230 



forget that medical science at one time was revolutionised by chemical 

 analyses and physiological studies, whereas in olden days medicine was 

 practised much as a matter of routine, simply by experience. It is an 

 incontestable fact that the chemical laboratories of the Agricultural 

 Colleges have revolutionised agriculture. . . . Nowadays we 

 know the chemistry of the soil, the plants, the live stock, the manures, 

 the foods. Thus agriculture to-day is as much a science as in olden 

 times it was a matter of purely practical experience." The Report 

 concludes as follows : — 



" The best foundation a State can give to its people is a thorough genuine and 

 technical education, to fit them out adequately in order to be able to successfully 

 fight their way ; it affords them the best chance of being able to work against long 

 odds, so that they may hold their own in bad times, and even through a crisis. 

 The German farmer has had to fight against agricultural depression, but, by 

 means of hia thorough education and resources, backed up by science and State 

 help, he has withstood bad seasons and low prices ; he has been going ahead all 

 the time, learning how to increase his crops and increase his income per acre in 

 the same proportion as prices receded ; with this object in view, no stone was left 

 unturned, and his resources were strained to the utmost ; he found great help in 

 co-operation, as I have tried to show. Co-operation in credit, loans, purchase and 

 sale of produce, purchase of foods, seed, mineral manures, in drainage and irriga- 

 tion works of large dimensions, and in dairying. In all his struggles the State 

 helped him, by encouraging scientific research at its experiment stations by gratis 

 advice, and farmers recognised^^the value of unions and combined efforts to fight 

 and swim up stream. He recognised that, single-handed, he was powerless to 

 achieve anything, but, although not individually intrinsically wealthier when 

 combined, he found himself, when united, and working hand in hand co-opera- 

 tively, strong enough and able to withstand worse times than before." 



In England State Aid has a bad name ; and, though all classes 

 are ready enough to take it when they can get it, most of them 

 denounce it when offered to any but themselves. The prejudice, how- 

 ever, has its good side ; and if the land were treated fairly in other 

 respects, we doubt if English farmers would either require or desire 

 such fostering care as is bestowed on their calling elsewhere. If a 

 great industry like agriculture cannot rest upon its own bottom, there 

 must be something wrong in the conditions under which it is pursued. 

 Nor are we at all satisfied that the present Eeport makes out a case 

 for German agriculture which political economy could approve. 



FERNS : SYNOPTICAL LIST— LV. 



Synoptical List, with descripHonSf of the Ferns and Fern- Allies of Ja- 

 maica. By G. S. Jemman, Superintendent, Botanical Garden, 

 Demerara. 



Order II — Equisetacem. 

 Eootstock creeping ; stems erect, cylindrical, longitudinally furrowed, 

 jointed at intervals, hollow except at the joints, which terminate in a 

 completely circular monophyllous dentate-margined sheath ; branches 

 simple, springing through the lower part of the sheaths, whorled or 

 irregular, and spreading ; no distinct leaves ; fructification terminal on 

 simple persistent or fugacious stems, in cone-shaped heads, which are 

 composed of several horizontal tiers of peltate stipitate scales that bear 



