126 TiMEHRI. 
upon which they were mostly settled — he did not think 
any kind of cultivation would pay them so well or benefit 
them as much as the sugar cane. The richness of the soil 
on the coast land was astounding when it was remembered 
that, year after year for about a century, canes had been 
grown on the same land without fallow or rotation of crops, 
and that the yield had remained as high as it was formerly 
except when the virgin land was first cultivated. During 
the last eighteen months he had experimented with the 
tobacco plant, and he had gained a great deal of know- 
ledge about it if nothing else. Tobacco could be grown 
on the front lands of the colony as well as anywhere 
else in the world. He had sent specimen leaves to 
America and England, and the reports he had received 
were that, both as regards quality and the sizeof the leaves, 
they could not be exceeded. It was one thing to grow 
tobacco, however, and another thing to manufa6lure it. 
To manufa6lure tobacco was a matter of exceeding 
difficulty in a country where the air was as moist as it 
was here. In fa6l, he might almost say to manufa6lure 
tobacco here would prove a disastrous failure it it was 
done in the same way as it was in many countries — in 
open sheds and in the open air. They required sealed 
rooms and hot air flues. Another warning which he 
might give was that after growing and curing tobacco 
here, unless they kept it in an even temperature and in air 
tight tins, their work of months would be destroyed in a 
few hours by mildew, at the same time he thought if 
sufficient capital were properly employed tobacco could 
be grown and manufa6lured here successfully. As Presi- 
dent of the Society for this year he felt that past Presi- 
dents had been doing up-hill work. The Royal Agricul- 
tural and Commercial Society had become to a great 
extent a lending library, and he would endeavour to put 
new life into it and bring back its past glories if possible. 
In the first place he hoped to revive the monthly or 
quarterly le6lures, and he hoped members would take 
more interest in them than they had done latterly. He 
also hoped to arrange tor an evening entertainment in 
the shape of a conversazione when they might have a 
display of some beautiful and interesting obje6ls from 
