EDITORIAL. 107 



we find continual gi'owing periods, varied by more or less pronounced 

 dr}" and rainy seasons. Soils do not react as is often taught, ferti- 

 lizer requirements vary, insect and fungus pests never cease their 

 depredations, weeds are a greater pest than in temperate climates 

 where annuals are limited in the lunnber of generations within a 

 season and where frost checks for a time the growth of perennials, 

 many and often strange diseases alfect farm animals — all these go to 

 perplex the investigator in the Tropics. 



]Many persons going into tropical regions have made the mistake 

 of attempting radical changes in the methods of agricultural practice. 

 Often the methods in vogue are the result of centuries of unconscious 

 experimentation on the part of the agriculturists. Some things that 

 ap]3ear very simple and easy of demonstration fail when put to the 

 test. As an example, it was thought desirable to get away from the 

 oriental method of rice growing that involves so much hand labor in 

 transplanting the crop, and to substitute machinery by which the seed 

 grain was drilled where the crop was to grow. Experiments carried 

 on in Hawaii and in the Philippines have shown that under the 

 existing conditions the oriental method gives the best results. Not 

 only were larger yields secured from transplanted rice, but the cost 

 of jDrodaction was decidedly less when the added labor of draining 

 the fields, extra amount of seed, cost of machinery, etc., were 

 considered. 



A rather discouraging feature of the work in the Tropics is the 

 slowness with which demonstrated results are taken up and applied. 

 For the most part the constituency of the stations are unappreciative 

 and conservative in the extreme. New crops and unusual methods 

 appeal to but a very few individuals, hence the progress noted is not 

 rajDid. But, for the time they have been established, the stations have 

 more than met the expectations of those fully acquainted with their 

 organization, aims, and resources, and they have about completed 

 their period of pioneering and are entering upon an era of great 

 usefulness. 



Congress at its last session appropriated $5,000 for the establish- 

 ment of an agricultural experiment station on the Island of Guam. 

 During the past summer Dr. W. H. Evans of this Office visited the 

 island and made preliminary arrangements for opening the station and 

 starting experimental work on the improvement of the agriculture 

 as now practiced. 



The Island of Guam is a fertile island of nearly 300 square miles, 

 situated 1,200 miles east of the Philippine Islands, and was acquired 

 as a naval and cable station. Formerly most of the 10,000 or 12,000 

 people inhabiting the island were engaged in agricultural pursuits. 

 For various reasons, some of which were economic, others agricul- 

 tural, many cultivators left their plantations and accepted other 

 57401— No. 2—08 2 



