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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



This department lias been instrumental in bringing about an 

 immense improvement in the commercial and financial condition of 

 these Colonies, which include the British West Indies, Bahamas, and 

 Bermuda, together with British Honduras and British Guiana. 



As our oldest tropical possessions they have an interesting history, 

 and are still capable of further expansion through the application of 

 capital and energy. 



The opening of the Panama Canal will undoubtedly increase their 

 strategic and economic importance, the islands offering valuable sites 

 for docks and coaling stations, as they form a half-way house between 

 Europe and Eastern Asia, also between Europe and Australasia. 



The Department was created as the result of a Eoyal Commission 

 held in 1897, one of whose chief recommendations was the " organiza- 

 tion of a scientific department to assist the sugar industry and 

 encourage, where possible, minor agricultural industries, together 

 with an improvement in the cultivation of the principal crops." This 

 suggestion, together with others, was carried out, and the present 

 prosperous condition of the West Indies as compared with their former 

 depression and distress may be attributed to the following factors : 



(1) The revival of confidence in the sugar industry as the result 

 of the abolition of bounties, and improved trade relations with 

 Canada. 



(2) The increase in the production of cacao in Trinidad, Granada, 

 and Jamaica. 



(3) The development of the American fruit trade in Jamaica. 



(4) The introduction of Sea Island cotton into St. Vincent, Bar- 

 bados, and the Leeward Islands. 



(5) The extension of the cultivation of limes in Dominica, of rice 

 in British Guiana, and of tobacco in Jamaica. 



Amongst beneficent developments are the establishment of central 

 sugar factories, experiments with new seedling canes, investigations 

 into diseases and injurious insects, local and experimental stations, 

 travelling inspectors, distriibution of economic plants, agricultural 

 teaching in schools, &c. — C. H. L. 



West Indies, Work in the Botanic and Experiment Stations 



from Year to Year {West Indian Bull. vol. xi. No. 4, p. 351; 1911). 

 This section of the West Indian Bulletin gives accounts of economic 

 experiments with staple crops, as well as with subsidiary and miscel- 

 laneous crops. 



In Grenada the staple crop is cacao, but judging from experimental 

 trials, both cotton and rubber are likely to become of great agricultural 

 importance, especially the latter. Many different kinds of rubber- 

 yielding plants were tried, among them Castilloa elastica, Hevea 

 brasiliensis, and Funtumia elastica. The first and last are very 

 susceptible to attacks by scale insects, the Hevea proving the most 

 satisfactory. Plants of this species, barely three years old, attained 

 a height of 20 feet. 



