77 
and give instruction as to how the work is to be done, and 
they, in conjunction with one or two others, judge the work 
at the end of the year. The results have been so very satis- 
factory that it is our intention, as soon as we are able to 
provide other instructors, to extend that system to the whole 
of the island. The improvement in cocoa cultivation and cocoa 
estate sanitation since the introduction of this prize system has 
been very marked and very gratifying to the Board of 
Agriculture, which provides the prizes. 
M. E. Leprar (Director-General of Agriculture, Colonial 
Office, Belgium): Mr. President and’ Gentlemen—lI wish to say 
that my Department has read with great interest all that has 
been said by the honourable President, and all that has been 
written in Tropical Life on the necessity of establishing 
agricultural colleges in the tropics. This subject is especially 
interesting to Belgians, as we are new-comers in the field of 
tropical agriculture, and have to learn everything in that 
respect from the older colonies. We sincerely regret that there 
is not at present for students a single high school of agri- 
culture in the tropics—a really astonishing fact considering 
that of the total value of exports of the tropical colonies, 75 
per cent., according to recent statistics, is derived from 
agriculture. There is a very small number of high schools of 
tropical agriculture, but they are all in Europe. A very 
similar situation prevailed some years ago with regard to 
the agriculture of sub-tropical countries, but there are now 
excellent schools in several of the French colonies, in the 
Southern States of America, in South Africa, in Egypt, in 
India, I believe, and in some other countries. How is it that 
the teaching of tropical agriculture in the tropics is still non- 
existent? First of all, the climate is a serious drawback, as a 
tropical school will assume a great responsibility as to the 
health of the students. Special care will have to be taken, 
and special accommodation and costly buildings will be needed. 
Then the teaching staff, if it is to be really efficient, will be 
very expensive. The first cost, and the upkeep, of the scientific 
equipment will be very high, and a consequence of all these 
expenses will be that the students will have to pay very high 
fees for board and tuition. However, a school of tropical 
agriculture—established in the tropics and in touch with 
up-to-date tropical plantations—would offer such advantages 
from a practical point of view that the high expense should be 
considered only with the purpose of finding a way to reduce it 
as much as possible. I beg to submit to this Congress a 
scheme that was discussed four years ago, when I was 
travelling in the Dutch colony of Java with Heer Lovink, the 
Director of Agriculture there. My-idea was to send a good 
