PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 513 



natural resources, with tbe aid of sucli technical advice as may be necessary from 

 manufacturers and users, and then, having established the fact that particular 

 products of value can be found or cultivated in a given country, to leave commercial 

 enterprise to do the rest. By action on these lines immense progress is being made 

 in French, German, and Dutch Possessions, whilst the United States Government 

 has taken similar action with tbe Philippines. In our own case, where this work 

 exists it is in most cases in a more or less embryonic condition, and lacks the 

 organisation which is necessary for success. 



In many of our Crown Colonies and Protectorates there already exist, or are in 

 the process of organisation, agricultural and other scientitic departments, many of 

 which include officers who are engaged in the work of e.xploring and developing 

 the vegetable resources of these countries especially by experimental planting. 

 Chemists are attached to some, but not to all of these departments. In the West 

 Indies tbe valuable work accomplished by Professor Harrison, Mr. Francis Watts, 

 Professor Albuquerque, Professor Carmody, and Mr. Cousins is well known, and 

 illustrates the great services which the science of chemistry may render, not only to 

 tropical agriculture, but to every branch of economic development. It is clearly 

 desirable that at least one scientific department should be attached to the Govern- 

 ment of each of the princip.al Crown Colonies and Protectorates. As a rule, 

 it is convenient that this should be an agricultural department with the 

 services of a scientific chemist at its disposal. In a tropical climate, and with 

 limited appliances at his command, it must be admitted that a chemist is severely 

 handicapped, and, as a rule, he cannot be expected at first to be able to do much 

 beyond the comparatively simple and preliminary work, chiefly analytical, which, 

 however, in a little known country is of the greatest importance to an agricul- 

 tural department. In addition, he would have to deal with the composition of 

 natural products of all kinds, both vegetable and mineral, as well as with the 

 improvement of native industries. If the chemist is able to refer complicated or 

 special investigations to a central department at home, and is provided with 

 assistance in the routine work, he would be in a position to undertake the 

 scientific investigation of a selection from the numerous problems with which a 

 chemist will be confronted. 



A chemist working in the spirit of an investigator will be able to render 

 special services to the cause of tropical agriculture, and it is therefore of import- 

 ance that in future the men appointed to these posts should be chosen as far as 

 possible on account of the promise they have shown as investigators. The deter- 

 mination of the constituents of little known indigenous plants as the first step 

 towards ascertaining their economic value is another department of work which 

 cannot be carried out without a chemist, find the same applies to the examina- 

 tion of poisonous plants, and also of minerals, in addition to the determination of 

 tbe composition of foods and feeding stuffs. 



Tropical agriculture is a subject which is now of the first importance, especially 

 in those countries in which our policy is to depend on a native population for the 

 actual cultivation of the soil. We have two functions to perform in our position 

 as supervisors : the one is to ascertain the nature and capabilities of the soil by 

 actual experiment, for which well-organised experimental stations are a necessary 

 part of every agricultural department ; the other duty is to convey to the 

 natives, chiefly by means of demonstration, the results of this (".^perimental 

 work, so that they maybe persuaded to make it a part cith'^ir agricultural' 

 practice. 



Work on these lines is being done under Government auspices m the French 

 and German Colonies, and I may allude to the French successes in Algeria, in 

 Senegal, and in the Sudan, and to the advances made by Germany in East Africa. 

 These achievements are mainly due to a policy of continuous scientific work on 

 agricultural lines. We shall have the privilege of hearing from Dr. Greshoff, the 

 eminent director of the Colonial Museum at Haarlem, an account of the chemical 

 investigations which are being carried out in connection with Java and the Dutch 

 East Indies, 



In many of our own Colonies and Protectorates active agricultural depart- 



1906. L h 



