xiv. Timehri 



of the combined Show and Conference are war-conditions and possible 

 difficulties of transport between here and the other countries and colonies 

 which we desire should be represented at the Show and Conference. The 

 Board of Agriculture has already expressed its view that the next Agri- 

 cultural Conference and Exhibition should be held here whilst the Com- 

 bined Court has expressed its favourable opinion on the suggestion, The 

 Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies, however is in control 

 of all Agricultural Conferences and it is doubtful if he will favour the 

 holding of one during the duration of present war-conditions. 



As an excuse for the Society's apathy during recent years in con- 

 nection with agricultural matters it has been alleged that the Board 

 of Agriculture has usurped the Society's functions. It is not so ; at the 

 inception of the Board every care was taken to avoid not only 

 usurpation but any overlapping of duties. It was considered that the 

 Agricultural Society, by its meetings and its Committees where agricul- 

 tural papers would be read and discussed, would carry on its joint share 

 of the work , but this has not been the case. 



I fully realize the grave difficulties which exist in the Society 

 arranging for meetings at which agricultural matters can be discussed by 

 practical agriculturists. These are mainly due to the fact that very few 

 managers of plantations are resident within a few miles of Georgetown. 

 In the earlier yearB of this century these difficulties were insuperable but 

 since the advent of the motor-car to the colony the position has changed 

 and it ought to be feasible to arrange for such agricultural meetings. 

 Agricultural meetings should take place in the early afternoon say at 2 

 p.m. or perhaps earlier and not in the late afternoon or evening as other 

 meetings of the Society do. 



In 1897 the Committee of Correspendence of the Society, which during 

 many years of the Society's existence had been its working force, was an 

 active organisation, but it gradually fell into abeyance. It was the means 

 by which the Society undertook the representation of the colony at 

 foreign exhibitions ; now the Permanent Exhibitions Committee has to do 

 this. 



That Committee, on which the Society is well represented, constantly 

 requires the advice and assistance of this Society to make its work suc- 

 cessful. Personally I advocated that the work now carried on by the 

 Permanent Exhibitions Committee should continue to be done as in the 

 past by this Society but the abolition of the Committee of Correspond- 

 ence formed an obstacle to this. 



Agricultural Education. 

 The Society owing to the persistent efforts of the late Honourable A. 

 Weber and the late Mr. Jacob Conrad in the early nineties took a very 

 keen interest in agricultural education and contemplated the establish- 

 ment of a Farm School. In April, 1891, the Society appointed a special 

 Committee to enquire into the feasibility of such a school. The 

 Committee made very full enquiries and reported in September, 1892 

 regretting that on account of the heavy expenditure involved in the 



