Miscellaneous. 



[April, 1909. 



A given quantity can be weighed and 

 poured into the open measure, the 

 bottom is then raised until the size 

 required is arrived at, and the screw- 

 nut fixed. I am sending you a sample 

 tin under separate cover. Messrs. Walker 

 Sons & Co. have taken considerable 

 trouble in carrying out my ideas as 

 regards the measure. 



JOHN F. JOWITT. 



SIR DANIEL MORRIS, k.c.m g. 



Sir Daniel Morris, K.O.M.G., retired 

 from the office of Commissioner of the 

 Imperial Department of Agriculture for 

 the West Indies on November 30 of last 

 year, after occupying that post for a 

 period of ten years. The announcement 

 of his resignation has been received 

 with the greatest regret both by the 

 entire agricultural population of the 

 West Indies, and by the staff which 

 have had the privilege of working under 

 his direction. 



After a distinguished career as Assis- 

 tant Director of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Ceylon, from 1877 to 1879 ; as 

 Director of Public Gardens at Jamaica 

 from 1879 to 1880, Dr. Morris was ap- 

 pointed, in the latter year, Assistant 

 Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. 

 Amongst the many important official 

 missions undertaken by him in various 

 parts of the empire during that period, 

 there is none more important than that 

 which he filled in relation to the West 

 Indian Royal Commission of 1897, to 

 which he was appointed Scientific 

 Adviser ; and of the many important 

 publications contributed by him, to 

 which we are here unable even to allude, 

 there is none of greater importance than 

 Appendix A. of the Royal Commission 

 Report, which deals at considerable 

 length with the agricultural resources 

 and requirements of British Guiana and 

 the West India islands. That contri- 

 bution was one of the most valuable 

 parts of the report, and was recognized 

 at once as the most authoritative 

 synopsis of the subject with which it 

 dealt. 



One of the recommendations of the 

 Royal Commission was the establish- 

 ment of the Weso Indian Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture for the 

 Windward and Leeward Islands, and 

 Barbados. This recommendation was 

 carried into effect in 1898, and in Sep- 

 tember of that year Dr. Morris returned 

 to the West Indies as Commissioner of 

 the Department. With characteristic 

 energy he proceeded at once, in consul- 

 tation with the Government i of the 



Windward and Leeward Islands, and 

 Barbados, to organize the new depart- 

 ment, and in the short space of a single 

 year it was found possible to summon 

 the first Conference of the officers of 

 tne Department at Barbados, and to 

 secure the attendance, not only of 

 scientific representatives from Jamaica, 

 British Guiaua, and Trinidad, but also 

 representatives from the Agricultural 

 Societies and Education Departments of 

 all the West Indian Colonies. From 

 that time onwards, the record of the 

 Department has been one of unbroken 

 activity, and that activity has spread 

 itself in every direction in which the 

 welfare of agriculture in the West 

 Indies might be directly or indirectly 

 affected. 



The first task was, while utilizing 

 existing Botanic Departments and their 

 staffs, to remould them in a more agri- 

 cultural form, and to institute agricul- 

 tural experiment stations where every 

 tropical product with any promise of 

 value might be subjected to careful 

 trial cultivation. Sugar was, and is 

 still the mainstay of a large part of the 

 West Indies, and the Commissioner 

 accordingly devoted great attention to 

 the reorganization of the sugar-cane 

 experiments, which for many years had 

 been carried on at Barbados and 

 Antigua. Large grants were made for 

 the provision of adequate staffs and 

 expenses, and extensive series of experi- 

 ments were begun for the raising and 

 testing of seedling varieties, and for 

 testing the effect of various manures 

 and methods of tillage upon the growth 

 and yield of the sugar-cane. A number 

 of other matters bearing upon the same 

 subject was carefully investigated, and 

 in recent years the production of 

 hybrids of known parentage, and the 

 investigation of hybridization of the 

 sugar-cane on Mendelian lines have 

 formed part of the work of the Depart- 

 ment. As a result of ten years' work, 

 while such valuable varieties as B. 147, 

 B. 208, and B. 370 have been brought 

 into prominence and thoroughly tested, 

 some 30,000 new varieties of cane have 

 been raised in Barbados as seedlings, 

 and are being tested agriculturally and 

 chemically ; and there is good reason to 

 hope that some of them will prove a 

 material advance on the older varieties, 

 not only in their yields of cane and 

 sugar, but also in other valuable pro- 

 perties, especially in their power of 

 resisting the various diseases that in the 

 past have caused so much loss to the 

 industry. 



The revival of the cotton industry will 

 be alluded to later, but the large num- 

 ber of tropical products and subjects 



