A TEXT-BOOK 



OF 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTION 



AGRICULTURE is a compound word, made up of two Latin 

 words (ager, a field, and cultura, cultivation, meaning the means. 

 cultivation of the soil) ; but, like many other foreign words 

 now forming part of the English language, it means more 

 than its two Latin roots, taken by themselves, would lead 

 one to suppose. By Agriculture is meant, then, the art 

 of cultivating or tilling the soil so as to make it give the 

 largest possible quantity of vegetable produce for the use of 

 man and domesticated animals. 



From the earliest times in the history of the world, man Agriculture 



an important 



has tilled the soil, and Agriculture has always been con- and noble 

 sidered one of the noblest and most useful occupations of pr 

 mankind. Baron Liebig, the great Agricultural Chemist, 

 said, " There is no profession which can be compared in 

 importance with that of Agriculture, for to it belongs the 

 production of food for man and for animals ; on it depends 

 the welfare and development of the whole human species, 

 the riches of states, and all industry, manufacturing and 

 commercial. There is no profession in which the applica- 

 tion of correct principles is productive of more beneficial 



B 3 



