TIMEHRI: 



THE JOURNAL OF 



THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL SOCIETY 

 OF BRITISH GUIANA. 



Vol. hi. SEPTEMBER, 1913. No. 1. 



FOREWORD. 



His Excellency's speech at the Society's Rooms during the debate 

 on the development of the Colony referred to the special interest which 

 the present Secretary of State, Mr. Harcourt, takes in the fortunes of 

 this country. Mr. Harcourt. in the annual summary of colonial affairs by 

 which he has elected to render to Parliament an account of his steward- 

 ship, has told us that a Harcourt ancestor of his in the days of James I. 

 received a grant of this part of the world and actually set out to take 

 possession. He was forced to return, probably owing to a mutiny, as 

 the beer on board his ships turned sour. But for the dishonesty or 

 carelessness of a London brewer, the present Mr. Harcourt, as he humour- 

 ously reflects, might be President of Venezuela or of some United States 

 of Guiana instead of Secretary of State for the Colonies. We hope to 

 secure in time for our next issue an article on the Harcourt Expedition 

 to British Guiana. Meanwhile we can congratulate ourselves that any 

 rational schemes of development are certain to receive most sympathetic- 

 consideration from the descendant of one whose imagination was tired in 

 those early days by the possibilities of the land of El Dorado. The 

 effect of this direct interest is apparent in many directions and lightens 

 the somewhat depressed condition which the continuance of the drought 

 has produced in some departments of the colony's activity. The drought 

 compels us to concentrate our attention upon drainage and irrigation and 

 shows that unless practical projects can be formulated and carried into 

 effect, cultivation for non-capitalists must always |be precarious on the 

 coast-lands. At the time of going to press the selection of a hydraulic 

 engineer is announced so that we shall soon be provided with expert 

 opinion. Meanwhile His Excellency's expedition to the Rupununi 

 savannahs in company with a railway engineer, although not an explora- 

 tion survey in the stricter sense, has aroused hopes that we are on the eve 

 of abandoning a priori methods and of acquiring some of the material on 

 which may be based the scientific consideration of any scheme for open- 

 ing up the interior and securing access to Manaos, the progressive capital 



