March 22, 1906] 



NA TURE 



489 



need of Government aid in regard to research. Its 

 theoretical principles can be taught in our universi- 

 ties and schools; its practice can only be learnt on 

 the farm. While saying this I must also express 

 my conviction that the agricultural wealth of this 

 country might be increased in many ways. In my 

 evidence before the recent departmental committee 

 on fruit culture I expressed a strong opinion that the 

 condition of that industry was in no way creditable 

 to us. 



At the moment, where, so to speak, the shoe pinches 

 is not above but below. There is no dearth of scien- 

 tific knowledge in the country, but it floats pn the 

 surface and does not permeate. The scientific and 

 even practical ignorance of the small cultivator is 

 profound. The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 

 has tried to grapple with this by the wholesale dis- 

 tribution of carefully prepared leaflets. But such a 

 method of disseminating knowledge is of almost 

 heart-breaking difficulty. I have had prepared at 

 Kew a series of diagrams illustrating the diseases of 

 trees, suitable for schools. The Daily Graphic was 

 good enough to say that : — " This publication is equal 

 to the very best of those ever sent out by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture." Yet the sale has 

 been disappointing, and the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries does not see its way in consequence to 

 proceed with the further and still more needed series 

 dealing with the diseases of fruit trees. The crying 

 need, in my judgment, at the moment is the intro- 

 duction of intelligent cultural instruction into rural 

 elementary schools. 



If we turn to India we have to face a difficult 

 problem. The revenue is dependent on the land, and 

 this in turn has to support a constantly increasing 

 population. It has been supposed that this might 

 be met by the use of British methods. But how? 

 Sir James Caird, who was sent out to study the 

 problem on the spot, reported that if the produce of 

 the land could be increased by i bushel per acre, all 

 would be well. No doubt ; but how is this intensive 

 cultivation to be accomplished? Long cultivation has 

 brought the land down to a condition of nitrogen- 

 equilibrium. Dung is used as fuel, and the cultivator 

 is too poor to import artificial manures. 



In 1900 I attended a conference at the India Office 

 on the qualifications of an Inspector-General of Agri- 

 culture. The report of the proceedings is printed in 

 the Blue-book of the Botanical Work Committee 

 (pp. 77-78). I stated then, and the statement met 

 with general assent, " It would be the greatest mis- 

 take to substitute for Indian agricultural practices 

 western methods, merely because they had succeeded 

 in the west. . . . The problem in India was how best 

 to graft the results of scientific agricultural knowledge 

 on to the stock (the really valuable stock) of Indian 

 agricultural practice and experience." 



India has long had experimental farms in plenty. 

 They have not been without their usefulness. But 

 they have lacked permanence and a guiding principle. 

 It now owes in great measure to the munificence of 

 an American gentleman an agricultural research 

 institute at Pusa. It is further, I believe, intended to 

 establish a number of subordinate stations at a cost 

 of 250,000^ If these are to be staffed from home 

 fortliwith, the result will be very much what the 

 Transvaal Director of Agriculture points out. The 

 Government of India should at once make up its 

 mind what appointments it proposes ultimately to 

 make, and inform the universities at home five 

 years in advance. Students at the universities cannot 

 be expected to engage in agricultural or allied studies 

 unless they see clearly what is to come of it at the 

 end. 



NO. 1899, VOL. 73] 



Let me turn now to the problem presented by the 

 West Indies and other of our tropical possessions. 

 Sir Daniel Morris is quoted as saying in regard to 

 the former: — "Agricultural education is at the root 

 of the successful development of these Colonies." 

 This is perfectly true, only I rather doubt whether the 

 writer of the article quite understood the reason. In 

 temperate countries agriculture is a necessity of exist- 

 ence ; in many tropical countries it is not. The waste- 

 ful production of a few ground provisions calls for the 

 minimum of effort, and is sufficient to sustain indo- 

 lence. But with the introduction of orderly govern- 

 ment a revenue becomes necessary. Sir Charles 

 Bruce has laid it down that " in the Crown Colonies 

 generally . . . the only taxable fund is the wage 

 fund supplied by the annual proceeds of the cultivation 

 of the land" (Proc. Colonial Institute, vol. xxxvi., 

 p. 248). To induce the negro to engage in profitable 

 cultivation instead of contenting himself with a bare 

 modicum of ground provisions provides a source of 

 revenue, raises his standard of comfort, and makes 

 for his moral progress. But he has to be taught by 

 example how to do it, and this is the agricultural 

 education which Sir Daniel Morris had in his mind. 

 It is widely different from anything of the kind in 

 this country. 



In point of fact, tropical agriculture has little re- 

 lation to that of temperate countries. Its methods are 

 those of horticulture ; it is essentially extended garden- 

 ing. For the supply of men for this purpose our 

 agricultural colleges would be of little or no use. The 

 problem has had to be met in a wholly different way. 

 The machinery for the purpose is compendiously de- 

 scribed in the following extract from the Colonial 

 Office List (p. xx.) : — " ' Botanic Stations ' ... are 

 small and inexpensive gardens, devised in 1S85. in 

 order to afford practical instruction in the cultivation 

 of tropical crops, and were intended to develop the 

 agricultural resources at first of the smaller West 

 Indian Islands, and subsequently (1887) of British 

 possessions in Tropical Africa. Each is in charge 

 of a Curator, who is a gardener trained at Kew." 



The sort of success that has attended the system 

 may be illustrated by a single example. Cacao was 

 introduced to the Gold Coast from Kew. In 1S91 the 

 export was valued at 4/. In 1900 I was able to exhibit 

 at the Paris Exhibition from the botanic station the 

 first sample, to the best of my belief, grown on the 

 African continent, when it received a bronze medal. 

 In 1904 the export had risen to a value of more than 

 2oo,oooZ. In effect, cacao is exchanged for imported 

 goods; besides thus adding to the comfort of the 

 cultivators, it enables them to pay the taxes necessary 

 to maintain peaceful government. 



For work of this kind the Empire has to depend 

 on Kew, which is organised for the purpose as an 

 advanced horticultural school. At the present moment 

 some seventy Kew men are in official employment 

 and carrying on the work I have described in our 

 various tropical colonies and possessions. 



But besides native peasant cultures British capital 

 and enterprise are also largely embarked in the 

 tropical regions of the Empire in " planting indus- 

 tries." These meet with difficulties which the local 

 Government can and does supply skilled aid to 

 mitigate. Most of the West Indian colonies have a 

 " Government analyst." Cambridge has secured the 

 traditional right to train and supply these. In- 

 cidentally they are able to give important aid in deal- 

 ing with agricultural problems. The value of the 

 work done by Prof. Harrison in British Guiana and 

 Prof, d 'Albuquerque in Barbados can hardly be over- 

 estimated. 



Cevlon possesses an almost unique staff of trained 



