steam Husbandry with Open Drainage in 

 Demerara. 



By the Hon. E. C, Luard. 



[GREEABLY with a promise which a short time 

 back I gave our President Mr. R. G. DuNCAN, 

 I will now, with your permission, read a short 

 paper on Open Drainage and Steam Husbandry in 

 Demerara. 



It is with great diffidence that I approach the subje6l, 

 and it is only because I could not hit upon any other 

 agricultural subje6l of interest, to which I could do 

 justice, that I chose this one. 



I must premise that there is nothing original in what 

 follows, which in the main will prove simply a plain 

 statement of an experiment, the account of which in its 

 initial stage may possibly interest fellow-planters and 

 others. 



You are all aware that horse husbandry was introduced 

 into the colony a great many years ago — as far as I can 

 gather, immediately after Emancipation. 



On the I2th July 1875, the following resolution was 

 passed by the Court of Policy : — 



" That the resolution of the Combined Court, authorising the 

 Governor to offer premiums, not exceeding in the whole $100,000, to 

 any person or persons who shall introduce into the colony machinery 

 capable of tilling the soil, and performing other work connefted 

 with the manufacture of sngar at a moderate expense, be communicated 

 to the Planter's Committee; and that the Committee be invited to draw 

 up for publication a statement of the agricultural operations in the 



* Read before the April Meeting of the Society. 



