ORGANIZATION OF RESEARCH WORK FOR TROPICAL 

 AGRICULTURE. 



By Dr. C. J. J. VAN HALL. 



Chief of the Division for Plant Diseases, Department of 

 Agriculture, Java. 



THE importance of scientific research is increasing 

 every year, and tropical countries which possess a well- 

 organized staff of able scientists, devoting themselves to 

 agricultural research work, are reaping important benefits. 



Until recently tropical agriculture was wholly based 

 upon empirical rules; planters as well as small proprietors 

 were using methods adopted from their predecessors and 

 their fathers. It gradually became recognized, however, 

 that scientific research was indispensable, and that it 

 could render the same important services to tropical 

 agriculture as it had done already to agriculture in 

 temperate climates. The entomologist was called to the 

 tropics to investigate the life-history of the noxious 

 insects and to find out methods of combating them. The 

 botanist was asked to investigate the plant diseases 

 caused by fungi or bacteria, and to find remedies. The 

 chemist was called in to give his help for manurial ex- 

 periments, for the analysis of fat and oil-containing 

 plants, and for investigating new methods of preparing 

 various products to improve their quality. The agrono- 

 mist had to begin his investigations on methods of plant- 

 ing, tillage, and pruning, on new varieties and their 

 practical value, on green manures, cover-crops, and shade 

 trees. The introduction of new plants and varieties 

 became an important field of investigation, and the great 

 importance of plant-breeding, so long neglected in the 

 tropics, was at length recognized. The geologist had to 

 give his help for the classification of soils and for finding 

 new methods for ascertaining their value. The bacterio- 

 logist could no longer be dispensed with when a thorough 

 investigation of the character of soils was wanted. On 



