45 

 AN IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURE. 



What is now urgently required is an agricultural 

 college in the tropics to which men with the diploma 

 of an agricultural college at home can proceed, to 

 receive a technical education in the subject and 

 thoroughly qualify themselves for the profession of 

 tropical agriculture. 



In India agricultural colleges have been founded in 

 recent years, but the courses of instruction provided are 

 chiefly designed to meet the needs of native students, 

 and are not adapted to the purpose of the European 

 student, who comes equipped with some knowledge of 

 general agricultural principles. The same objection 

 applies to the otherwise excellent Agricultural College 

 at Giza in Egypt. In the Southern United States 

 of America several agricultural colleges exist in 

 which special courses are given in sub-tropical culti- 

 vation, and where the European student may gain 

 important knowledge respecting the problems of cotton 

 and maize, tobacco and sugar growing. These institu- 

 tions, not being situated within the tropical zone, do 

 not, however, afford all that special experience and 

 knowledge of certain crops which are essential for the 

 students whose needs are now being considered. 



No one who has studied this question in its many 

 aspects can doubt that great need exists for the 

 establishment within the British tropics of at least one 

 agricultural college, properly equipped with all the 

 facilities for instruction and research in the several 

 branches of tropical agriculture. Nor can it be doubted 

 that well-trained men with the diploma of such a college 

 will readily find remunerative employment. Beyond 

 the immediate requirements of the ordinary student such 

 a college should become a most important centre of 

 tropical agricultural research, not merely for its own 

 advanced students, but for trained investigators of 

 special subjects from all parts of the world, who would 

 there find ample materials and opportunities for their 

 researches. 



The question, therefore, is how best to realize the 

 conditions necessary for the establishment of such a 

 college. To begin with, it is essential to provide a 



