30 



to have been highly successful. We have a large 

 attendance of tropical agriculturists, scientific and prac- 

 tical, from nearly if not every country concerned. The 

 number of papers on technical subjects is nearly 200, 

 including within their scope almost every aspect of 

 tropical agriculture. It will not be possible indeed 

 within the week which is assigned to the Congress to get 

 through our work unless we can depend on the co- 

 operation of the many authors who are present in person 

 and on those who take part in the discussions in observ- 

 ing the utmost brevity in addressing the meetings, by 

 confining themselves to essential points, and remember- 

 ing that papers will be printed in the Transactions of 

 the Congress. 



As it is also hoped to print the principal contributions 

 to the discussions, those who take part in them are 

 requested to assist our work by sending to the Secre- 

 taries after the meetings succinct written reports of their 

 remarks. 



It has been decided to consider a selection of subjects 

 of general importance at General Meetings of the 

 Congress, and at certain of these meetings it has been 

 arranged for the chair to be occupied by well-known 

 representatives of Governments or of industries, to 

 whom the advancement of tropical agriculture is of vital 

 importance. The improvement of cotton cultivation is 

 to be considered at a General Meeting on June 29, 

 when, I am happy to announce, Lord Kitchener, 

 one of our Honorary Vice-Presidents, will take the 

 chair. Lord Kitchener represents a country in which 

 agriculture is the chief industry, and he has shown the 

 greatest interest in its advancement and that of the 

 great cotton growing industry in Egypt. Following a 

 discussion of problems connected with the preparation 

 and quality of plantation rubber a series of important 

 papers on rubber will be read at a meeting on June 25, 

 at which Sir Edward Rosling, formerly Member of the 

 Legislative Council and Chairman of the Planters' 

 Association of Ceylon, will be in the chair. Questions 

 connected with the cultivation of wheat and other cereals 

 will be discussed at a meeting on the same day, at 

 which Sir Louis Dane, lately Lieutenant-Governor of 

 the Punjab, will take the chair. Co-operative Credit 



