* PREFACE 



had been obtained in Oklahoma he would question the state- 

 ment at once even if he had never been in Oklahoma. But 

 if the same farmer should read that 6,000 avocados were 

 borne on a single tree, or that a vanilla plantation yielded 

 15 tons of vanilla beans per acre, he might be bowled over 

 by the news, but he would probably have no basis in experi- 

 ence or knowledge for denying the statement. I have tried 

 to present the important facts of tropical agriculture with- 

 out the glamor of romance, but I hope the account will be 

 none the less interesting to the general reader. 



No one who has long lived in the Tropics can ever forget, 

 and few can resist, the call to return where snows and the 

 other discomforts of northern winters are mere memories of 

 less favored climates. The multitude of curious fruits, the 

 brilliant butterflies, the gorgeous birds, the flowering trees, 

 the endless summer, the coral islands, the jungles, the 

 strange peoples and their still stranger customs all these 

 are woven into the life and literature of the Tropics. In 

 fact, we can almost forgive the early writers on the Tropics 

 for their exaggerations. But sufficient romance still lingers 

 about the picture of the Tropics even when viewed in the 

 full light of day. 



The personal contact of the writer with the subject matter 

 of this volume was gained during a residence of more than 

 six years in Hawaii in charge of the Hawaii Agricultural 

 Experiment Station and by visits to California, Florida, and 

 Cuba. Hawaii is sometimes called the crossroads of the 

 Pacific. Every ship that calls at Honolulu carries one or 

 more agricultural experts. They come from Formosa, the 

 Philippines, Java, Malaya, Ceylon, India, Fiji, Australia, 

 Mauritius, Egypt, the Congo, the West Indias, Mexico, and 

 elsewhere. Opportunity was thus had to discuss the prog- 

 ress of agriculture with men from all pci.ts of the tropical 

 world. 



The purpose of this book is to stimulate an interest in 



