198 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. IV 



like that of Ceylon in tea. It is natural that any industry which 

 proves profitable should be somewhat overdone, but this will 

 adjust itself. The proper course is to aim at making a boom 

 in all forms of agriculture ; when the rush shows signs of being 

 too great, there will be time enough to put on the drag, if 

 necessary. 



It js clear, from what has been said above, that practically 

 all departments of Government are largely concerned in agri- 

 cultural progress. It follows therefore, that a Department of 

 Agriculture may have a very wide scope ; in fact, if it is to 

 concern itself with the control of all work bearing on agriculture, 

 it must obviously be almost synonymous with the Government 

 itself. This would seem both impracticable and inadvisable ; 

 the weakness in the agricultural organisation of many eastern 

 colonies seems to lie in the attempt to include too much in the 

 Agricultural Department. Probably the best course at present 

 is to have a department concerned with all the technical work 

 of agriculture, such as the introduction and trial of crops, 

 methods, machinery, etc., the study and prevention of disease, 

 and all other scientific help to agriculture that may be needed, 

 and for the head of that department to be the chief adviser 

 of the Government in all matters of agricultural policy, the 

 Government controlling all departments to a common end. 

 Thus road-provision or drainage should be carried out by the 

 Public Works or Irrigation departments, impelled thereto by 

 the Government after consideration of the recommendations 

 of the head of the Agricultural department. The latter de- 

 partment, again, is helpless to do much with the villager in a 

 district where the Government officer in charge may be opposed 

 to the ideas which it is wished to carry out, but the Government 

 can insist upon a definite and continuous policy. 



So many interests are concerned in agriculture, that -it is 

 desirable that they should be represented in some way in the 

 councils of the agricultural department, so that their recom- 

 mendations, opinions, and wishes may receive full consideration 

 before any important matter of policy is pressed upon Govern- 

 ment by the head of the department. This is probably best to 

 be effected by the formation of an advisory Board of Agriculture, 



