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two Messrs. Burgess and Mr. Sutherland. The whole afternoon was- 

 spent in their fields. The Messrs. Burgess were very anxious that I 

 should visit their lands last year and as there was so small an atten- 

 dance this year I gave them the benefit of it. They had made good 

 use of the information gained last year and I am sure the instruction 

 imparted this year will also be put to a good use by them. The three 

 hours occupied by the demonstration on pruning coffee, cocoa, budding 

 oranges and giving advice on various matters in connection with the 

 soil was quite enough for one day, for most of the land was steeper than 

 the roof of a house. I also discussed the curing of produce with them 

 and gave advice on it. 



Thursday 23rd, Birnamwood. Not a soul was present at Birnamwood, 

 so devoted the afternoon to the School Children. The school is large 

 and comprises many boys and girls apparently of about 1 6 years of age ; 

 they appear to be much interested in Agriculture. 



Last year in the Glebe I dug round and manured an old and very 

 forlorn-looking coffee tree, the scholars then being present, the im- 

 provement exhibited by the tree this year is little short of marvellous 

 and is a standing object lesson much observed by all the people and the 

 boys and girls of the school. The whole piece of coffee has vastly im- 

 proved having been manured and forked and pruned to some extent by 

 Mr. Cole by my advice. 



General report on the tour. I was disappointed at the small number 

 of people who attended but the weather was very bad both before and 

 during my journey ; only one day had been fine during the preceding 

 week, and I had but one fine during the tour, consequently the people 

 had quite given up expecting me. But at the same time I was very 

 much encouraged by the improvement visible in several of the grounds 

 visited. 



I noticed throughout each of the different valleys visited that oranges 

 looked exceptionally well, no borer or ants trouble them. I saw no 

 signs of dying back at the points of the branches or any other signs of 

 delicacy of the trees, most of the trees had a quantity of fine fruit 

 ripening up and a huge crop of the regular season's fruit as well. Some 

 "trees must have had four or five hundred fruits ripening up now. The 

 valleys on the north side appear to me to be the finest land of any I 

 have seen for orange cultivation but almost the whole of the land on 

 the route of the new mountain road is well adapted to the cultivation. 

 On the north side the risk of the trees suffering from drought is re- 

 duced to a minimum and the finest produced is of the finest in flavour 

 and appearance. 



The land on the north side is also admirably adapted for kola and 

 cocoa, and the higher lands for coffee. At Mr. Mason's property nut- 

 megs are also growing beautifully ; plants four years of age are 10 to 12 

 feet high and have commenced to bear. His cocoa has yielded three 

 times as much this year as last, a wonderful rate of increase due to good 

 cultivation. Mr. Mason's cocoa-dryer leaves little to be desired; it has 

 a drying capacity of 10 barrels and will dry freshly washed chocolate 

 in 48 hours without danger of burning. 



Westmoreland. 



I beg to report that on Saturday the 29th of August, 1896, I went 

 to the Bluefields district of Westmoreland for the purpose of lecturing 



