Miscellaneous. 



342 



[October, 1910. 



still operative, but this operation is so 

 universal that it is more or less taken 

 for granted, and, therefore, a text-book 

 of the agriculture of the colder zones 

 can, and does, dwell mainly upon the 

 later scientific factors which are there 

 especially operative, whereas in the 

 tropics, where agriculture has as yet 

 progressed too little for any but the 

 political factors to have much influence,a 

 textbook of agriculture must mainly 

 dwell upon these. 



Tropical agriculture, apart from the 

 capitalist enterprise of the comparative- 

 ly few white or Chinese " planters," is 

 as yet in a very early stage of evolution, 

 and for further progress a settlement 

 of what we may call the preliminary 

 questions of land, transport, capital, 

 labour, and education is necessary before 

 the strictly scientific factors of improve- 

 ment of crops, cattle, tools, and methods 

 can begin to operate. In the temperate 

 zone, on the other hand, these prelim- 

 inary factors are already sufficiently 

 provided for, and it is the scientific 

 which are the most important for agri- 

 cultural progress. 



This is indicated in the diagram, which 

 we shall have many occasions to study 

 at a later period. 



Before we go any further, it will be 

 well to come to a clear understanding 

 of what is to be understood by progress 

 in agriculture. It being assumed that 

 such progress is similar to that in other 

 things, and governed by similar general 

 laws, we must briefly consider how it 

 manifests itself in the course of evolu- 

 tion. Two features shew themselves, 

 broadly speaking— division of labour, 

 and differentiation in the organs that 

 perform that labour. A very simple 

 animal, for example, that is uniform in 

 structure throughout, and performs 

 all its functions, whether of absorption 

 or digestion of food, growth, movement 

 or reproduction, with its whole body 

 equally, may gradually become evolved 

 into animals which have one organ, the 

 mouth, to absorb, another, the stomach 

 and intestines, to digest, others, the 

 legs, for movement, and yet others for 

 other functions. Each of these organs 

 has a different structure from the others, 

 fitting it for the more efficient perfor- 

 mance of the function assigned to it. 

 In the same way agricultural progress 

 may go on, and to take a simple illustrat- 

 ion, a population cf small cultivators, 

 each growing just what he wants, and 

 consuming what he grows, may split up 

 into a population growing different 

 things, and exchanging say fibres for 

 food, or drugs for oils. It is thus 

 evident that agricultural progress is in 



general marked by division of labour, 

 accompanied by differentiation in those 

 performing that labour. In other words, 

 progress is always, or in general, in the 

 direction of greater efficiency. If the 

 staff of a general store were not divided 

 into groups, some performing one kind 

 of work, some another, but any man 

 were to do whatever duty were required, 

 the result would obviously be far less 

 efficient than if some men were to be 

 managers of sections, some shopwalkers, 

 some clerks, some salesmen, and so on- 

 In the same way a man who only culti- 

 vates say cotton will produce it wfth 

 less labour, and of better quality, than 

 he who combines its cultivation with 

 that of drugs, oil and other things. 



For a proper understanding of the 

 subject, it will be well to begin some- 

 what far back, and endeavour to trace 

 for ourselves the factors which have 

 mada for agricultural progress. We 

 must also consider carefully what are 

 the hindrances in the way of the full 

 operation of these factors, for by the 

 removal of such hindrances we can 

 probably do much more to advance agri- 

 culture than by the introduction of new 

 factors into the problem. At the same 

 time, it will pay us well to think out 

 the whole problem in detail before 

 making up our minds as to what line to 

 pursue to obtain the best results in agri- 

 cultural progress. 



Perhaps one of the easiest ways in 

 which to mate the subject clear will be 

 to start at a very early period, and trace 

 an imaginary, though probable, history 

 of agriculture, in brief outline. It is 

 obvious that from very early times man 

 must have subsisted to some consider- 

 able extent upon the produce of the soil, 

 though in all probability it was long 

 before he actually began to cultivate it. 

 Little by little, by actual experiment 

 upon his own vile body, often it may be 

 with disastrous results, he found out 

 which plants or parts of plants were 

 good to eat, and subsisted upon these. 

 Naturally he would eat those which he 

 had found to be the best in preference 

 to the inferior kinds, so long as they 

 were to be obtained, and a kind of scale 

 of desirability would be established, with 

 the best things at the top. 



To this day there exists in Ceylon a 

 remnant of a very primitive people, the 

 Veddahs, a small tribe of wild men of 

 the forest, who hunt game with the bow 

 and arrow, and live otherwise upon the 

 wild honey which they collect in the 

 jungles, and upon roots and fruits of 

 wild plants; The few surviving really 



