29 
as are also such important problems of general interest 
at the present time as the improvement of cotton culti- 
vation, the fertility of soils in the tropics, the production 
of fibres, and the preparation of plantation rubber. 
Sectional meetings will be devoted to the discussion of 
papers on each important group of agricultural pro- 
ducts, where also technical questions connected with 
soils and manures will be considered. 
Special papers on several subjects of general interest 
will also be given. 
The advancement of tropical agriculture must chiefly 
depend on the labours of the specialist, the practical 
agriculturist and the investigator, whose contributions 
form the groundwork of our Congress. It is, however, 
important that the directions of advance, the nature of 
the problems to be solved, and the methods which have 
to be followed in solving them, should be generally 
understood, and their great importance appreciated by 
two other classes in the community : by administrators 
and officials of Governments, and by manufacturers, 
merchants, and other users of the agricultural products 
of the tropics. 
The advance of tropical agriculture by scientific 
methods needs the interest and support of those who 
have the duty and responsibility of administering the 
Governments of tropical countries, as well as of the 
users of the raw materials, the representatives of the 
great manufacturing industries. For this reason the 
assistance in the work of the Congress has been secured 
of a number of distinguished Government representa- 
tives, and also of manufacturers, companies and firms 
who make use of tropical agricultural products. 
The list of Honorary Vice-Presidents will show that 
we have enlisted the interest and support for the 
Congress of a large number of distinguished Govern- 
ment representatives responsible for administration in 
the tropics. 
It has been also the endeavour to bring together 
scientific and practical authorities on tropical agricul- 
ture, representatives of the great tropical planting in- 
dustries, and representatives of the industrial and mer- 
cantile community concerned in the utilization of tropical 
agricultural products. In this I think we may claim 
