4 TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



in each country, that, wherever the college be situated, 

 undue attention should not be given to the local needs. 

 It has been suggested that two colleges shall be founded, 

 one in the West and the other in the East Indies; but, 

 although the course of training would be similar in each, 

 the relative value of each branch of instruction must vary 

 in accordance with the requirements of the zones to which 

 each college is intended to contribute trained men. 



The West Indian College should undertake the training 

 for the whole of the West India Islands and British 

 Guiana, for which there need hardly be any great 

 diversity in the course; but the college having its centre 

 in the East Indies would be obliged to deal with a much 

 greater number of subjects. From the latter college 

 students might be required to qualify in the special 

 agricultural and plantation methods employed in India, 

 Ceylon, Malay States, Borneo, East, Central, and West 

 Africa, and the Sudan. 



It has been suggested that Ceylon offers the most 

 suitable site for the Eastern College, and there are, indeed, 

 many advantages in support of this selection. It is assumed 

 that, as every British Colony or Protectorate would stand 

 to gain by the establishment of a superior tropical agri- 

 cultural college, contributions towards the foundation of 

 the same would be made by each Colony, supplemented 

 by one from the Imperial Government. Associations and 

 mercantile firms having interests in plantations in the 

 tropics would also be expected to contribute. In the 

 event of Ceylon being chosen in these circumstances as 

 the site of the college, special care would have to be taken 

 not to allow the teaching of subjects specially adapted 

 to the requirements of students in training for posts in 

 Ceylon itself to be laid down in the curriculum so as to 

 exclude or supersede those which might be necessary for 

 India or Africa. 



In comparing the important plantation products from 

 the countries which would be included in the Eastern 

 College zone, it will be readily seen that there is consider- 

 able variation : 



CEYLON. Tea, rubber, cinchona, coffee, cocoa, and 

 copra. 



