206 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. IV 



duties and liabilities should also be made very clear. The 

 labourer should have the conditions of labour made clear, the 

 rate of pay, the cost of food and clothing ; he should know that 

 he can get good work, good treatment, good pay, and that he 

 will be encouraged to settle down at the end of his term of 

 work, upon land reserved for people of his own race and caste, 

 to be granted upon such and such terms, that he can grow such 

 and such crops, obtain good markets, and so on. 



One great advertisement must also be remembered the 

 standard of quality of exported articles of agricultural produce. 

 It is of the highest importance to get a good name from the 

 start, and keep it, if necessary by the making of laws for in- 

 spection at the ports and refusal of exit to inferior articles. 



To pass on now to the removal of obstacles from the path 

 of agricultural progress, and the making of agriculture as at- 

 tractive as other occupations. This is evidently closely bound 

 up with the first consideration. The various disadvantages, 

 under which agriculture and those who pursue it suffer, have 

 been fully dealt with above, and it will suffice to put them 

 together in brief outline. 



In the first place, the best agricultural land of the country 

 should be picked out, and the chief attention devoted to that 

 until progress j becomes rapid and population large. The man 

 who buys land for agricultural purposes should be able to buy 

 it in such shape and so located that he is in no way dependent 

 upon the acts, sufferance or indolence of his neighbours, or 

 upon the circumstances of the surrounding land, for the carrying 

 out of his enterprises. In other words, he should have inde- 

 pendent access to public roads and public drainage facilities, 

 wherever his land may lie ; no land should be sold which does 

 not conform to these conditions. This is of the very highest 

 importance for any future agricultural progress or prosperity. 



This work has comparatively little to do with a Department 

 of Agriculture; it is simply a preliminary to any real progressive 

 agriculture in the country. In the present virgin condition of 

 so much of most tropical countries, this kind of work is easily 

 carried out ; in this respect they have an enormous advantage 

 over most eastern countries, where every inch of land is often 



