53 
be a man of experience in the practice of tropical 
agriculture, with such a knowledge of the sciences on 
which the practice of agriculture depends as will enable 
him to understand when and how to call to his assist- 
ance the members of his staff who are specialists in 
those sciences. He must also possess administrative 
ability and the power of organization. Without this 
link in the Head of the Department between the scien- 
tific staff and the practical agriculturists of the country, 
whether native or European, the Department will lack 
effectiveness. A mere assemblage of specialists without 
a leader versed in agriculture will fail to effect that 
influence on the advancement of the agriculture of a 
country which is one of the most essential and at the 
same time one of the most difficult functions of a 
Government Department. It sometimes happens that 
a specialist, it may be a botanist, a chemist, or an 
entomologist, has sufficient interest in agricultural 
practice to make it his study, and if he also possesses 
other qualifications he becomes a distinguished Director 
of Agriculture. There are several examples in the 
British Colonies of such men who have done and 
are doing eminent service for the advancement of agri- 
culture in their respective countries. These, however, 
are brillian 10 e rule that a definite system 
of cabana eg ane pa is better 
than a want of system in which the right man may 
eventually emerge by chance. Much the same siate 
of affairs which exists in British countries has until 
lately been the rule in other parts of the tropics. It 
is clear, however, that everywhere the movement is now 
towards a more systematic plan which only needs the 
provision, through the establishment of a Central 
College, of the means of technical education in order to 
secure its general adoption. 
The problem of securing as head of an Agricultural 
Department a man with a broad outlook as well as ad- 
ministrative ability has found a different solution in 
India. In India the head of a Provincial Department, 
called Director of Agriculture, is a member of the 
Indian Civil Service, usually without any knowledge 
either of agriculture or of any of the sciences on which 
it depends. He has complete control of the Department 
