xl Timehri. 



Mechanical Tillage. 



In the earlier days of this Society much attention was directed by it 

 towards problems of mechanical tillage. Some, but far from sufficient, 

 attention has been given to this problem during the past twenty-one 

 years. The late Mr. T. Wardle, of Washington rice farm, was an earnest and 

 persistent advocate of mechanical tillage ; I fear that his untimely death 

 may have kept back progress in that direction. Success in it will be 

 followed by greatly increased prosperity in all agricultural pursuits in 

 which it becomes available ; whilst mechanical tillage should go far to 

 relieve the present unfortunate labour-position, a position which in all 

 probability will become far more acute during immediately succeeding 

 years. It is a subject worthy of public discussion at special meetings 

 of this Society by planters, farmers and engineers. 



Limiting Factors for Small Scale Experimental Enquiries. 



Trials of new varieties of sugar-cane for their cultural and especially 

 factory merits ; modes of practical control of fungus and insect pests ; 

 flooding the land ; mechanical tillage ; and certain other cultural procedures 

 known to every planter cannot be successfully tried-out on small scale 

 plot-experiments such as we are at present limited to. Scientifically con- 

 ducted enquiries into these require large areas of land worked under 

 estate conditions. The Government has not any laud available for such 

 trials ; nor has it the technical staff necessary to carry them out. These 

 enquiries are, or rather should be, the work of co-operative agricultural 

 stations financed and solely controlleil by the proprietors of sugar 

 estates. Such a station appeared to be in sight as a practical proposi- 

 tion during the earlier months of 1912 but that fatal lack of co-operation 

 among the proprietors of sugar-plantations in this colony which has so 

 long been its bane proved too strong for those who endeavoured to bring 

 the inception of the station to a practical issue. Until co-operation iu 

 such enquiries as I have mentioned is an accomplished fact here I am satis- 

 fied that very little progress will be made in British Guiana in the im- 

 provement of cultural methods with the sugar-cane. Surely such co- 

 operation is not impossible. Its inception ought to be one of the main 

 objects of this Royal Agricultural Society. 



Another stumbling-block in the progress of the sugar-industry during 

 the period under review has been the extraordinary desire for secrecy 

 ■with regard to the details olfactory work. This cannot, I fear, be due 

 to modesty for few indeed of our factories now are capable of results 

 which can compare at all favourably with the economical output of sugar 

 of factories in Hawaii, Java, Louisiana, Cuba, Porto Rico, Formosa, 

 Trinidad, St. Kitts, Antigua, or even of the small centrals in Barbados. 

 Is it that the managers fear to let their neighbours know the cause of 

 their failures ? Surely far more harm is being done by the failures than 

 could possibly be done by knowledge of how they have occurred and how 

 to prevent them in future. It is, I believe, an absolute certainty that 

 all-round improvement in factory methods and practice would ensue 



