40 



their technical and commercial aspects. The Imperial 

 Institute during recent years has been identified with 

 investigations and reports chiefly as to the value for 

 technical and commercial purposes of tropical agricul- 

 tural products of all kinds. A large staff of men who 

 have specialized in these products and their uses are at 

 work in the laboratories of the Scientific and Technical 

 Department. 



The Institute is in communication with Agricul- 

 tural Departments in India and the Colonies on all 

 these subjects, as well as with manufacturers and users 

 of tropical materials at home and abroad, for whose 

 benefit classified sample rooms are maintained, and the 

 important products of the British tropics exhibited in 

 the Public Galleries. 



The Imperial Institute is also called upon to afford 

 special information respecting every aspect of tropical 

 agriculture and its products, which it is specially 

 qualified to procure and supply through its communi- 

 cations, both with the countries concerned and with 

 manufacturers. Much of the information thus collected 

 hitherto has been published from time to time in the 

 quarterly Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, and in 

 special reports, also published. The work has, how- 

 ever, now grown to an extent which requires a separate 

 organization to cope with it, and this is now being 

 arranged. It is to be known as the Technical Informa- 

 tion Bureau, and it will serve as a centre from which 

 trustworthy information with reference to the production 

 and utilization of tropical agricultural materials of all 

 kinds will be issued, and the Bureau will from time to 

 time publish reports for the benefit of the agriculturist 

 in the tropics as well as of the manufacturer at home. 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE. 



I desire now to pass to a subject of great importance 

 to this Congress as vitally affecting both the status and 

 the achievements of tropical agriculture. I refer to the 

 provision of technical education for those who desire to 

 make tropical agriculture the work of their lives. The 

 subject is one which is claiming the consideration of all 

 nations with interests in the tropics, and more especially 



