232 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



the greatly more efficient tools of Europe or America into a 

 tropical country, except for purposes of comparison and study 

 or for the use of the capitalist agriculturist, is to court failure. 

 Enthusiasts without number have tried to improve tropical 

 agriculture rapidly by the introduction of " good seed," of 

 improved tools and what not, and have invariably failed. 

 Nothing but progress of the most gradual kind is possible and 

 not even this without attention to the proper order in which 

 the factors of improvement work, as we have been endeavouring 

 to set forth in this paper. 



Tools require scientific study. All the native implements 

 should be carefully investigated with reference to the work 

 they have to do, and should be compared with the foreign tools 

 of all kinds, obtained from other tropical countries as well as 

 from Europe and America. When the principle of the whole 

 subject is understood, the native tool may be modified slightly 

 in the required direction and tested exhaustively against the 

 old tools. If the new one prove more efficient in proportion 

 to the cost of making and of using, then it may be recommended 

 for employment in native agriculture. But at the same time 

 the corresponding improvement of the cattle must not be 

 forgotten, unless the improvement of the tool can be in such a 

 direction as to make it more efficient without needing more 

 power to draw it. 



Chemistry, lastly, is a subject which is daily becoming of 

 greater importance in connection with improvement in agri- 

 culture. All experiments on manuring require the aid of the 

 chemist, and to decide the class of soil for a given product 

 his help is also needed. Tobacco, for instance, needs a soil rich 

 in lime and potash ; it is far easier to decide whether this is 

 the case by a simple analysis than by trial and error. The 

 help of the chemist too is needed in working out methods of 

 preparing products : for example, in distilling essential oils or 

 in fermenting cacao. 



These references to the scientific methods of improving 

 agriculture which are in progress are necessarily very brief: 

 the aim has been to point out some of the lines in which work 

 is being carried on ; in a later paper it may be possible to go 

 into more detail. The chief object of the present articles is 

 to show that the improvement of agriculture in the tropics, 

 if it is to touch more than the capitalist planter, must begin 



