CHAPTER VII 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEEDS OF THE PLANTING 

 ENTERPRISE. SUMMARY OF PART III 



WE may consider the more specially agricultural needs of 

 capitalist enterprise in the same order as those of peasant 

 industries, to the discussion of which reference may be made 

 for further details. Thus the work of introducing new products, 

 and new kinds of those already grown, and that of breeding 

 new and improved kinds, is as desirable for the planting enter- 

 prise as for village agriculture. At the same time, it is well to 

 point out for the second time that enterprise of the kind now 

 under consideration tends to run in grooves, the product that 

 offers greatest attraction being alone taken up, as was lately 

 the case with rubber in very many tropical countries. 



To introduce a " new product " is a great deal more easily 

 said than done. In the earlier days of tropical planting, there 

 were still many products which were as yet only produced from 

 wild plants, or cultivated only by the backward native races 

 of tropical and subtropical countries. These, taken up by 

 Europeans, with capital, virgin soil, good methods, economical 

 working, and careful preparation for market, in many cases 

 rapidly drove the older product of the jungle or of village 

 agriculture to a great extent out of the markets. Ceylon affords 

 excellent illustrations, in the successive rise of her industries of 

 coffee, cinchona, cacao, cardamoms, tea, and lastly india-rubber. 

 Now, however, the day of this kind of success is probably largely 

 over. Almost all products which have any large trade are 

 now being cultivated in some part of the tropics by European, 

 American, or Chinese planters, and to find new ones capable of 



