Oct. 1, 1898.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUEIST. 277 
MR. CHRISTY ON FIBRES— THE NEW 
MONTHLY JOURNAL AND CEYLON— 
DR. MORRIS AND THE WEST INDIAN 
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 
I called ajjain on 
MR. T. CHRISTY 
the Produce E.xpoi t, to get his opinion on tlie line 
tihre you sent nie (from the Agiicultural School). 
He did not consider it of high quality ; not of 
sullicient stvengh and endurance or rope-niakini;-, 
but might be serviceable for weaving or some 
such purpose as that. There was an abundance 
of fibres to be had, Mr. Christy said ; the only 
tlitftculty was to discover a good process for extract- 
ing them. He was just then engaged in experiments 
lor a new process of extraction tliat seemed to 
promise well. Details of this were naturally not 
forthcoming. Before leaving I made arrangements to 
visit the lirni's Seedling Houses at Wallington next 
week. As an evidence of the success of Para Rub- 
ber Mr. Christy stated that he had lately exported 
thousands of young plants for plantations. 
A NE\V MONTHLY JOURNAL. 
Before returning home I had the good fortune to 
catch the Editor of the new 'I'.onthly journal, 
British Indian Commerce, which made a good 
start in July and of which I had seen 
a notice in the Daily Chronicle. He was 
really holiday- making he said, but just happened 
to be in town that morning. " If you 
will call again at the end of the month" 
he said "perhaps we might knock up something 
mutual." They were not at present includirg 
Ceylon in the Journal. I said we were so close to 
India and so largely connected with it that we 
ought to be brought in. He said that Ceylon 
had come so much before his notice since tiie 
Journal was started that he foresaw its inclusion 
was inevitable. After further personal conversation 
he said some years since he used to know Bishop 
Coplestonintii"nately,aud the latter was accustomed 
to call him by tiie playful sobriquet " My little 
schoolfellow." B.T. Commerce is published at the 
same ottice as the Mercantile World. 
In the afternoon I rode over from Ealing to 
Kew to see 
DR. MORRIS 
again, before he retires from his present post of 
Assistant-Director at Kew Gardens on the 27th 
inst. Though very busy just now, he was able to 
favour me with a " long walk round the Gardens. 
I asked his views on the lautana bug." He 
thought that a needless fuss was being made over 
it, ami that by t iking effective measures with the 
bushes aflected by it the spread of the disease 
might easily be prevented. It was not likely 
that it would ever attack tea he thought. With 
regard to his departure to the West Indies. I 
enclose a cutting from the Baihj^ News, 
which gives a good account of the Agricultural 
Scheme of which he will be in charge.* Dr. 
"•PLANTING IN WEST INDIES : 
HOW THK WKST INDI.VN GR.\NT \VILL BE SPliNT. 
TlIK SCHK.^tl•; ANO TUK WAY IT WILL WORK. 
{From the Dailij News.) 
I had an interestiug talk au afternoon or two ago 
with Di-. Morris, the gentleman whom the Government 
has iuat appointed to lie the head of the Agrieid- 
lural Department to be established in the West 
Indies Upon the success of this venture will largely 
depend the future of those delightful islands which 
Btud the Caribbean Sea like so many gems over an 
area which stretches through seven degrees of lati- 
35 
Morris showed me two or three Museums, besides 
Miss Marianne Nori h's wonderful Galleiy of 
Botanical Paintings ; also the Mexican and Aus- 
ralian houses, where from around the high gallery, 
tone obtained beautiful sights of tropical foliage 
the tree fern flourishing in great perfection. These 
latter houses were designed under the patronage 
of the Prince Consort many years ago ; but the 
tude. The bounty-fed sugars of France and Germany 
have nearly ruined the industry upon which they 
have mainly depended for generations. It wiil be 
;,he business of the new office to do v/hat it can to 
improve the cultivation of the cane when only cane 
can be profitably yrown, and to promote the develop- 
ment of a hundred other resources which undoubt- 
edly exist, but for one reason and another have hitherte 
been Lxrgely neglected. To do this the House of 
Commons has just voted a grant of 6,000/. a year, to 
be increased later to .£17,000, which Dr, Morris will ad- 
minister ; and a further 10,000/. a year to subsidise 
a special line of steamers for t.vad'ng amongst the 
islands. It is obviously a big business, the progress 
of which will be closely watched ; in the islands 
themselves, by whites and blacks ; in England, which 
owns them, finds the money, and has plenty more if 
a decent interest on its gold is forthcoming ; in Ame- 
rica, which has been pushing trade with them for a 
long time. The new scheme, then, is the direct out- 
come of the Commission which Mr. Chamber, 
lain sent out to investigate the condition of our 
oldest colonies, and the man who is appointed 
to work it out sails in a few weeks to begin his 
arduous duties. It was concerning these that he 
talked ia his office at Kew Gardens, of which he has 
been the Assistant Director for twelve years. Most 
of those who visit our famous gardens think of them 
only as pleasure grounds, but as a matter of fact it 
is the centre to which those who cultivate the soil 
in all parts of the world come or send for advice. 
It will easily be understood, then, why one of its heads 
is going out as the chief of the new department. 
Nor are the West Indies new ground to him. Dr. 
Morris, after serving in the Ceylon Gardens, went 
to take charge of the Gardens at Jamaica, and after- 
wards came to Kew. He accompanied the West Indian 
Commission as expert, and is now returning to put 
his advice into practice. With this little introduc- 
tion I will now repeat the gist of what he told me 
as to his immediate operations, and the organization 
which he is preparing. It is not often that a man 
has such a field for an experiment of such far-reaching 
importance. But he expresses every _ confidence in 
the results which will follow in a few years' time. 
Let it be quite understood that it is not to bolster 
up the sngar, but the development of new industries 
which the infinite prodigality of Nature has made 
possible, that is the xnain object of the mission. In 
the first place Dr. Morris will establish his headquarters 
at Barbadoes, which he calls the Clapham Junction 
of the West Indies, by reason of the number of inter- 
island steamboats which call there. ITrom this con- 
venient base he will be able to journey from one 
island to the other with the least delay, forming as 
they do a chain, the component parts of which are 
divided by intervals of sea varying from -20 to 100 
miles across. Let us now give in precise detail the 
exact duties which the department will sat itself to 
perform. They will be as follows: 
THE WORK OF THE DEPARTJIENT. 
1. To supervise and extend the work of the present 
botanic stations. 
2. To start industrial schools for training boys in 
agriculuiral pursuits. 
3. To encourage the theoretical (and tj some slight 
extent the practical) teaching of agriculture in ele- 
mentary schools. 
•1. To promote the teaching of scientific agricuitura 
in coUege-i and schools. 
5. To organize horticultural shows and exhibitions, 
implemeuts and machinery suitable for cultivating 
and curing tropical products. 
