THE FirsT TWO YEARS OF THE “ SOCIETY.” 219 
the difference of opinion on this matter and conceived it 
to be better “for the present” to retain the system 
of open drainage and to endeavour to procure by 
steam power some means of ploughing across the beds 
. _ without injury to the small drains. They had had a 
communication from Mr. A. MACRAE who proposed to 
make the beds level by draining with tiles or brushwood 
so that the plough could be used. They were, however, 
of opinion that it would be better to devisea plan of working 
the fields as they were.* The Rev. Mr. FORBES, (a Scotch 
Church minister) of Berbice, suggested a method of drain- 
ing by means of savannah water, but the General Com- 
mittee could not report favourably on this for want of 
plans and diagrams. 
It was represented asa mistake on the part of friends in 
the Mother Country to suppose that our planters here were 
wedded to the system of turning up the land by manual 
labour, and that they voluntarily discarded the plough. 
Our soils generally, were of too tenacious and stiffanature 
to admit of the use of the plough except by the aid of steam, 
and our unavoidable system of open drains presented also 
a great impediment. Attempts hitherto made were shown 
not to have been attended with much success, although it 
was to be hoped machinery to work the plough might be 
obtained through the means which some of the scientific 
members were devising and the encouragement of the 
Legislature. They had received a communication from Mr. 
JosePH NorTON, of Berbice, giving the results of his use 
* It may be well to note that the present system, which is the same 
as that of fifty years ago, raises the plants to a higher level, while tile 
drainage would make the surface at least a foot lower and be sure to 
injure them in very wet weather. 
