X, A, 2 Reviews 173 



to minimize the great importance of local experience. On the 

 contrary, in his preface he remarks: "This does not mean that 

 the intention of the book is to teach the reader cocoa-planting, 

 and it is not expected that anyone unacquainted with cocoa- 

 culture will become a cocoa-planter by reading the book from 

 beginning to end." Again, he remarks very aptly that "often 

 the practical man knows hoiv he has to treat his trees or his 

 soil in order to get his best result, but not ivhy." He further 

 explains that there are many things which "cannot be learned 

 in the field," and this is a point sometimes lost sight of by some 

 too obstinately "practical" men — men who still harbor the an- 

 tiquated falsity that any line can be drawn between "science" 

 and "practice." 



In Doctor van Hall's full account of the development of cacao 

 culture in many countries one finds of very live interest the 

 description of the peculiar methods of culture in Surinam, and 

 the story of the growth of the industry in the Gold Coast. In 

 the latter country we probably have one of the most remarkable 

 examples in existence of the possible influence of foreigners 

 upon the agricultural development of an essentially primitive 

 people. In 1901, 80 kilograms of cacao were exported from 

 the Gold Coast. In 1911 the country produced more than 

 40,000,000 kilograms; however, this does not mean the result of 

 investment of large capital, but development of the common 

 people. This evidence of real results in practical colonial agri- 

 cultural development is one to which we can unfortunately offer 

 no remote parallel in the Philippines, where the people possess 

 a country naturally adapted to cacao, but where they do not 

 yet produce enough to supply their own local needs, and this 

 nearly two hundred fifty years after its successful introduction ! 

 A thousand copies, at least, of Doctor van Hall's book should 

 find readers in the Philippines. 



Doctor Copeland's book is a splendid example of scholarly 

 and scientific treatment. It is, perhaps, the best case extant 

 in a work on any single major tropical crop of the application 

 of modern biological methods to all the details of the agro- 

 nomical side of the subject. An innovation in this work, of the 

 highest possible importance, consists of a thorough considera- 

 tion of the physiology of the coconut tree. There is no doubt 

 but that this will prove an epoch-marking event for the agron- 

 omy of all crops and of all countries. We would have little re- 

 spect for a system of medicine, or confidence in its methods, in 

 which there was no provision for thorough technical study of the 



