AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IN THE TROPICS 233 



with political measures, attention to land, capital, labour, 

 transport and education, before the scientific factors of the 

 amelioration of the crops, etc., can come in at all. Few 

 people have properly thought out the position ; but when they 

 have done so, they will in general come to much the same 

 conclusions as those given here. The matter is one of the 

 very greatest importance at the present time, when scientific 

 departments for dealing with tropical agriculture are being 

 formed all over the world, often it may be without a proper 

 realisation of the fact that except in countries like Ceylon, 

 Java or India, where there are large numbers of people properly 

 supplied with capital, and where land, labour, transport and 

 education have been and are being attended to, they can do 

 but little if any good. It is not intended to imply that they 

 are useless, but unless the government pays attention to the 

 preliminary factors which we have indicated whilst the agri- 

 cultural department works at the later ones, there will not 

 be much progress. 



