The Minor LIudustries. 15 
for their success, which are usually regarded as the minor industries. At the 
same time a review of some of the salient features will not be out of place. The 
choice of selection from such crops as rice, rubber, coconuts, cacao, coffee, 
eotton, tobacco, maize, plantas and ground provisions, fruit, fibres, 
poultry breeding, kola, vanilla and what not, at once displays what has been 
termed somewhere a ‘“‘ round aboutness, ”’ that is in itself a very hopefu! feature. 
Nor should we complete this picture of pssibilities unless we at least touched 
upon some of the problems of what has now already grown into a tree bringing 
forth good fruit—namely, Balata, no longer mark you, any of your “ Minor 
Product ” about this industry, for this like rice, has proved itself a reliable 
prop, which for all its “ups and duwns”’ was yet able at the close of the financial 
year 1908-9, to furnish the colony with so substantial a contributory aid to 
its export tables, as 1,090,405 lb. which in monetary figures means £98.128, 
which is a prop by no means to be pushed aside easily, even with the aid of 
clumsy legislation and any amount of mad management. To deal roughly 
with the crops that go to make up these subsidiary products, would, as we 
have remarked, demand a paper for this subject alone, but we can briefly 
touch upon them. 
Rice—This has now become an industry, but, unfoitunately, an industry 
which still relies entirely upon the weather conditions for its success. The 
unparalleled drought which we have just passed through proves at once that it 
is still a precarious prop to the resources of the colony. The feature of this 
industry is, of course, the enormous strides it has made within a short period. 
The fact that just a few years ago the black peasant thought it beneath his | 
dignity to plant this cereal, and that we have lived to see the East Indian hiring 
black men and women to work in his rice fields, is indeed significant. With so 
well-watered a country as ours it does seem as if we should be in possession of 
some well-thought out scheme of irrigation—doubtless this will come. The 
fact that American capital has been attracted to this industry and that one 
Company at least, is making rapid strides towards the utilising of steam and 
mechanical power, is probably the healthiest sign for the future of rice grow- 
ing inthis colony. One point that must exercise an influence for good is that 
enormous areas of our coast-lands are most eminently suited to the cultivation 
of this cereal. The clay lands of our colonies with their impervious sub-soils, 
can hardly be beaten by any other rice-growing country. We have the land, 
we have already interested outside capital, we have experiments in connection 
with the substitution of manual labour for merchanical, and we have a native 
variety—the Berbice Creole—which for length and quality of grain cannot 
be easily surpassed. We can then certainly consider that our rice industry 
is one full of good promise for the future. 
Rubber—Thanks to the “boom,” the interest taken in this cultivation by 
that distinguished Botanist, the late Mr. G. S. Jenman, F.L.S., has been re- 
newed. True it is that we cannot be proud of the progress we have made with 
this product, and that our knowledge of the indigenous Sapiums and Heveas 
cannot be said to be very great, but we can feel that the developmet of this 
industry should be only a matter of time. Sugar Estate authorities are plant- 
