65 
THE NECESSITY OF ESTABLISHING A BRITISH AGRICUL- 
TURAL COLLEGE IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. 
By Harotp Hamet Smiru, Editor of ‘ Tropical Life.” 
[ ABSTRACT. | 
I am not urging the claims of the West Indies as a com- 
petitor with Ceylon, but because I am certain that, if the 
United Kingdom means to enjoy that share of the ever- 
increasing commerce of Latin-America to which it is entitled, 
we must have two colleges, one in the East, say in Ceylon, and 
one in the West, say in Trinidad. 
Estimates as to the cost of a college, as well as of the annual 
amount necessary for its upkeep, vary, but our esteemed 
President, Professor Dunstan, estimated that £50,000 would 
be needed to place the Ceylon College on a secure basis. If 
it is so in the East, it certainly would be so out West, and this 
means that someone has to put down a hundred thousand 
sterling to establish two colleges. Those who do so will get 
better value for their money than even the shareholders receive 
in any three of the best paying rubber estates, although they 
have already got back their capital several times over. There 
is, of course, only one source from which such a sum can 
come, namely, the gereral public, who will benefit by the 
establishment of the two colleges in every possible way, both 
as regards the assurance of increased supplies of raw materials 
for their factories, as well as the large shipments of food- 
stuffs which we now draw weekly and daily from the tropics, 
and without which the bulk of the population in this country 
and the world generally would find it difficult, if not impossible, 
to exist for more than a few months. The importance, there- 
fore, of scientifically training tropical agricultural experts and 
planters is not confined to any one country, but is quite inter- 
national in character. 
Before going on to discuss the class of student that I am 
hoping to see make use of these colleges, I would like to call 
your attention to the fact that, according to the South 
American Journal, we have £1,001,756,565 sterling invested in 
Latin-America, and we need, therefore, a largely increased 
number of planting and trading experts out there to control 
and make good use of this huge sum to the advantage of this 
country. 
A strong point also in favour of a second college to be 
established in the West Indies is the fact that experts and 
planters going to West Africa could well be trained there, 
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