xx Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



whether it would be possible to carry the 

 beginner's training far enough under the con- 

 ditions which obtain at home to enable him 

 to complete his knowledge in a thoroughly 

 satisfactory fashion when working on an estate. 

 This would be, in ninety-nine cases out of 

 every hundred, impossible as things are at 

 present, and that for reasons which must be 

 obvious. It is at this juncture, then, that a 

 properly placed and an adequately equipped 

 agricultural college in the Tropics would prove 

 of real service to the learner. What, then, is 

 wanted is the taking of immediate steps to see 

 that this idea of an agricultural college in the 

 Tropics let us say, for argument's sake, in 

 Ceylon is brought to fruition. In common 

 phrase, it is up to them (the leading men in 

 the tropical planting world) to make a move, 

 and, in our opinion, the sooner they do so the 

 better." 



With these remarks we cordially agree. In 

 ten years' time the romance, but not the possi- 

 bilities of assured incomes, will be knocked 

 out of tropical planting ; and then, if boys at 

 school and men at college are not trained from 

 the start to look to the Tropics as they now do 

 to the Church, Army, Navy, or the Bar as a 

 profitable method of earning a living, and if 

 they are not coached-up to follow such a 

 career, we can never expect to hold our own 

 against other nations in tropical development 

 and agriculture. 



