April, 1909.] 



365 



Miscellaneous. 



connected with them, which have re- 

 ceived attention and investigation at 

 the hands of the Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture and his staff, will be realized by 

 a perusal of the list of ' Pamphlets ' pub- 

 lished during the past ten years. These 

 pamphlets, each of which is a multum 

 in parvo on the subject of which it 

 treats, amount to some fifty-four in 

 number, and include pamphlets on 

 Sugar-cane Experiments, Treatment of 

 Insect Pests, 'Plain Talk to Small 

 Owners,' Treatment of Fungoid Pests, 

 Onion Cultivation, Grouud Nuts, 

 Diseases of the Sugar-cane, Moth Borer 

 in Sugar-cane, Mauurial Experiments, 

 Bee-keeping, Oranges, Tobacco, 'Hints 

 to Settlers iu Tobago,' Lime Cultivation, 

 Fungus Diseases of Cacao, Millions and 

 Mosquitos, 'ABC of Cotton Cultiva- 

 tion,' and other subjects. 



Agricultural Education received atten- 

 tion from the first. Grants were made 

 for instruction in Agricultural Science, 

 and for the provision of exhibitions at 

 Harrison College, Barbados, and at the 

 Grammar School, Antigua. Courses of 

 lectures were given to primary school 

 teachers in various islands, grants were 

 made to assist in providing agricultural 

 instruction in the primary schools, and 

 Industrial Agricultural schools were 

 founded at St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and 

 Dominica, where the sous of small pro- 

 prietors are provided free with educa- 

 tion, board, lodging and clothing, and 

 receive a three-or four-years' course of 

 instruction in the theory and practice 

 of Agriculture, adapted to the needs 

 of the overseer and small proprietor. 

 The peasant proprietor and small planta- 

 tion-tenant shows, inaugurated by Sir 

 Daniel Morris and regularly held every 

 year by the Department, must also rank 

 as among his important educational 

 efforts. 



Recognizing that an efficient means of 

 circulating the information gathered by 

 the Department was all important, 

 great attention was devoted to publi- 

 cations. The first number of the West 

 Indian Bulletin, a scientific review of 

 the work of the Department, appeared 

 in July, 1899, and has since been issued 

 at quarterly intervals. The large 

 reports of the Sugarcane experiments 

 at Barbados, and the Leeward Islands, 

 as well as the annual pamphlets which 

 give a popular summary of the same 

 work, and the annual reports of the 

 Botanic Agricultural Stations and Agri- 

 cultural Schools of the various islands, 

 are well known. Then there is the long 

 pamphlet series on various subjects 

 already alluded to. Last and not least, 

 there is the Agricultural News, a popular 

 fortnightly review of the work of the 

 Imperial Department of Agriculture, 



which first appeared in April, 1902, and 

 has enjoyed a steady and rapidly increas- 

 ing circulation ever since. 



The broad view that was taken by 

 Sir Daniel Morris, who received the 

 honour of kuighthood in 1903, as to the 

 scope of his work for the West Indies, 

 is nowhere more clearly shown than 

 iu his efforts to improve the trade 

 relations between the West Indies and 

 Cauada, which resulted in a Confer- 

 ence of Representatives in 1908, and the 

 appointment by the Dominion of a 

 special Trade Commissioner. The full 

 fruit of this movement has yet to be 

 gathered. 



While Sir Daniel brought together 

 and co-ordinated the work of the scien- 

 tific officers already existiug in the 

 West Indies, he also introduced and 

 trained a number of young University 

 science graduates in the Department. 

 It is safe to say that the experience 

 they gained under the Commissioner 

 has had much to do with the success 

 they have acheived after leaving the 

 Department for wider fields, and that 

 their training has been a service of 

 more than West Indiau bearing. 



The Imperial Department of Agri- 

 culture under Sir Daniel Morris will 

 probably be more especially associated 

 with two important agricultural 

 achievements. The first is the inaugu- 

 ration and holding of annual or biennial 

 Conferences, and the second is the re- 

 establishment of the Cotton Industry, 

 which had been almost extinct in the 

 West Indies for about one hundred 

 years. 



The West Indian Agricultural Con- 

 ferences have been held at Barbados, 

 Trinidad, and Jamaica, and have served 

 to bring together the scientific officers 

 of all the West Indian Colonies, as 

 Avell as representatives of the Agri- 

 cultural Societies and the Education 

 Departments. It would be difficult to 

 overestimate the effect of these inter- 

 changes of views. On the one hand, 

 they have served to bring home to the 

 scientific worker the needs of the practi- 

 cal agriculturist, and on the other they 

 have inspired the practical worker 

 with confidence in his scientific advisers. 

 The Presidential Addresses of Sir 

 Daniel Morris, which cover the whole 

 range of West Indian agriculture, and 

 the discussions which have followed, 

 form a valuable part of the proceed- 

 ings. 



Owing to the dearth of the supplies of 

 taw cotton in England, Sir Daniel Morris 

 in 1902 took up the subject of cotton 

 growing. After preliminary investiga- 

 tions, he paid a, visit to the Sea Islands, 

 and there carefully studied the methods 



