172 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
September  1,  lfc98. 
can  be  kept  under  by  cautious  and  judicious  fumigations,  or  by  the 
administration  of  an  infusion  of  quassia  chips  of  the  strength  of  3  or  4  ozs. 
to  the  g  illon  of  water  ;  the  plants  being  dipped  into  the  solution,  or  this 
being  applied  with  the  syringe.  Any  of  the  advertised  insecticides  are 
equally  efficacious,  and  are  easily  applied. 
Perhaps  the  greatest  difficulty  experienced  by  those  who  grow 
Caladiums  is  in  the  keeping  of  the  rhizomes  in  a  fresh  slate  during 
winter.  Their  proneness  to  decay  is  generally  acknowledged,  and 
considerable  difference  of  opinion  prevails  amongst  practical  men  on  this 
important  point.  One  maintains  that  the  soil  in  the  pots  should  be  kept 
moist,  arother  maintains  that  it  ought  to  be  kept  dust  dry,  while  a  third 
p'rty  thi.  ks  a  lower  temperature  than  that  kept  up  in  the  stove  will 
1  rove  beneficial  by  insuring  a  more  perfect  state  of  rest,  as  assuredly  it 
w  ill,  and  that  more  lasting  than  desirable.  In  my  opinion  more 
Caladiums  are  lost  during  winter  from  being  imperfectly  ripened  in 
autumn  than  from  all  other  causes,  excluding,  of  course,  a  low 
temperature. 
The  gradual  withdrawal  of  water  when  the  earliest  leaves  attain  a 
yellowish  tint  will  help  greatly  to  hasten  the  ripening  process.  Keep  the 
plants  in  the  warmest  part  of  the  house,  so  as  to  compensate  for  declining 
solar  heat,  and,  finally,  when  the  leaves  have  all  withered,  place  the  pots 
on  their  sides  on  the  floor  of  the  house.  The  moisture  supplied  by  the 
floor  and  the  atmosphere  will  be  enough  to  satisfy  all  demands  till  the 
middle  of  February  or  beginning  of  March. 
To  recapitulate — the  principal  points  to  be  attended  to  for  the 
successful  cultivation  of  Caladiums  are  rich  soil,  potting  loosely,  giving 
abundance  of  water  occasionally  manured,  shading  from  bright  sun¬ 
shine,  and  keeping  the  rhizomes  in  a  stove  temperature  during  the 
winter. — J.  A. 
THE  WEST  INDIA  GRANT. 
How  the  Money  will  be  Spent. 
I  HAD  an  interesting  talk  an  afternoon  or  two  ago  with  Dr.  Morris, 
the  gentleman  whom  the  Government  has  just  appointed  to  be  the  head 
of  the  Agricultural  Department  to  be  established  in  the  West  Indies. 
Upon  the  success  of  this  venture  will  largely  depend  the  future  of  those 
delightful  islands  which  stud  the  Carribbean  Sea,  like  so  many  gems  over 
an  area  which  stretches  through  seven  degrees  of  latitude.  The  bounty- 
fed  sugars  of  France  and  Germany  have  nearly  ruined  the  industry  upon 
which  they  have  mainly  depended  for  generations.  It  will  be  the  business 
of  the  new  office  to  do  what  it  can  to  improve  the  cultivation  of  the  cane 
when  only  cane  can  be  profitably  grown,  and  to  promote  the  development 
of  a  hundred  other  resources  which  undoubtedly  exist,  but  for  one  reason 
and  another  have  hitherto  been  largely  neglected. 
To  do  this  the  House  of  Commons  has  just  voted  a  grant  of  £17,000 
a  year,  which  Dr.  Morris  will  administer  ;  and  a  further  £10,000  a  year 
to  subsidise  a  special  line  of  steamers  for  trading  amongst  the  islands. 
It  is  obviously  a  big  business,  the  progress  of  which  will  be  closely 
watched  ;  in  the  islands  themselves  by  whites  and  blacks  ;  in  England, 
which  owns  them,  finds  the  money,  and  has  plenty  more  if  a  decent 
interest  on  its  gold  is  forthcoming  ;  in  America,  which  has  been  pushing 
trade  with  them  for  a  long  time. 
The  new  scheme,  then,  is  the  direct  outcome  of  the  Commission  which 
Mr.  Chamberlain  sent  out  to  investigate  the  condition  of  our  oldest 
colonies,  and  the  man  who  is  appointed  to  work  it  out  sails  ,in  a  few 
weeks  to  begin  his  arduous  duties.  It  was  concerning  these  that  he 
talked  in  his  office  at  Kew  Gardens,  of  which  he  has  been  the  assistant 
director  for  twelve  years.  Most  of  those  who  visit  our  famous  gardens 
think  of  them  only  as  pleasure  grounds,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  the 
centre  to  which  those  who  cultivate  the  soil  in  all  parts  of  the  world 
come  or  send  for  advice.  It  will  easily  be  understood,  then,  why  one  of 
its  heads  is  going  out  as  the  chief  of  the  new  department.  Nor  are  the 
West  Indies  new  ground  to  him.  Dr.  Morris,  after  serving  in  the  Ceylon 
Gardens,  where  he  conducted  a  long  inquiry  into  the  ravages  of  the 
disease  which  threatened  to  destroy  the  Coffee  plant,  went  to  take  charge 
of  the  Gardens  at  Jamaica,  and  afterwards  came  to  Kew.  He  accom¬ 
panied  the  West  Indian  Commission  as  expert,  and  is  now  returning  to 
put  his  advice  into  practice. 
With  this  little  introduction  I  will  repeat  the  gist  of  what  he  told 
me  as  to  his  immediate  operations,  and  the  organisation  which  he  is 
preparing.  It  is  not  often  that  a  man  has  a  field  for  an  experiment 
of  such  far-reaching  importance.  But  he  expresses  every  confidence  in 
the  results  which  will  follow  in  a  few  years’  time.  Let  it  be  quite  under¬ 
stood  that  it  is  not  to  bolster  up  the  sugar,  but  the  development  of  new 
industries  which  the  infinite  prodigality  of  Nature  has  made  possible, 
that  is  the  main  object  of  the  mission.  In  the  first  place  Dr.  Morris  will 
establish  his  headquarters  at  Barbadoes,  which  he  calls  the  Clapham 
Junction  of  the  West  Indies,  by  reason  of  the  number  of  inter-island 
steamboats  which  call  there.  From  this  convenient  base  he  will  be  able 
to  journey  from  one  island  to  the  other  with  the  least  delay,  forming  as 
they  do  a  chain,  the  component  parts  of  which  are  divided  by  intervals 
of  sea,  varying  from  20  to  100  miles  across.  Let  us  now  give  in  precise 
detail  the  exact  duties  which  the  department  will  set  itself  to  perform. 
They  will  be  as  follows  : — 
The  Work  of  the  Department. 
1,  To  supervise  and  extend  the  work  of  the  present  botanic  stations. 
2,  To  start  industrial  schools  for  training  boys  in  agricultural  pursuits. 
3,  To  encourage  the  theoretical  (and  to  some  slight  extent  the 
practical)  teaching  of  agriculture  in  elementary  schools. 
4,  To  promote  the  teaching  of  scientific  agriculture  in  colleges  and 
schools. 
5,  To  organise  horticultural  shows  and  exhibitions  of  implements  and 
machinery  suitable  for  cultivating  and  curing  tropical  products. 
6,  To  prepare  bulletins,  leaflets,  and  other  literature  on  subjects  suit¬ 
able  for  cultivation  in  the  West  Indies. 
So  much  for  the  skeleton  scheme,  the  bones  and  fabric  as  it  were. 
Now  to  enter  into  details  : — 
The  Work  of  the  Botanic  Stations. 
These  are  already  in  existence  on  a  good  many  islands.  It  is  proposed 
to  extend  the  work  which  they  are  at  present  doing.  They  are  to  devote 
themselves  in  a  systematic  manner  to  the  work  of  introducing,  propagat¬ 
ing,  and  distributing  all  the  promising  economic  plants  of  the  tropics  ; 
they  are  to  initiate  the  experimental  cultivation  of  new  or  little  known 
plants,  and  assist  in  the  efforts  made  in  the  larger  colonies  to  secure 
improved  varieties  of  the  sugar  cane.  They  are  to  act  as  centres  for 
diffusing  accurate  information,  and  as  training  institutions  for  the 
practical  teaching  of  tropical  agriculture  ;  also  as  the  headquarters 
from  which  agricultural  instructors  could  be  sent  to  give  lectures  and 
demonstrations  bearing  upon  the  selection  of  land  for  tropical  economic 
plants,  their  suitable  cultivation,  and  the  best  methods  for  curing  and 
packing  the  produce. 
Such,  roughly,  then,  is  the  outline  of  Dr.  Morris’s  work.  It  must  be 
understood  that  blacks  as  well  as  whites  are  to  participate  in  the  benefits 
which  may  arise  from  the  work  of  the  new  department.  Their  numbers 
are  vastly  in  excess  of  the  whites,  and  it  is  to  their  efforts  largely  that 
we  must  look  for  the  future  prosperity  of  the  islands.  It  will  be  the 
business  of  Dr.  Morris’s  instructors  to  help  them  to  help  themselves. 
They  will  be  taught  how  to  get  the  most  out  of  their  patches  of  ground  ; 
they  w  ill  be  told  what  produce  it  is  best  fitted  for  ;  seeds  and  plants  will  be 
given  or  sold  to  them.  This  will  all  be  a  slow  business,  and  Dr.  Morris 
says  plainly  that  the  experiment  must  take  ten  years  before  we  shall  see 
its  full  result.  We  may  repeat  here  a  few  of  Dr.  Morris’s  figures, 
showing  the  number  of  plants  distributed  in  Dominica,  for  example, 
during  six  years  : — 
1891  9,000  plants. 
1892  17J00  „ 
1893  22,000  „ 
1894  .  30,000  plants. 
1895  .  36.000  ,, 
1896  .  42,000  „ 
These  are,  of  course,  all  economic  plants.  The  great  demand  has  been 
for  Liberian  Coffee,  of  which  over  75,000  plants  have  been  sent  out.  The 
others  were  chiefly  Limes,  Cacao,  Oranges,  Kola,  Nutmegs,  and  Vanilla. 
The  cost  of  a  C acao  plant  in  a  pot  is  a  farthing,  of  Coffee  plants  less  th  n 
a  farthing,  whilst  Nutmegs  cost  Id.  The  distribution  of  seeds  was  also 
large,  no  less  than  2233  Cacao  pods  of  good  varieties,  capable  of  yielding 
44,660  plants,  having  been  sent  out  to  local  planters  in  three  years.  At 
present  the  most  flourishing  industry  is  the  production  of  lime  juice  ;  and 
yet  fifty  years  ago  it  exported  6,000,000  lbs.  of  coffee  in  one  year.  These 
are  suggestive  figures.  To-day  the  people  are  emigrating  to  Cayenne  and 
Venezuela,  and  those  who  remain  are  in  immediate  need  of  assistance. 
The  working  of  the  Government's  scheme  is  well  illustrated  by 
Dr.  Morris’s  plan  for  dealing  with  it  when  he  reaches  the  Islands. 
Dominica,  he  thinks,  may  be  saved  by  establishing  at  once  a  trade  in 
Bananas  and  other  fruit  with  New  York.  He  proposes  to  employ  two 
agricultural  instructors  at  the  Botanic  Station,  to  have  six  students,  and 
start  an  industrial  school  for  training  twenty-five  boys.  The  result,  says 
the  Doctor,  will  soon  show  itself.  And  the  cost  is  interesting,  as  it  gives 
an  idea  of  how  the  grant  is  io  be  spent. 
Curator  . 
Two  agricultural  instructors  at  £150 
Travelling  allowances  . 
Foremen  . 
Twelve  labourers,  £15  . 
Six  students,  £10  ... 
Tools  and  manure . 
£200 
300 
80 
130 
180 
60 
50 
Industrial  school 
£1.000 
500 
Total  .  £1,500 
The  following  figures  give  the  totals  : — 
Head  office .  ...  ...  . .  £2,200 
Nine  botanic  stations  and  four  industrial  schools  .  9,700 
Sugar-cane  experiments  at  British  Guiana  .  1,000 
Horticultural  show,  exhibition  of  implements  .  500 
Literature  ...  ...  500 
Elementary  school  teaching  and  school  garden  ...  ...  500 
Colleges  and  schools  for  teaching  scientific  agriculture  ...  2,600 
Total 
...  £17,000 
One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  which  has  hitherto  stood  in  the  way  of 
the  small  cultivator  has  been  the  absence  of  markets.  It  is  to  help  him 
to  ship  his  produce,  fruit,  or  whatever  it  may  be,  the  moment  it  is  ready, 
that  the  subsidy  for  the  establishment  of  a  special  line  of  coasting 
steamers  has  been  granted.  And  the  masters  of  these  must  not  only 
carry  but  buy.  The  sugar  mills,  which  are  to  be  erected  with  borrowed 
money,  of  which  the  Government  guarantees  the  interest,  scarcely  comes 
within  Dr.  Morris’s  province ;  and  for  the  present  it  is  too  early  to 
discuss  the  proposed  purchase  of  estates  upon  which  to  place  small 
proprietors. 
