CH. VII] AGRICULTURAL NEEDS OF PLANTING ENTERPRISE 193 



Lastly, there remains to be considered the question of im- 

 provement of methods of preparing produce for market. In 

 general, of course, estate products are the best prepared in the 

 country, but the competition of other countries has to be met, 

 and these are continually improving their methods. Continual 

 investigation of methods with a view to their improvement 

 must be the watchword of all progressive industries. Work of 

 this kind can best be done upon a large Experiment Station, 

 and if in connection with cooperative experimental work among 

 planters, so much the better. Arrangements are already in force 

 with the Imperial Institute and other authorities in England 

 whereby reports can be obtained upon the quality and value of 

 products sent to Europe. 



To sum up, the needs of estate agriculture are much the 

 same as those of village agriculture, excepting as regards labour. 

 Leaving out of account these primary questions of labour, trans- 

 portation, drainage, etc., the chief needs of this form of enterprise 

 would seem to be those which can be best met by the formation 

 of a scientific Department of Agriculture, which should include 

 the necessary staff of expert advisers in matters of disease 

 prevention, etc., a system of Experiment Stations for thorough 

 trial of new products, new methods, new machinery, new ways 

 of preparing crops for market, and so on. Though ignorance 

 may often prove an obstacle to progress in this form of enter- 

 prise, it is more easily removed than in the case of the villager 

 by lectures, leaflets and other publications, demonstrations at 

 Experiment Stations and on estates, and other ways. Progress 

 is little likely to be checked to any serious extent at this 

 period of planting history by the other obstacles which are so 

 formidable in the case of the villagers. Competition will almost 

 ensure progress, but the great thing is to systematise this, and 

 this is best done with the help of a technical department which 

 shall keep abreast of the progress being made in all forms of 

 agriculture throughout the world. 



To recapitulate Part III of the book, then, it is evident 



that with the opening up of a country agricultural progress 



using the term as implying the opening up of new land, the 



introduction and successful cultivation of new crops, the ex- 



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