10 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



began to come into fashion, and as it was found that it encouraged a 

 better taste in the community, the Band of Hope held a Horticultural 

 Show with results which far exceeded all anticipations, and at present 

 every well-to-do inhabitant either cultivates his flower garden or, if he 

 should not have the facilities which a plot of land would afford, his 

 window boxes. No lady in the colony to-day thinks her home complete 

 without flowering or foliage plants forming part of its decoration. This 

 applies chiefly to the city, but a more substantial development resulted 

 in some of the rural districts, where there are in existence Horticultural 

 and Agricultural Associations, which arrange Shows periodically, under 

 the direction of the Department of Science and Agriculture, over which 

 Professor J. B. Harrison, C.M.G., presides. Professor Harrison has taken 

 the same interest in these matters as the late Mr. G. S. Jarman did, 

 to whom the colony is much indebted for the splendid public gardens of 

 which it now boasts. 



The Government of the colony has warmly responded to the wish of 

 the people, and, since the creation of the Imperial Department of Agri- 

 culture at Barbados by Sir Daniel Morris, Commissioner of Agriculture 

 for the West Indies, has evolved a scheme by which the schoolmasters 

 have been taught the science of agriculture. With a view to imparting 

 the same to the scholars, School gardens have in several places been 

 established. Some of the scholars are thereby brought practically in touch 

 with the subject. Field lecturers visit these schools, and their services are 

 also available to all farmers in the neighbourhood. 



I need not apologise for referring to the subject of Agriculture, con- 

 sidering that the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society wish to become 

 the means of exhibiting colonial agricultural and other economic products. 



The following are some of the vegetables cultivated in the colony : 

 the plantain, yam, squash, cassava (sweet and bitter), tannia, eddoe, 

 pumpkin, cucumber, breadfruit, egg cup, tomatos, cabbage, corn, beans 

 (various), shallot, onions, pea, ochroe, sweet potatos, pepper, carrot, 

 parsnip, cress, turnip, radish, lettuce, celery, spinach, thyme, mint, &c. 



Fruits : the cocoanut, gooseberry, mamee apple, mango, sapodilla, 

 sugar apples, custard apples, grapes, water melons, oranges (sweet and 

 Seville), musk melon, lemon, citron, pear, shaddock, granadilla, pine- 

 apple, water lemon, guava, pawpaw, sour sop, banana, figs (various), 

 plum, cherry, nut, pomegranate, &c. 



Coffee, cocoa, rice, corn meal, cassava bread, cassava meal, arrowroot 

 starch, cassava starch, honey, ginger, tobacco, pickles, sauces, guava jelly, 

 chutney — in very many cases these products are only cultivated for home 

 use, but should the growers be able to secure a remunerative market for their 

 produce I am certain they will take every opportunity of availing them- 

 selves of it. Perhaps it may be interesting to recount one or two instances 

 in connection with the agricultural development of the colony, which 

 make me anticipate a large foreign trade. 



It was while opening one of the exhibitions of the Victoria Belfield 

 Agricultural Society that I, as President, had the pleasure of accepting the 

 offer of three prizes spontaneously made by Sir Cavendish Boyle for the 

 best essay on agriculture, which might be of help to the Government in 

 popularising that enterprise in the colony. These were forthcoming, and 



