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versities. Besides these, there are special Schools for the study of 

 Forestry and of Veterinary Surgery. 



I visited the Botanic Gardens, Herbaria and Museums under the 

 kind guidance — at Copenhagen of Prof. Dr. Warming, and at Berlin of 

 Prof. Dr. Urban, Dr. Schumann, etc. and was able to discuss many 

 points of interest in connection with the flora of Jamaica and the West 

 Indies. Prof. Warming has visited the West Indies and is naturally 

 interested in the flora of the islands belonging to Denmark. Prof. 

 Urban is devoting himself altogether to a study of the flora of the 

 whole of the West Indies, assisted in his work by Consul Krug. The 

 Herbaria in Kew Gardens and the British Museum have, of course, very 

 important collections from Jamaica and the other West Indian Islands, 

 which are always accessible for consultation. Sir Hans Sloane's general 

 collections constituted the British Museum in its early days, and the 

 dried plants which he collected in this island are in as good preserva- 

 tion as they were two hundred years ago, and can now be even more 

 readily studied by botanists. 



EXPERIMENTS IN CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION OF 



PRODUCTS. 



Bananas and Plantains. — There are several varieties of these plants 

 at Hope Gardens. Though only one variety, the large Jamaica banana, 

 is suitable for the United States markets, there are others which, 

 though smaller, are of a better flavour, and might be more appreciated 

 in English markets. When in London last year, I was told by Messrs. 

 J. B. Thomas, Fruit Brokers in Covent Garden, that large bunches of 

 bananas, well selected, well packed, and arriving in good condition 

 obtain a price varying from 18s. to 35s. per bunch. I was also in- 

 formed by Ship Brokers, that if planters would guarantee cargoes at 

 stated intervals they would arrange for steamers direct to London. 

 Fruit is now sold in London by samples, there are no charges therefore 

 for carting from the docks. 



Efforts were made whilst I was in Europe, to find out whether ma- 

 chinery could be had for drying and preparing waste bananas and 

 plantains as meal, etc. The Moko plantain is probably the best for 

 meal, if cultivation for this purpose alone were carried on ; but the 

 chief problem is the utilisation of the enormous quantity of small 

 bunches of bananas that are at present valueless. 



The subject of manures for bananas has been dealt with, and speak- 

 ing generally, it appears to me that of the three most important plant 

 foods that have to be supplied to crops, viz. nitrogen, phosphoric acid 

 and potash, the last named is the most necessary. But soils vary so 

 much that each planter must experiment on his own land . and work 

 out the problem for himself. A common idea appears to be that all 

 that is wanted in this connection is a chemist to analyse the plant and 

 the soil, that he can then tell exactly what substances should be used 

 as manures and in what proportions. This is a fallacy. A chemist 

 Cannot tell whether the substances already in the soil are available for 

 plant food, although he may indicate that there is an insufficiency of 

 certain elements. The need for experiment by the planter himself has 

 been amply proved by the results of more than 50 years' experiments 

 by Lawes and Gilbert at Rothamsted. 



