Agricultural and Commercial Society. 13 
cane cultivation. If a tenth be added for evident omis- 
sions, the total vi'ould be 45,661 acres. 
The Statistics dealt with in this report applv to the 
coast lands and the rivers, as far up from the estuaries 
as they are occupied by settlers ; the area of cultivation 
of the Aborigines in the interior, of course, is unknown. 
Thou'jjh I havo spent much time and care in the working 
out of the returns from the several distri6ls, I am unable 
to say with any confi<^ence what is the value of the re- 
sults. This is due to several causes, amonor which are 
the inequality in the information procured from the 
different distri6ls, this depending upon the interest or 
want of interest in colle6ling it, the willingness or un- 
willingness of the cultivators to afford it, uncertainty as 
to how the areas are ascertained — whether by conje6lure, 
a6lual measurement or other means, and incompleteness 
of statement in particulars in the returns. An instance 
of this latter is in plantains and ground provisions, which 
are required to be kept separate in the returns, but which 
are generally given together. They represent separate 
produ6ls though to a large extent grown together on the 
same land. Then there are ephemeral crops, such as 
maize, guinea corn, pumpkins, &c., taken ofi the land 
when first cleared before the more permanent crops of 
plantains and ground provisions are put in, which are 
rarely mentioned at all. In some returns the plants are 
in part or wholly counted. If the counting is approxi- 
mately corre6l this is a satisfa6\ory method, though 
giving much trouble in working out, but knowing the 
kinds of plants, the areas can be easily ascertained by 
dividing by the number an acre or rood will carry. In 
the case of small scattered plots it is perhaps the most 
reliable way of getting accurate information. It is the 
best also in regard to large trees or bushes usually grown 
scattered, such as cocoanuts, mangoes, avocado pears, 
spice-trees, breadfruit and breadnut, oranges, limes, and 
indeed all fruit trees. It must be mentioned too that 
there is a want of unity of idea and statement in the 
returns which gives a good deal of trouble and takes up 
much time in making out the summaries, due in a 
measure obviously to the fa6l that they are compiled 
