NATURE 



313 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1893. 



I 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE. 

 A Text-book of Tropical Agriculture. By H. A. Alford 

 Nicholls, M.D., F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., with illustrations, 

 pp. 313. (London : Macmilian and Co., 1892.) 



THIS text-book is the English, edition of a work that 

 has already received high commendation from the 

 Government of Jamaica. The Government of this now 

 prosperous colony, in pursuance of a policy (which may 

 well be followed by other colonies) offered a premium of 

 one hundred pounds for the best text-book of Tropical 

 Agriculture adapted for the use of colleges and higher 

 schools in the colony. The award was made to Dr. 

 NichoUs's manuscript, and after the publication of the 

 work in Jamaica it was adopted also as a text-book by 

 the Government of other colonies, so that its value has 

 been practically estimated beforehand. The author's 

 qualifications for the task he has undertaken may be 

 gathered from the following : — 



" Twelve years ago, when he had to direct his attention 

 to tropical agriculture, there was no practical book that 

 he could turn to for help in all the difficulties that were 

 constantly cropping up in his path. Knowing, therefore, 

 the obstacles that usually beset the inexperienced planter 

 who is not content to follow the old grooves of unscien- 

 tific agriculture, the author has so written the second part 

 <if this book as to afford the information he needed greatly 

 in his own planting novitiate. This has rendered it 

 necessary to enter into details, which to the experienced 

 agriculturist may appear superfluous, but the book is 

 really intended as a guide to the young and unlearned to 

 whom such details are likely to be of essential service." 



As an introduction to tropical agriculture this book 

 supplies a want long felt. There are several works of a 

 technical character treating of old and well-established 

 industries such as sugar, tea, coffee, cacao. None of 

 these, however, could be adopted as text-books in schools. 

 Indeed they all presuppose such a close acquaintance 

 with the principles and terminology of tropical agricul- 

 ture that they appeal to a very limited class of readers. 

 Hitherto, tropical agriculture, to a large extent, has 

 borrowed most of its methods from the agriculture 

 of temperate climates and adapt them, as well as it 

 could, to the very different circumstances of the torrid 

 zone. The result has been by no means satisfactory. In 

 tropical regions effects follow cause so rapidly that 

 methods admirably adapted to the cold, sluggish 

 climates of northern countries are most injurious 

 when too closely followed in the tropics. As instances 

 we may cite the serious effects on climate following the 

 extensive cutting down of forests, and the wholesale 

 washing away of surface soil from land under per- 

 manent cultivation by the destructive influences of trop- 

 ical rains. The merit of Dr. NichoUs's book lies in the 

 fact that its precepts are directly based on his own 

 experience, and he appeals so effectively to the intelli- 

 gence of his readers that they cannot fail to be instructed. 

 The work is divided into two parts: — Part I. deals with 

 the elementary principles of agricultural science and dis- 

 cusses amongst other subjects the origin and composition 

 of soils, the nature of plant life, the controlling influence 

 NO. I 2 14, VOL. 47] 



of climate, the action and constituents of manures, the 

 rotation of crops, the drainage of soils, irrigation, tillage 

 operations, pruning, budding, and grafting. In Part 11, 

 there is treated the application of these principles to some 

 of the chief of the various cultivations undertaken in tropi> 

 cal countries. As examples we may mention that there 

 are detailed accounts given of the methods found most 

 successful in the cultivation of coffee, cacao, tea, sugar- 

 cane, fruits, spices, tobacco, drugs, dyes, tropical cereals, 

 and such food plants as cassava, arrowroot, yams, sweet 

 potato, tania (Colocasia). 



The book is intended also, according to the preface, 

 to be of service to peasant proprietors, owners of small 

 estates, and to those [European] settlers who from time 

 to time may wish to make their homes in the tropics. 

 It is just these people who are now building up the new 

 prosperity of the West Indies by means of what are 

 called " minor industries " or la petite culture — which the 

 French have found so remunerative in many of their 

 colonies. To guide and instruct the mass of small culti- 

 vators in the West Indies has been the dream of the 

 most enlightened Governors, such as Sir John Peter 

 Grant, Sir Anthony Musgrave, Sir William Robinson, 

 a nd others that have ruled there for the last thirty years. 

 The intelligent settlers of European origin can very well 

 take care of themselves : but the mass of the small culti- 

 vators are black people. They have, it is true, received 

 some education, and they are not wanting in intelligence 

 in regard to what concerns their own interests, but their 

 methods of cultivation have, hitherto, been of the rudest 

 and most destructive description. They crop the land 

 year after year without any manuring, and when it is 

 thoroughly exhausted they move on, when they can, to 

 fresh land, and treat that in exactly the same way. Thus 

 in the black man's system of cultivation the rotation is 

 of land, and not of crops, and the future has to take care 

 of itself. This is a relic of the times of slavery, when 

 the negroes were allowed as much land as they cared 

 for — ^out of reach of sugar cultivation— to grow provisions 

 for their own subsistence. It is now necessary to change 

 the whole character of the black man's cultural methods, 

 or the rich and fertile lands still left in the West Indies 

 will be absolutely ruined. Generally only the lowest class 

 of negroes have hitherto been attracted to field work. The 

 education given to these people is responsible for 

 something of this result, for it leads them, in too many 

 cases, to regard labour in the field as degrading, and 

 almost a return to a state of slavery. The sharper and 

 more intelligent boys, when they leave school, are drawn 

 away to seek a precarious existence as clerks in stores or 

 as small shopkeepers, where they seldom do more than 

 copy the weaknesses and vices of the whites, while, 

 according to our author, if they took to the land, and had 

 a right understanding of agricultural methods, they •' need 

 never despair of becoming prosperous." In the more 

 advanced colonies, such as Jamaica, there is a disposi- 

 tion to establish industrial schools and train the younger 

 generation in approved methods of cultivation, and lead 

 them to regard the tillage of the soil as a more honourable 

 and remunerative occupation than petty trading. We may 

 hope that the claims of industrial education will become 

 more widely recognized, not only in the West Indies but in 

 all our tropical colonies where native races have to be dealt 



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