38 The Journiil of the Royal 
suffered. With such admirable conditions as soil and 
climate, he did not see why cane-farming should not 
do for British Guiana what the banana industry 
had done for Jamaica. He remembered many years 
ago when he lived in the midst of the banana 
industry, before it became so extensive as it was 
now, the small proprietors, who owned plots of land 
from one to twenty acres, were very much helped by it 
owing to the quick returns they got for their labour. 
The industry did not involve any great outlay, and 
they found a ready market for their bananas. 
He thought those conditions applied equally to the 
cultivation of canes here by the fapmers, because they 
would be able to get quick returns, and to find a ready 
market for their canes. He would suo^grest that the 
Agricultural Committee should prepare a leaflet or a 
small pamphlet setting forth to the people the 
advantages to be gained by going in for cane-farming. 
They should give the fullest instruction to the peasantry, 
and try to induce them to take up plots of land 
either in the villages or from the estates. They should 
also inform them as to the kind of cane to be 
cultivated, and what time they should start to cultivate 
it. It would not only be of advantage to the planters 
to do so, but it would be conferring a benefit on the 
struggling peasantry of the colony. 
The Hon. N. D. Davis suggested that the Agricultural 
Committee should appoint, if the constitution of the 
Society permitted it, • local secretaries all over the 
colony. He thought the cfirectors might take steps 
to appoint as many local se'cretaries as would be of 
assistance to them. Of course, they would be persons 
who woul.d be able to give the farmers advice in regard 
