256 TlMEHRI. 
files covering a period of more than half a century, may 
be attributed the absence of any history of these organ- 
izations. It occurred to me that in my present 
capacity, I might be able to undertake a compilation 
which if it effected nothing more would at least rescue 
from the obscurity in which they have hitherto been 
permitted to remain, some data appertaining to the 
most important events in the career of the societies 
in question ; and that were I able to snatch suffi- 
cient leisure time from the all-engrossing occupa- 
tion of a journalist for a task of this description, the 
material so collected might appropriately find a place 
in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial 
Society. Unfortunately, I have not found it possible to 
devote to the work so much time and attention as I could 
have wished, but as an instalment towards the redemp- 
tion of a pledge I have managed to rummage the colonial 
newspapers within the period from the establishment of 
the pioneer Agricultural Society to that from which the 
Society of the present day dates its existence, and such 
materials relative to this period as I have gathered I now 
proceed to lay before the readers of Timehri. 
The first society whose existence I have traced was 
named 
" The Agricultural Society of Demerary and 
essequebo." 
It was formed in the year 1833, an eventful year, 
I need hardly observe, in the history of the West 
Indian possessions of the British Empire. I find 
that on the 21st May. 1833, a meeting of the proprietors 
of estates and planters, " being representatives of 
