c 



TIMEHRI: 



THE JOURNAL OF 



THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL SOCIETY 

 OF BRITISH GCIANA. 



Vol. hi. MAY, 1915. No. 2. 



FOREWORD. 



The present issue of :: Timehri " appears under circumstances 

 less auspicious than was at all anticipated when the articles were 

 written. It was originally intended to publish nearly a year ago, 

 but delays due to procuring the illustrations and to other causes 

 brought us down to the opening of the Great European War when 

 public attention was so entirely absorbed by passing events that the 

 Editors considered it prudent to postpone the issue for a time in 

 the hope of a renewed interest in the questions of colonial development 

 discussed in some of the articles. Unhappily the war continues and 

 schemes of development possess for the moment little more than an 

 academic interest. But the value of the articles is not thereby 

 discounted as contributions to the future consideration of these 

 schemes, which, we hope, will, when the clouds of war have given 

 place to brighter skies, rise rejuvenated, and, in a world released from 

 the constant threat of bloated armaments, came to a vigorous maturity 

 hitherto unrealised. Some basis of hope for such a revitalisation of 

 the Colony as might issue in expansion of its development is afforded 

 by the direct effect of the present upheaval in Europe on the great 

 beet sugar industry built up with such huge effort in times of peace 

 by Germany amongst other Continental Powers. To some extent 

 artificial as the competition of beet with cane has been, the whole 

 structure has at least in the German Empire been undermined by 

 the disastrous sacrifice of men and material which Germany, whatever 

 the final terms of peace may be, has paid and will pay for her excursion 

 in world conquest. The comparative immunity from economic dis- 

 turbance which this and other cane-growing Colonies have enjoyed 

 owing to the British command of the seas is an advantage for which 

 not only should we be supremely thankful, but which we should prepare 

 to exploit to the very utmost. The large sugar estates may be relied upon 

 to extend their cultivations and some have already done so, but this 

 is not the only channel by which increased prosperity may be enticed. 



