THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL, SESSION 
87 
Citrus fruits are also produced to a limited extent in Jamaica, but the 
cultivation has not reached the high state of perfection found in Cuba and 
Porto Rico. Pineapples were produced in commercial quantities in Jamaica 
long before the cultivation of this crop started in Porto Rico, but to-day 
there are practically no commercial plantations there. This is not due to 
the land; but to the man, who was not willing to delve down beneath the 
methods of nature and those of the Arawak Indian. 
In the Islands comprising the Leeward and Windward groups, lying 
between Porto Rico and Venezuela, agricultural methods are, generally 
speaking, primitive. Cacao, one of the chief horticultural crops, is yet 
propagated from seed. Cultivation, as we think of, in an apple or peach 
orchard, is never practised. The soil is in some places forked by hand, 
but that can, of course, be done in places only where labor is cheap. Fer- 
tilizing was not practised until very recently, but remedies for plant diseases 
have been applied to a limited extent for a number of years. This is of 
some importance because it points the way for future development. The 
planters are usually willing to do things in a different way if they are shown 
how it should be done. They are not always able to do what they would 
like, because they are financially cramped, but if a man, who knows, will 
tell them and show them they will try. For this reason many of the newer 
methods can be traced directly to some one individual, usually a man in the 
department of agriculture. If there be an especially good man in some 
Island and he happens to be a plant pathologist the planters will in a few 
years know more about plant diseases and know how to use a spray pump„ 
If he be a plant breeder they will be interested in new varieties. If he be 
a good horticulturist, the field methods will be better. As it happens that 
more cacao planters know about diseases than improved field methods it 
may readily be surmised that there has been some good plant pathologist 
among them, which, as a matter of fact, is the case. 
Future Progress and the New Settler. 
Reasoning further along this line it would not be difficult to imagine 
what some capable horticulturist might do; but after all, the future pro- 
gress will depend very much on the new settler. Any Island receiving the 
class of settlers that has come to Cuba and Porto Rico in the last decade 
is sure to progress very fast, whereas the Islands which must depend upon 
their present populations will make much slower progress. That brings in 
the question; — What inducements do the West Indies offer? 
This, of course we cannot discuss here, but I can assure you that the 
prospects are very good indeed. I would recommend a prospective settler 
to look farther than Cuba and Porto Rico. The prospects in the different 
Islands and the countries beyond should not be measured by present develop- 
ment, but by future possibilities. Some of the Islands are well adapted to 
truck farming and the prospect of a profitable winter market in Canada is 
very good. Other Islands are more suitable for fruit, and what a great 
number of fruits there are, that have not yet been developed. In fact, what 
a great number of tropical products there are that have not yet been de- 
veloped, and what a great number of problems there are that have not yet 
been solved. 
