THE NECESSITY OF ESTABLISHING A BRITISH AGRICUL- 

 TURAL COLLEGE IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. 



By HAROLD HAMEL SMITH, Editor of "Tropical Life.'' 

 [ABSTRACT.] 



I am not urging the claims of the West Indies as a com- 

 petitor with Ceylon, but because I am certain that, if the 

 United Kingdom means to enjoy that share of the ever- 

 increasing commerce of Latin-America to which it is entitkd, 

 we must have two colleges, one in the East, say in Ceylon, and 

 one in the West, say in Trinidad. 



Estimates as to the cost of a college, as well as of the annual 

 amount necessary for its upkeep, vary, but our esteemed 

 President, Professor Dunstan, estimated that 50,000 would 

 be needed to place the Ceylon College on a secure basis. If 

 it is so in the East, it certainly would be so out West, and this 

 means that someone has to put down a hundred thousand 

 sterling to establish two colleges. Those who do so will get 

 better value for their money than even the shareholders receive 

 in any three of the best paying rubber estates, although they 

 have already got back their capital several times over. There 

 is, of course, only one source from which such a sum can 

 come, namely, the general public, who will benefit by the 

 establishment of the two colleges in every possible way, both 

 as regards the assurance of increased supplies of raw materials 

 for their factories, as well as the large shipments of food- 

 stuffs which we now draw weekly and daily from the tropics, 

 and without which the bulk of the population in this country 

 and the world generally would find it difficult, if not impossible, 

 to exist for more than a few months. The importance, there- 

 fore, of scientifically training tropical agricultural experts and 

 planters is not confined to any one country, but is quite inter- 

 national in character. 



Before going on to discuss the class of student that I am 

 hoping to see make use of these colleges, I would like to call 

 your attention to the fact that, according to the South 

 American Journal, we have 1,001,756,565 sterling invested in 

 Latin-America, and we need, therefore, a largely increased 

 number of planting and trading experts out there to control 

 and make good use of this huge sum to the advantage of this 

 country. 



A strong point also in favour of a second college to be 

 established in the West Indies is the fact that experts and 

 planters going to West Africa could well be trained there, 

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