

 many teachers and examiners will agree with rne in saying that 

 the educational value of the process is practically nil: bright 

 boys go on to the general formula, dull ones follow the rule 

 mechanically, and might just as well be drilled in the use of the 

 general formula itself. G. B. Mathews. 



WEST INDIAN RESOURCES?- 



AS expert adviser in botanical and agricultural 

 questions to the recent West India Commission, 

 Dr. Morris undertook the preparation of a lengthy report 

 dealing with the economic resources of those Colonies, 

 the causes of whose distress were the subject of investi- 

 gation. This paper formed Appendix A of the Report of 

 the Commissioners which was issued last autumn, and 

 the praise bestowed on it as an interesting and valuable 

 survey by one who was specially qualified both by general 

 and local knowledge to undertake the task, induced the 

 Secretary of State for the Colonies to rescue it from the 

 oblivion which is the fate of many important papers 

 appearing in Blue Books. Mr. Chamberlain's desire to 

 have it published in a form more accessible and con- 

 venient for the public here and in the Colonies, has 

 resulted in its being converted into an independent 

 volume, and now appears as the first number of an 

 Additional Series of the Ketu Bulletin. For this purpose 

 the work has been revised and enlarged, a full account of 

 the botanical organisation of each Colony, and lists of 

 books and papers containing further information, being 

 added. 



After all that has been dinned into our ears for a long 

 time past about the absolute necessity for the Mother 

 Country to assist the sugar-planters by bounties or 

 countervailing duties, it is refreshing to find a book, 

 every page of which contains an unbiased statement of 

 the natural resources of these unfortunate Colonies. As 

 Mr. Thiselton-Dyer states in a prefatory note : " Dr. 

 Morris's residence in the West Indies, his repeated visits 

 to them, and his intimate knowledge of their conditions, 

 have enabled him to produce an account as accurate as it 

 is impartial of their natural and economic resources, 

 which is certainly more complete than anything hitherto 

 available. Why the West Indian Colonies have failed to 

 reach success, and in what direction the path to it lies in 

 the future, can be readily understood by any one who 

 will take the trouble to read these pages." 



The Colonies dealt with have an area about equal to 

 that of Great Britain and Ireland, with the population of 

 Wales. Out of the entire area little more than 2 per 

 cent, is now under cultivation, and only 7 per cent, of the 

 estimated cultivable area. In fact, while about a 

 million and a half acres are being cultivated, over twenty 

 million acres more are suitable for bearing crops. Guiana 

 has an extent of country equal to two Ceylons quite 

 untouched ; Trinidad has the wealth of the Straits Settle- 

 ments going to waste ; and the unworked soils of Jamaica 

 could be made to produce the prosperity of at least four 

 Colonies the size of Mauritius. As is well known, the 

 Colonies have long depended almost wholly on the sugar 

 trade as the staple industry, everything else being 

 unworthy of consideration by the planters. Minerals are 

 of comparatively trifling value, being limited practically 



1 " A Report on the Agricultural Resources .ind Requirements of British 

 Guiana and the West India Islands." By D. Morris, C.M.G., M.A., D.Sc, 



F.L.S., Assistant Director, Royal Gardens, Kew. Ke-w Bulletin of 

 Miscellaneous Information, Additional Series I. Pp. viii + 165, and Map. 

 (London : Eyre and Spottiswoode, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1898.) 



to gold in Guiana and pitch in Trinidad. Essentially the 

 true wealth of the colonists lies in the products and 

 resources of the rich and fertile soil. In some of the 

 islands it has of late years been recognised that it is as 

 well to be prepared to cultivate more than one kind of 

 produce ; but, taken as a whole, we may regard the 

 Colonies as given up to sugar growing, and, as Dr. Morns 



" In most of the Colonies the situation is undoubtedly 

 aggravated by their almost entire dependence on one 

 industry. This is a source of grave danger in more ways 

 than one. It is dangerous commercially, for any great 

 depreciation of prices immediately affects the whole com- 

 munity. It is dangerous agriculturally, for adverse seasons 

 or hostile tariffs may plunge at any moment the entire 

 labouring population into great distress. Again, the 

 growth of a single crop lends itself sooner or later to the 

 spread of disease, and it rarely leads, owing to the 

 neglect of other resources, to the production of the largest 

 profit. To these may be added the narrowing effects 

 produced on those engaged in the industry, and their 

 inability or disinclination when a crisis comes to take up^ 

 any other industry." 



A dozen chapters are devoted to giving a full account, 

 of the past and present of each section of the Colonies—; 

 Guiana, Barbados, Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, St. Lucia,' 

 St. Vincent, Dominica, Montserrat, Antigua, St. Kitts- 

 Nevis, and Jamaica. As bearing upon the question of 

 the mistake of relying upon a single industry, Guiana 

 affords us some interesting facts. It is the largest and 

 most valuable of our possessions in the neighbourhood, 

 its capabilities of development are practically unlimited, 

 and yet it is one of the most distressed of the Colonies. 

 The region was ceded to us by the Dutch in 1815, it has 

 an area of 109,000 square miles, a dozen large rivers 

 flowing into the Atlantic, and a population of a little over 

 a quarter of a million, or less than three persons to a 

 square mile. The inland districts are practically un- 

 inhabited, nine-tenths of the population clinging to the 

 coast. Under the Dutch sugar, coffee, and cotton were 

 extensively cultivated, but with the transfer to the British 

 Crown the planters gradually concentrated their energies 

 more and more on one article and neglected the others. 

 In 1829 the sugar yield was 46,026 tons, coffee 9,230,486 

 lb., and cotton 1,596,171 lb. By 1849 the coffee and 

 cotton estates were rapidly disappearing, and in 1887 the 

 returns showed 134,876 tons of sugar, while all other 

 exports had practically ceased. It is this grasping at the 

 most valuable prize, and utterly neglecting all oppor- 

 tunities in other directions, that has led to the downfall 

 of this naturally wealthy country. " The whole activity 

 of British Guiana during the last sixty years has been 

 confined to the narrow strip of land along the coast. In 

 spite of the vast extent of rich and fertile lands in the 

 interior, with the exception of the gold industry, nothing 

 has been done to develop them, and consequently the 

 Colony is now in so critical a condition, owing to its 

 entire dependence on a single industry, that its very 

 existence as a civilised country is in jeopardy." With 

 the knowledge that under another regime coffee and 

 cotton were successfully grown in the district, it would be 

 absurd to suppose, as some contend, that the soil can 

 produce nothing else than sugar. The land devoted to 

 sugar canes is a stiff clay, and fit for little else ; but then 

 it forms only the one-thousandth part of the total area of 

 Guiana, and, as Dr. Morris remarks, there is nowhere 

 such an extensive area of rich and fertile lands, with a 

 comparatively healthy climate, and within easy reach of 

 such good markets, as the Crown lands of this district. 

 They can grow nearly every tropical product in demand, 

 either in the New or the Old World. 



Suggestions are made and particulars given as to 

 increasing the resources of the country by adding profit- 



NO. T481, VOL. 57] 



