November, 1912.] 



391 



A COLLEGE OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURE. 



University of the Philippines 

 College of Agriculture, 

 Los Banos, October 22nd, 1912. 

 The Editor of the Tropical _ Agriculturist, 

 Colombo, Ceylon. 



Dear Sir,— I note in your issue of September, 191L2, pages 255 and 250, 

 some observations regarding] the need of a Tropical College of Agricul- 

 ture, and the] statement that "Neither Great Britain nor the United 

 States of America can he- said to have a Tropical Department worthy 

 by the name, attached to lany of their Agricultural Colleges." This is 

 probably literally true,. as the Philippines are not, strictly speaking, a 

 part of the United States, and the University of the Philippines is 

 supported entirely from the revenues of the insular Government. There 

 is, however, ;„'the College of Agriculture of this University operating 

 under the] American tfLig, thoroughly well established with some 280 

 students andjmore than threeiyears of work to its credit. I believe that it 

 accomplishes^exactly thelend you desire to be accomplished by a Tropical 

 College of Agriculture, and that the instruction given in it covers 

 sufficiently closely that, which is desired iu Ceylon and elsewhere in the 

 tropics, so that students trained here would be found well trained for 

 use iu other tropical countries. 



However, I do not, for a moaient, think that the presence of a well 

 equipped college in the Philippines which has already demonstrated that 

 it can give a good education in Tropical Agriculture, is to be entertained 

 as a reason lor not establishing similar institutions in other tropical lands. 

 On the other hand, the demand which has been shown here for instruc- 

 tion in tropical agriculture is the best possiole reason for believing that 

 similar institutions will. succeed elsewhere. This college opened its doors 

 in 1909, and during the first year had 55 students. The attendance was 

 95 the second year, 177 the third year, and is now, as already stated, more 

 than 280. The demand for admission promises to be so great next year 

 lhat the proposition of litnitiug the attendance seems to be seriously 

 considered. There is such an industrial demand for the graduates that, 

 except in the case of a few individuals who are educated under contract 

 to enter the Government service, none of them have so far been willing 

 to do so. I do not imagine that there is such a demand for agricul- 

 tural education in Ceylon or in any other tropical British Colony as there 

 is in the Philippines, but the success which has attended the work of a 

 College of Agriculture here should certainly be a great encouragement to 

 those interested in this project elsewhere. 



Very respectfully, 



E. B. COPELAND. 

 Dean, College op Agriculture. 



[Professor.Copeland's interesting account of the success of the Philip- 

 pines College of Agriculture affords, as he suggests, great encouragement 

 for Ceylon.— Ed. T.A.] 



