82. EXPLOITATION OF PLANTS 
petition begins to be involved to a very serious degree, 
and each country wants to equip its agriculturists to the 
best advantage. New varieties, suited to the local 
conditions, can be produced by breeders trained in the 
principles of Mendelism. Mycologists and entomo- 
logists can aid in the suppression or extermination of 
the many diseases to which agriculturists owe such great 
losses. Bacteriologists can investigate -soil problems, 
chemists the same, and both can work at the numerous 
problems which turn up in finding out the best methods 
of preparing such crops as rubber or tea. Engineers can 
work at the improvement of machinery, whether the 
larger machinery of the capitalist or the small tools of 
the small cultivator. All these improvements apply 
chiefly to the capitalist agriculturist, but the small man 
can also be helped, especially by the provision and 
encouragement of co-operative credit societies, which 
may help him to get free of the incubus of debt, and 
ultimately bring him into what we term the capitalist 
class of agriculturist. The day of science as applied 
to tropical agriculture is dawning, and we may hope 
to see great results. The tropics provide an immense 
area of rich and unused land, and their proper exploita- 
tion will not only provide for an enormous native popula- 
tion, but will supply the wants of the colder zones in a 
way that has never hitherto been dreamed of, 
