112 
326. The vt aha te table shows the value of exports other than 
sugar and lime jui 
Year. Arrowroot.| Cacao. | Coffee. | Bay Oil. Papaine.| Total. 
& £ £ £ £ 
1892 333 8 2 — 40 38 
1993 “ss 906 6 31 — 133 1,146 
1894 ... aes ae 663 125 379 — 149 1,316 
1595- a roe oo 391 98 . 112 162 393 1,156 
1896... 669 62 789 461 501 2,482 
FRUIT TRADE. 
327. The small cultivators in Montserrat are an industrious and 
thrifty people, and they could grow both fruit and vegetables on 
dition of the people would be greatly improved. he only 
reason why fruit and vegetables are not more largely grown is 
the absence of suitable facilities for shipping the produce. 
328. There ol no special agencies employed in Montserrat in 
ae oving the sugar or any other industry. There is no agri- 
tural society, pea agriculture is not taught in schools. On the 
Sree for 1897 the education vote has been diminished by the 
closing of the High School, and the withdrawal of the boys under 
apprenticeship at the technical school at St. Kitts. 
329. A Botanic Station, with a gardener in charge, was started 
at Montserrat in 1890, on a small plot of land to the south-west of 
the town of Ply mouth. The space available was utilised for the 
cultivation of a selected number of economic plants. Large 
cultivation and treatment of new plants The principal E 
were estate proprietors, and not small cultivators. The latter had 
the absence of shipping facilities, there was no prospect of being 
able to find a market forthe produce. Owing to the straitened 
circumstances of the island, the botanic station has now 
abolished, and the services of the gardener diverted to other 
duties. The work done at this station, baer ne limited means at 
its command, was distinctly an the only organi- 
ion existing for improving and ex i he cultivation of 
industrial plants, and its abolition destroyed the pe of 
immediately benefiting the agricultural interests of the island. 
