Miscellaneous. 



160 



TFeb. 1908. 



'The judging will be conducted on a 

 system of points as follows :— 



Permanent crops Points 30 



Catch crops ,, 15 



Fences, gates, and general 



condition of holding ... ,, 15 



Live stock ,, 20 



House ... ,, 10 



Sanitary conditions etc. ... ,, 10 



' The method of cultivation and condi- 

 tion of the crops grown, rather than the 

 kinds of crops grown, to be considered 

 by the Judges. Crops for which pre- 

 miums are awarded need not necessarily 

 have reached maturity, and points may 

 be given for cultivation in progress, 

 provided it is, in the opinion of the 

 Judges, sufficiently advanced to admit 

 of its being judged. The Judges to 

 consider the circumstances of each culti- 

 vation as well as the cultivation itself, 

 including the implements used. 



' It should be competent for the Judges 

 to withhold any or all of the Prizes if 

 the Holdings entered for competition are 

 not considered of sufficient merit. 



' Three months' notice, at least, to be 

 given before judging commences, and 

 the decision of the Judges in all cases to 

 be final.' 



It is now four years since the competi- 

 tion was put into operation, and the 

 largely increasing number of entries is 

 sufficient guarantee of the popularity of 

 the scheme among the small settlers. 



With regard to the benefits of the 

 scheme, I think these are so far in excess 

 of the money required to carry out the 

 competition, that it is hoped that the 

 Agricultural Society will see its way to 

 keep to that part of the original plan, 

 which provided for the competition 

 being held in every parish every third 

 year, necessitating judging four parishes 

 during two consecutive years, and five 

 parishes in the third year, so as to em- 

 brace the thirteen agricultural parishes 

 during the cycle of three years. 



There is of course a great deal of very 

 hard and laborious work to carry out 

 the scheme properly ; near ly all the hold- 

 ings are situated in the mountains ; 

 many of them in parishes such as Port- 

 land, St. Thomas, St. Andrew, St. Ann, 

 and St. Elizabeth, where they are 

 situated on the tops of high hills and are 

 such that very few of them can be ridden 

 to. After a month or five weeks of such 

 work, there is little energy left in the 

 Judges for some time afterwards. 



If the competition can be so arranged 

 that the people can rely on its taking 

 place every third year, and the In- 

 structors are able to hold up this as an 

 inducement before them, I am quite 

 convinced that the present benefit of the 



competition would be more than double 

 with the same expenditure of money. 

 Continuity, which seems so hard to 

 obtain, is the keystone of success in 

 matters such as this. 



The great thing needed among our 

 peasantry is stimulus to exertion. The 

 Small-holdings Competition has supplied 

 this in a manner which far exceeds even 

 the most sanguine hopes. The amount 

 of work which is put into a holding in 

 the hopes of winning what after all can 

 only be a very small prize, would aston- 

 ish any one in this audience who has 

 not actually seen it. Pruning and clean- 

 ing up of cult ivations, grooming of stock, 

 repairing of roads, walls and fences, 

 tanks, and houses, white washing, and 

 painting are what were expected ; but 

 when it is observed that new cultiva- 

 tions established from the time of the 

 first competition, men buying and keep- 

 ing cows, new tanks, new walls, new 

 gates, sanitary systems established 

 where none were before, stables erected, 

 and even new houses built in order to 

 try and win these prizes, it must be 

 acknowledged that this scheme has 

 taken a hold upon the peasantry and 

 acted as a stimulant to them, the value 

 of which can never be over-estimated. 



For the recent competition in St. Ann, 

 Mr. Arnett and myself calculated that 

 there could not have been less than £1,000 

 worth of labour put into the different 

 holdings competing. 



It is interesting to hear the views of 

 the competitors themselves. In the be- 

 ginning, the competitor was often met 

 Avith who timidly asked for personal 

 assurance that the Government did not 

 intend to take away their places ; others 

 were afraid taxes would be raised ; some 

 thought that the shilling would have to 

 be paid every year as long as they live. 

 But now it is found that although the 

 suspicions are nut entirely killed, they 

 become less and less each year, and the 

 comments are assuming an entirely 

 different tone. 



I have perhaps left the most beneficial 

 aspect of the scheme to the last, and 

 that is the unrivalled facilities it affords 

 for practical instruction. It gives an 

 Instructor an excuse for going into 

 places, and insures him a welcome, which 

 I think he would liave looked for in vain 

 for many long years, had it not been for 

 the institution of this competition. The 

 mere judging of the holding and award- 

 ing of the prizes are as nothing com- 

 pared with the patient inspection and 

 pointing out in a friendly spirit the 

 possibilities for improving _ almost 

 every department of that which con- 

 stitutes their home and home life. From 

 this aspect alone, it is obvious that the 



