AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IN THE 

 TROPICS^ 



PART II 



By J. C. WILLIS, Sc.D., F.L.S., 

 Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon 



We have now to deal in very brief outline with the actual 

 progress that has been or is being made under the various 

 heads indicated in the preceding article. 



Land. — It would lead too far to go into the questions of 

 systems of settlement and tenure ; we may merely point out 

 that they are engaging the attention of most tropical govern- 

 ments. It is necessary for any progress that land should be 

 held under a well-defined system ; preferably that tenure 

 should be individual and not joint. Probably the best existing 

 system, from the agricultural point of view, is that of the 

 Federated Malay States, where the land is nationalised and is 

 sold to purchasers for a small premium down and an annual 

 rental, the government resuming possession if the land is not 

 kept in cultivation. 



To render the land available, drainage and irrigation must 

 be attended to in most cases ; this is often, in the case 

 of irrigation nearly always, the work of the government. 

 Splendid works of irrigation have been carried out in India 

 and in other tropical countries. 



Suitable crops are also a necessity before the land can be 

 said to be truly available ; here science, strictly so called, comes 

 in and has for long been used. In the early days of mankind 

 there would be, in each country of the tropics, a fair general 

 knowledge of the native plants available for food ; but it 

 is probable that intercourse between the different countries 

 was extremely limited, and consequently that each country 

 would have to depend on its own resources. Only when the 

 trading nations of Europe appeared in the tropics were the 

 plants of one country transferred to another. The Portuguese 



' The previous article appeared in Science Progress, 1910, v. pp. 48-59. 



219 



