SOME SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF THE 

 REPORT OF THE CANADA AND WEST 

 INDIES ROYAL COMMISSION 



By sir DANIEL MORRIS, K.C.M.G., D.Sc, D.C.L. 

 ate Imperial Commissioner of Agricicllure for the West Indies 



In recent numbers of Science Progress two articles have 

 appeared on "Agricultural Progress in the Tropics."^ This is 

 a subject that has assumed considerable importance in recent 

 years, and as the productions of the Tropics are daily becom- 

 ing more and more necessary to the inhabitants of temperate 

 countries it deserves further attention. 



It is acknowledged that Great Britain is " mistress of the 

 richest tropical possessions in the world " and it has recently 

 been urged that this is a time when "commercial supremacy 

 largely depends upon the control and development of the 

 Tropics." 



Speaking roughly it may be said that there are about 

 three million square miles (1,920 million acres) of British 

 territory lying within the Tropics. The total value of the 

 exports yielded by this area is computed at not less than 

 230 millions sterling. An appreciable proportion of the exports 

 are received in the United Kingdom, and supply not only food- 

 stuffs but the raw material for the manufacturing industries on 

 which the prosperity of this country depends. 



So far, nothing has appeared in these pages on the con- 

 siderable progress made in agricultural matters in the Western 

 Tropics. The conditions existing there are so markedly 

 different from those in the Eastern Tropics that they deserve 

 separate treatment. Further, as the result of the labours of 

 two Ro3'al Commissions, there is an enormous amount of 

 material accumulated in regard to the agricultural conditions 

 in the British West Indian Colonies. It is not proposed here 



' J. C. Willis, "Agricultural Progress in the Tropics," SCIENCE PROGRESS, 

 1910, V. pp. 48-59 and 219-33. 



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