220 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



were very active in this respect and distributed large numbers 

 of useful plants, which are now firmly established in various 

 countries, taking the place in many instances of the native plants. 

 Under Dutch rule botanic gardens were opened, to place this 

 work of plant introduction upon a proper and more systematic 

 footing; these were continued under the English. With the rise 

 of the planting industry they became of great importance, and 

 many of the largest of the cultivations carried on by planters 

 are due to the gardens, which first introduced the necessary 

 plants, e.g. tea, cinchona, rubber, cacao and many others. But 

 gradually the usefulness of gardens has decreased, so far as 

 this line of work is concerned, for obviously the number of 

 useful plants to be introduced steadily diminishes, while at the 

 same time private agencies for the supply of seed have a much 

 wider scope than formerly and can generally get seeds in 

 large quantity of any new plant of importance. In recent 

 years, therefore, except in newly opened tropical countries, 

 the botanic gardens have become centres of research along 

 other lines, as we shall point out later. 



Capital. — This subject is in general the most important that 

 requires attention at the present time. In the majority of 

 tropical countries, progress is held back more by lack of money 

 than by any other cause. The peasant population is almost 

 to a man in the hands of the local moneylenders, whose rate 

 of interest is very rarely less than 50 per cent. It follows that 

 they cannot afford to experiment but must keep to the old 

 and well-tried lines of agricultural practice, however inefficient 

 they may be. To get the peasantry out of the hands of the 

 moneylender is a great undertaking and apart altogether from 

 its bearing upon progress in agriculture very desirable. The 

 most successful method so far introduced, and one which has 

 a great vogue in the north, is the institution of co-operative 

 credit societies, first begun by Raiffeisen in Germany and 

 now widespread. They have been started on a large scale in 

 India and a few are in operation in Ceylon. In Europe such 

 societies are generally purely co-operative, each member con- 

 tributing so much a week ; in a tropical village this would in 

 general be impossible and the aid of some local philanthropist, 

 or of the government, is required. Once in possession of some 

 funds, the society lends through a committee of its own 

 members, well acquainted with the circumstances of applicants, 



