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tries has produced most satisfactory results. To achieve this result 

 has, however, taken more than 20 years of persistent effort, and the 

 Government has spent more than £100,000 during that period on its 

 botanical establishments. The department has distributed seeds and 

 plants at nominal prices by means of the Post Office, Government 

 Kailways, and Coastal Steam Service ; it has supplied information 

 orally, or by means of bulletins, regarding the cultivation of economic 

 plants, and has encouraged the careful preparation of the produce 

 by sending agricultural instructors on tour through the island, to give 

 lectures, demonstrations, and advice." 



" The special department recommended for carrying on similar 

 work in the Windward and Leeward Islands should be under the 

 charge of a competent Imperial Officer, whose duty it would be to ad- 

 vise the Governors. in regard to all matters affecting the agricultural 

 development of the Islands. He would take part in consultation; 

 with the object of improving agricultural teaching in colleges an' 

 schools, and of training students in agricultural pursuits, and wouh 

 attend to the preparation of suitable literature on agricultural subjects 

 The existing botanic stations should be placed under his supervisioi 

 and the charge of maintaining them transferred to Imperial funds 

 Each botanic station would be actively engaged in the introductio: 

 and improvement of economic plants, and in propagating and di 

 tributing them throughout the Island. It would carry out the e 

 perimental cultivation of new plants to serve as an object lesson 

 cultivators, and it would be prepared to give the latest inform at 

 to enquirers regarding economic products, and to provide suitable weij. 

 as agricultural instructors. To effect all this will require funds entir ' 

 beyond the present resources of the smaller Islands. We are, the 

 fore of opinion that as the necessity for such a department is urgf . 

 the cost should be borne by the Imperial Exchequer." 



" The promising experimental work connected with raising isw 

 varieties of canes, and increasing the production of sugar by the 

 of manures and other means should receive special attention. Th' ^ 

 of some of this work would be a legitimate portion of the charge above 

 stated. The chief experiments might be carried on as hitherto by the 

 officers in charge of them in British Guiana, Barbados, and Antigua, 

 but continued and extended, if found desirable, in Trinidad and Ja- 

 maica. In addition, the botanic stations in the Windward and Lee- 

 ward Islands, would maintain nurseries for the introduction of all new 

 and promising canes, and would andertake the distributing them within 

 their respective spheres of action." 



" At the present time a system of training in agricultural occupa- 

 tion is much needed. We think that some, at least, of the botanic 

 stations should have agricultural schools attached to them, where the 

 best means of cultivating tropical plants would be taught, and if 

 elementary training in agriculture were made a part of the course of 

 education in the public schools generally, the Botanic Department 

 would be in a position to render valuable assistance." 



" Agriculture, in one form or another, must always be the chief and 

 the only great industry in the West Indies, but a system of training 

 in other industrial occupations, on a limited scale, is desirable, and 

 would be beneficial to the community." 



