150 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. Ill 



the roads should be made to divide the villages, the boundaries 

 of the latter being redefined, if necessary, in places. In this 

 way the country will be broken up into villages bounded on all 

 sides by roads, and with the opening up of the country that 

 would thus be brought about, there would be some chance of 

 the villager growing " commercial " products, and taking some 

 part in the trade of the country. 



Not only should roads be made, or demarcated, on these 

 lines, but also, when the natural drainage is not good, drains, 

 which may also become very useful, if large enough, as canals 

 for the cheap transport of produce. Every buyer of land, 

 however small a piece he may purchase, should be able to 

 secure that he will somewhere have a frontage upon a road, 

 and that he will be able to drain it. 



It is almost needless to remark that the roads and drainage- 

 canals must give access to markets where the produce can be 

 disposed of. The provision of local markets is a very important 

 consideration in the development of agriculture, and peasant 

 agriculture should, at first at any rate, be encouraged to grow 

 produce for local markets. Should the villager grow good fruit 

 or vegetables, of kinds not too novel in the neighbourhood, he 

 can usually dispose of them locally, especially if he be near a 

 town, or near a population say of fishermen, who do not grow 

 for their own consumption. If on the other hand he grow 

 " export " products, he should be provided with a local market, 

 say by the agency of planters growing the same products and 

 purchasing his. If there be no local market of any kind in a 

 district, it is practically idle to expect that district to progress 

 in agriculture, unless a market can be provided, e.g. by coopera- 

 tion among the growers to send their produce to a distant 

 market. 



As already mentioned, differences of race are often to be 

 found among the agricultural population in any given country 

 in the tropics. Thus in Ceylon, there are English, Sinhalese, 

 Tamils, and Mohammedans, in Jamaica English, Negroes, East 

 Indians, and so on. Where there is this mixture, the proper 

 use of it becomes a matter of considerable importance in 

 settling new districts, or in increasing the density of population 



