210 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. IV 



these, facts be freely advertised. Actual raising of the rate of 

 pay should only be a last resource, when the cost of living, the 

 advances, etc., have been reduced to a minimum, and all other 

 inducements offered that are possible. 



The removal of the next important hindrance from the 

 path, the poverty of the small cultivator, which prevents his 

 being able to adopt improvements or try experiments with new 

 crops, will in many countries require the aid of the Financial 

 department of Government. It was suggested above that 

 some system of Cooperative Credit Societies be established in 

 the villages, with unlimited liability and Government audit, 

 each society being confined to one village or "section." The 

 same problem must also be attacked from the other end by 

 some arrangement for providing a good market for the villagers' 

 crops ; local markets should be opened, and they should be 

 encouraged to grow the same crops as the neighbouring estates, 

 and the latter be subsidised, when necessary, to induce them 

 to undertake to buy the village produce at fixed rates, with 

 payment in cash. 



Another department whose share in the work of agricultural 

 progress is a very important one, is the Department of Public 

 Instruction. Education is among the most important agencies 

 in raising the general standard of living, making the people 

 more receptive towards new ideas, and stimulating progress. 

 It should be generously provided and for all nationalities alike, 

 and every effort should be made to prevent its becoming, as is 

 so often the tendency with tropical peoples, a mere matter of 

 book learning and passing examinations. School gardens, with 

 their accompanying lessons in nature study, elementary horti- 

 culture, etc., should be made an important feature in the regular 

 curriculum, at least in all those schools where the masters are 

 found capable and willing in regard to such work. Actual 

 technical instruction in agriculture may come later. 



Other departments of Government are also at times able to 

 help in agricultural progress e.g., the Railways by granting 

 lower rates, the Public Health by special attention to unhealthy 

 but otherwise favourable districts, especially in regard to the 

 sanitary conditions for coolies, and so on. 



