and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— September, 1912. 245 



any voice in the regulation and direction of the 

 policy of scientific cultivation which an effort 

 is rightly enough being made to establish in 

 India ; for it is of fundamental importance that 

 the influence of this belief, which is far from 

 irrational, should be intelligently controlled. 

 If India is indeed ' an epitome of the whole 

 earth ' in presenting in different localities condi- 

 tions which obtain almost anywhere else on the 

 globe except the Arctic regions, the fact also 

 presents the difficulty of realising variations 

 in the treatment of conditions prevailing in 

 different places, and as a preliminary to such 

 realisation, a careful study of differential 

 phenomena. From whatever plane Indian phe- 

 nomena be studied, the truth is forced on 

 all reflecting minds that study must precede 

 action anywhere, not only because premature 

 misdirection of effort costs money and en- 

 tails loss of time, but also because it is very 

 difficult to convey to self-opinionated re- 

 formers a true sense of their mistakes, and 

 to secure a reversal of any course once set 

 rolling. The fact is that the secrets of nature 

 have not been sufficiently wrested by art to 

 enable science to fathom the rationale of the 

 processes by whioh nature recuperates herself ; 

 and though no farmer or gardener refuses the 

 help of phosphorus or nitrogen in any form, 

 which will increase his produce or swell his 

 profits, the farmer and gardener, who have 

 learned something of the way in which nature 

 reeupeiates herself by rotation, secures both 

 the results just mentioned in quicker time and 

 at less than his competitor who flies to 

 art while ignoring nature. The last point need- 

 ing to be touched on in the present connection 

 is the introduction of mechanical appliances into 

 agriculture and even horticulture. How many 

 of the practical experts and theoretical specul- 

 ators, who have not merely endeavoured to 

 study cultivation in its various aspects, but also 

 dogmatised oq the subject, have ever fairly 

 realised the two facts that (a) the impulses under 

 which reform invades any sphere usually give 

 much of its whole future complexion and turn 

 to any industry, and (6) that the pre- 

 ponderating impulse which has replaced 

 manual labour with mechanical appliances in 

 England has found its origin in the abandon- 

 ment of rural areas for city life ? Now this last 

 fact does not exactly connote scarcity of labour, 

 for the miseries of unskilled labour in London, 

 Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow tell a diffe- 

 rent tale. But it does mean that rural areas 

 have been depleted during the last century, 

 which hag witnessed the largest substitution of 



mechanical energy for manual labour ; and that 

 in this respect India differs, as poles asunder, 

 from Britain. Mechanical industry is, indeed, 

 owing to better pay, drawing crowds to factories 

 and mines ; but the supply is still superabun- 

 dant ; and, not only because commercialism is 

 the dominant factor of modern industry, but 

 also for deeper, political, social and moral rea- 

 sons, somewhat different types of mechanical 

 energy may be needed for India than some 

 of those applied to Europe, nor may the 

 proper extent of the substitution, and its true 

 scope, as yet be safely considered a solved 

 problem." 



COCONUTS. 



The Consols of the East.* 

 This publication covers more ground than any 

 other publication on coconuts and refers to its 

 cultivation in the whole of the Tropical World. 

 It has besides special chapters on the manufac- 

 ture of copra, catchcrops, subsidiary industries, 

 manuring, prevention of pests, and last, though 

 not the least important, the maintenance of 

 health in the Tropics. 



The foreword is by Sir W H Lever, Bt., who has 

 very large interests in coconuts in the Pacific 

 and elsewhere. He shows unbounded faith in 

 the present and future of coconuts. The foreword 

 should be carefully read and studied by all those 

 who have any interest whatever in coconut culti- 

 vation. According to him, "the amount of capi- 

 tal required to become the possessor of a rich 

 coconut plantation, should not exceed £10 or £12 

 per acre including every expense excepting the 

 planter's own labour and interest on capital." This 

 is cot very explicit. Perhaps the worthy Baronet 

 means the cost of planting up a coconut estate. 

 Does he mean at the end of the first year or 

 when ? There will be a wild rush for coconut 

 estates if people can become possessors of "rioh 

 coconut plantations " at £ 10 or £12 the acre. 



A further inducement for would-be investors 

 is his statement that ''the net income to be 

 derived from an aire of fuily bearing cocounts 

 would be £10 per annum." Thi6 too is too gene- 

 ral. On what capital expenditure per acre and 

 with what crops? I had always been asked by 



S( Cooojsdts : the Consols of the East — with 

 special sections on their cultivation and many 

 illustrations by H. flamel Smith and E A G 

 Pape, with foreword by Sir W H Lever, Bt., 

 London: "Tropical Life" Publishing Dept., 

 83 91,Great Titqhfieldd 8treet,Oxford Street, W, 



