180 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. Ill 



country are also owners or superintendents of estates, and the 

 number of such men continues to increase. 



It is not always easy to draw the line between estate and 

 village agriculture, but the Ceylon definition of an estate an 

 area of at least 20 acres worked in whole or in part with hired 

 labour is a convenient criterion. 



The great primary essentials for success in agriculture of 

 this type are satisfactory conditions as regards labour, finance, 

 and transport. Next follow such things as irrigation and 

 drainage, and the more strictly agricultural matters of con- 

 tinual improvement of crops, machinery, methods, preparation 

 of produce, etc., the prevention of disease, and so on. 



Capitalist agriculture can to a large extent choose its 

 location, and will therefore only come to a given country if it 

 can offer as great attractions as other places, either by its 

 having a monopoly of some particular crop, or by giving good 

 prospects in some crop that can also be cultivated elsewhere. 

 The chief obstacles to a flow of capital into any country are 

 therefore not so much agricultural as in the preliminaries to 

 agriculture, and if these can be satisfactorily settled, it may 

 almost be taken for granted that the flow will begin. 



The first country in which these preliminary conditions 

 were sufficiently satisfied to attract European enterprise was 

 the West Indies. Land was available in large enough amount, 

 transport was easy from small islands, roads were easily made, 

 labour thanks to slavery was cheap and abundant. Capital 

 was forthcoming from England, and the great sugar industry 

 rapidly sprang up. But, with the abolition of slavery, Ceylon, 

 with similar natural advantages, and with plentiful cheap labour 

 at her very doors, took the place of the West Indies as a field 

 for the investment of capital in planting enterprises, and to this 

 day holds it so far as English capital is concerned, while Java, 

 Mexico, and Hawaii hold similar places in regard to Dutch and 

 American capital. Thanks to the large planting industry, 

 Ceylon has been far more rich and prosperous than it would 

 otherwise have been, and the Government has been able to 

 carry out expensive public works that must, but for planting, 

 have been left untouched. 



