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steady crop of fruit was desired all the year, without undue exhaustion 

 of the soil. Lately a great many experiments were being carried on 

 as to the best distance to plant, but these were of such recent occur- 

 rence that only time could tell what might ultimately be most gene- 

 rally adopted The growing of inter-crops had not been, as far as he 

 knew, tried to any extent with perhaps the exception of Indian corn, 

 and then if planted too thickly the effect was bad, and it would be 

 doubtful if the money value of the corn when sold would compensate 

 one for the injury done the banana trees. One reason why inter-crop- 

 ping was not more practicable was that there was no reliable market 

 for the produce when grown. If there was such a market there was 

 no reason to doubt that by planting the catch crop strictly in the 

 centre of the row that no ill-effects would result. As to permanent 

 inter-crops, such as oranges, cocoa and many other economic trees, 

 banana seemed to be an ideal cultivation by which permanent planta- 

 tions could be established at a small cost. This depended on the soil 

 and climatic conditions and the natural bent of of the planter himself. 

 With respect to shelter belts such things hal been tried in St. 

 Catherine but were not of much use. 



M.r H. H. Cousins, said he was glad to have this early oppor- 

 tunity of meeting so representative a gathering of those interested 

 in the banana culture — He frankly "confessed that he had everything 

 still to learn about the culture of the banana, but he felt confident 

 that the same principles and methods which had been applied to the 

 cultivation of other plants and crops should enable Jamaica to greatly 

 extend and improve its banana industry. It had been suggested to 

 him that the agriculturists of Jamaica were anticipating that with the 

 arrival of the new Agricultural Chemist, they would be able to obtain 

 analyses of their crops and of their soil and thus to learn what manurial 

 applications were necessary to maintain the productive capacity of the 

 land. He would most stronly urge all practical men to banish this 

 fallacy from their thoughts. Such methods and such advice were alone 

 justified on the basis of an analyst's professional fees, and had been 

 markedly injurious to Agriculture in the past. He had only to mention 

 the case of the turnip crop in England as an illustration of the fallacy 

 of predicting manurial requirements by crop analysis. The turnip 

 abstracts from the soil much nitrogen and potash but very little 

 phosphate, from which the logical deduction would be that a turnip 

 manure should contain much nitrogen and potash while phospate 

 would be unnecessary. As a matter of ascertained practice the very 

 opposite represents the real requirements of the crop. Phosphates are 

 essential while nitrogen and potash are in the majority of cases quite 

 unnecessary. Sound knowledge of this kind was not obtainable by a 

 priori predictions from analysis but by actual field trials under agri- 

 cultural conditions. He hoped that it would shortly be possible to 

 start such field experiments on all typical soils in the Island where 

 the banana was largely cultivated. As regards manuring, they must not 

 lose sight of the fact that all such experiments must be made subser- 

 vient to one dominating factor, viz., that of monetary profit. Unless 

 a system of manuring paid, it could not be of benefit to the industry. 

 He was led to believe that the very small extent to which Jamaica 

 planters availed themselves of commercial fertilisers was due to a 



