106 



civilized associations to students as any other place equally suit- 

 able in technical requirements. 



The following extracts from an article in the Agricultural 

 News, a journal that often of late has agitated the question, at 

 once describes what the British tropical agriculturists are want- 

 ing and what the College of Hawaii is now fairly leady to offer 

 in the way of teaching of tropical agriculture, both in the ab- 

 stract and the concrete : 



■'All the ^^'est Indian colonies now possess local departments of 

 agriculture with their experiment stations ; there is little prospect, 

 however, of these becoming so equipped as to warrant their un- 

 dertaking abstract investigations in agricultural subjects; their 

 functions are likely to be limited more or less to problems of a 

 concrete and more immediately practical character. A univer- 

 sity of tropical agriculture would tend to strengthen and develop 

 the work of the local agricultural departments, and could in no 

 sense be regarded as displacing them or reducing their work and 

 activities, for it could undertake useful investigations of a more 

 abstract character than are appropriate to experiment stations — 

 so that there would arise a useful distribution of work of investi- 

 gation and cooperation between existing institutions and the one 

 now contemplated. 



'"As an outcome of its centralizing influence a tropical univer- 

 sity would play an important part in acting as a means for ac- 

 cumulating and storing knowledge relating to tropical agricul- 

 ture ready to be drawn upon by workers in its neighborhood and 

 even over a wider range ; it would also serve as a centre where 

 knowledge and ideas would be grouped and coordinated '^o as to 

 permit of the production of well considered views relating to vari- 

 ous industries — an idea which found expression in the letter ad- 

 dressd to The Times by Mr. John W. INIcConnel in which he 

 pointed out how such an institution might materially advance 

 the interests of cotton-growing by assisting to formulate knowl- 

 edge for the guidance of those who are endeavoring to push cot- 

 ton-growing into new districts ; and we may add it would serve 

 to train men wdio would be qualified to carry these ideas inta 

 practice after having acquired experience in their application. 

 The same ideas may be employed in regard to many otlier indus- 

 tries than cotton : cacao, rubl)er, oils, fruits, spices, and many 

 others present their special unsolved problems which await the 

 students and investigators who. it is reasonable to conceive, would 

 soon grou]) themselves around a tropical university." 



