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his training will have to be on a little higher level. But what 

 is mostly occupying our mind's to-day is the higher training 

 in tropical agriculture, and that, I think, is what we under- 

 stand by that term here in this country. Now I do not pro- 

 pose to-day to enter into any discussion, or to say anything 

 with regard to the rival claims of the East (which in this 

 matter of a tropical agricultural college is principally repre- 

 sented, I think, by Ceylon) and of the West Indies. Our 

 President to-day in his address, as I say, really put the matter 

 in its proper perspective, which amounted to this : We have 

 to consider not only the interests of Ceylon, or of the West 

 Indies, or of any other country, -but the interests of the student 

 who goes out from this country, or from Europe, and we have 

 to decide where he is likely to get the best education in 

 tropical agriculture; and, of courae, when you have to deal 

 with young men of tender years, you must also consider the 

 question of health. We in Ceylon are quite content to leave 

 the matter there, and we are quite certain that when we con- 

 sider the variety of products which are grown in Ceylon, not 

 merely in experiment stations, but by practical men running 

 their plantations on a business footing and making money out 

 of them, there is no country in the world with the advantages 

 that Ceylon can offer. Then you have also to consider the 

 matter of transport. Transport in some countries, especially 

 for instance in Africa, is slow and laborious. In the West 

 Indies you have the disadvantage of the islands being separated 

 by wide seas. Now Professor Dunstan referred to Peradeniya 

 this morning, and Peradeniya, which is the projected site of 

 the College of Agriculture in Ceylon, is in the centre of the 

 planting industry there. There is no pliantation in Ceylon for 

 rubber, or tea, or cocoa, or coconuts, or citronella, or any- 

 thing else, which cannot be reached in one day from Pera- 

 deniya. I do not know whether you can say so much as that 

 of any other part of the world. Mr. Hamel Smith, I think, 

 referred to the West Indies as possessing a large and compre- 

 hensive variety of products cultivated on a plantation scale, 

 but I do not think that the West Indies can compare with 

 Ceylon in this respect. There is no tea there, for example, 

 and I do not think their rubber industry, at any rate yet, has 

 reached the practical, progressive, and successful stage which 

 it has in- the East. As far as fertility of soil goes, I do not 

 know whether we could not quote figures to show that we 

 in the East can produce crops equal to those of the West 

 Indies. Now, gentlemen, I should like just to mention to 

 you one or two points which have occurred to me in consider- 

 ing this question of a College of Tropical Agriculture. In 

 Ceylon we have our plans prepared, we have our site selected, 



