Oia ee 
THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE “SOCIETY.” 221 
Guano had been imported to a considerable extent and 
applied to fields on several plantations, but they were 
not yet aware of the results although report spoke 
favourably of the green and luxuriant appearance of the 
canes, It was much to be feared however that unless 
the desideratum of good drainage had been kept in view 
the canes would prove deficient in richness, and there- 
fore the manure could not be said to have had a 
fair trial. There were divers opinions as to the proper 
mode of application; some parties contended that it 
ought to be worked into the soil when turned up, others 
that the ground should be merely scratched at the roots 
of the canes and the manure applied in very small 
quantities when the plants had attained the age of four 
to six months, a third class contended that it should be 
mixed with ashes in the proportion of one to three, while 
lastly, some were of opinion that it should be mixed with 
water and sprinkled onthe roots. Timealone could prove 
which was the proper method, and it was to be hoped 
that the Society would be favoured with information as 
to the result. The Society had been favoured with a 
communication from Dr. BLAIR on the Metayer system 
as introduced on Pln. Schoon Ord; it had also been 
partly applied on Greenwich Park, Glasgow and other 
estates. It was a remarkable faét however that on 
the first of these properties the farmers were not 
the labourers who had been on the plantation at the end 
of the apprenticeship but people from the East Coast. 
Time alone would show whether the system could 
be permanently relied upon. So far it was pro- 
ceeding so satisfaétorily to both landlord and tenant as 
to afford great hopes. 
RF 
