290 



THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. 



September 9, 1916. 



Another kind of raw material which constitutes an 

 important tie between Great Britain and the tropics is 

 rubber. The amount of British capital invested in 

 rubber plantations is very great indeed, and no matter 

 whether this rubber is shipped to British or American 

 manufacturei-s it is of the greatest importance to main- 

 tain high dividends by reducing the cost of production 

 -and by the prevention of undue depreciation on the 

 ■estates. 



In regard to sugar, also, there are signs that the 

 ■economic connexion between Great Britain and the 

 tropics will be strengthened. Political action will 

 probably be taken to secure a larger supply of British- 

 grown sugar than in the past; but the most satis- 

 factory way and probably the only way of increasing 

 the amount of British-grown sugar will be by reducing 

 to the lowest possible point the cost of production so 

 •as to enable the British colonies to compete with 

 foreign rivals — both beet and cane — if necessary in 

 the open market. 



In the case of all three of these raw materials 

 future progress appears to depend upon efficient pro- 

 duction. Efficient production means the application 

 of science in its widest and most practical sense — in 

 improving soil fertility, in fighting diseases of plants, 

 animals :md man, in training labour, in introducing 

 improved implements and machinery, in breeding 

 better plants, in improving transport facilities, and in 

 beinsr methodical and economical in every direction. 



To Cixrry this into effect requires an elaborate educa- 

 tional organization. It is not sufficient to educate one 

 class of worker connected with a great industry and 

 neglect another. Labour needs instruction in manual 

 •operations and in co-operative action; the estate 

 manager needs training in the principles and practices 

 of crop production, in labour management and business 

 matters anil requires further to possess a good general 

 knowledge of the sciences underlying the art he 

 practises; even the capitalist whose money is invested 

 in tropical agriculture requires a sound theoretical 

 knowledge of matters relating to the crop in which he 

 is interested in order that he may see the wisdom of 

 adjusting expenditure in order to achieve maximum 

 efficiency. A fourth class to be provided for is com- 

 prised of the scientific expert who works in an 

 advisory capacity with the actual producers and 

 is generally maintained by the State. Further 

 provision must be made for training the research 

 worker whose ultimate duty is to investigate more 

 or less abstract problems of science without regard to 

 their immediate practical importance. On the work 



of the research student, the expert is largely fed and 

 through him fresh information filters down to the 

 estate manager until it eventually finds its application 

 in estate practice. 



The scientific workers require specialized courses 

 of academic study in contra-distruction to the general 

 course of technical study needed by the planter him- 

 self, or the specialised nianual and moral training re- 

 quired by the labourer. 



To provide these systems of education in the 

 tropics it is necessary Jto have agricultural colleges, or 

 at least some definite extension of the educational side 

 of the present Government Agricultural Departments 

 in the more advanced colonies. Considering the great 

 diversity exhibited in tropical agriculture even in the 

 cultivation of one and the same crop, all the functions of 

 a college as outlined above could not be fulfilled by 

 a single institution to serve the tropics as a whole. It 

 would probably be found that several colleges situated 

 in different places and affiliated to a central institution 

 in Great Britain would answer best. The work of each in 

 a sense would probably tend to become specialized in 

 so far as it would have regard to one staple crop more 

 than another. Thus one can conceive of an agricul- 

 tural college in the West Indies becoming renowned 

 as a centre for the study of sugar production, of another 

 in the Federated Malay States for the study of rubber; 

 just as in England one agricultural college is noted 

 for its natural facilities for teaching stt>ck farming 

 and another for instruction in cereal production. 



There can be no doubt that the establishment of 

 such institutions of education and research in the 

 tropics would quickly have an educational infiuence of 

 a far-reaching kind, and soon have the effect of strength- 

 ening the trade relations between the tropics and the 

 Jlother Countrv. 



EXTENSION OF SUGAR-CANE CULTIV- 

 ATION IN JAMAICA. 



The July i.ssue of the Journal of Januiu-a Ayrindtural 

 Societi/ contains the report of the Oonunittee appointed to 

 enquire into the amount of land available for -sugar cultiv- 

 ation in that colony. .-Vbout S5,000 acres are regarded as 

 being immediately capable of being put under sugar-cane. 

 The report continues: — 



How much sugar can be produced from this area depends 

 on the etticiency of its cultivation and upon the completeness 

 in power equipment and management of the factories which 

 would have to be erected. 



Assuming tliese to be satisfactory, the output of sugar 

 may be estimated at from 1-50,000 to 200,000 tons per 

 annum in addition to the present production, most probably 

 the higher amount a.s no account has been taken of the canes 



