202 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. IV 



methods of growth, rotation of crops, harvesting, curing, 

 and marketing, experiments with machinery, whether 

 new, or improvements upon local machines, and other 

 similar technical work. 



Finally, the Government should adopt a fixed policy and 

 carry it out steadfastly, at any rate for a considerable 

 number of years. 



In carrying out such a policy, the watchword must be 

 efficiency, in the true sense of the word. Attention must be 

 directed mainly to the essential points, letting the details be 

 filled in later. Every department, every organisation, and every 

 individual concerned should attend to that for which it or he 

 is best fitted, and do it to the best purpose, and all efforts must 

 be co-ordinated to the common end. The land should be used 

 for those crops to which it is best suited, the people for those 

 cultivations which they best understand and can practise, the 

 cultivations chiefly encouraged should be those offering the best 

 chance of profit and the most safe and steady market, and so on. 



An agricultural policy, concerned as it is intimately with 

 all the habits, customs, preferences, prejudices, and ignorances 

 of tropical and conservative peoples, should be directed to the 

 lines of least resistance. The natural trend of things should 

 be carefully watched, the preferences of the people noticed, 

 their customs respected, and the agricultural policy directed 

 along such lines as will take advantage of these facts, not in 

 such a way as to run counter to them e.g., in places where the 

 people would rather grow other crops to which the land is 

 better suited, or to which their habits incline them, or which 

 yield greater profit with less labour, the cultivation of rice 

 should not be forced upon them. 



It is of the very highest importance that effort for agricultural 

 progress should not be scattered, spasmodic, or discontinuous. 

 The efforts of all concerned should be directed to one end, con- 

 centrated upon the immediate problems in hand, and carried on 

 steadfastly for long periods of time. It is useless to try to go 

 too fast, and to expect immediate results is more sanguine than 

 wise or reasonable. 



