November, 1910.] 



431 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



RECENT PROGRESS IN TROPICAL 

 AGRICULTURE. 

 Br J. C Willis. 



(Continued.) 



II. 



To recapitulate in brief outline the 

 last lecture, we have in it endeavoured 

 to trace the history of agricultural pro- 

 gress in the Tropics. We have seen that 

 the indigenous races progressed from 

 the stage consumption of wild " jungle- 

 stuffs" — roots and fruits— to chenas, 

 and from these to mixed gardens on the 

 one side, and to fields of annual crops on 

 the other, while from any of these the 

 fields of perennial crops might be de- 

 rived. Later on with the development of 

 the country and opening; up of means 

 of transport some differentiation in 

 the field cultivations came in — A grow- 

 ing somewhat different crops to B. 

 At this stage the great majority of 

 the people of the tropics have re- 

 mained to the present day, but by the 

 invasion of the more progressive na- 

 tions of the north, who have brought 

 capital with them, and settled in places 

 where transport and labour are avail- 

 able, a new agriculture has been devel- 

 oped, of an altogether more efficient 

 kind — au agriculture which not only 

 supports a dense population in the trop- 

 ics, but also turns out a large quantity 

 of produce for export to other countries. 

 It is unfortunately true that the profits 

 of such agriculture are largely taken 

 out of the country in which they are 

 made, but the contentions made by 

 agitators, that such a removal of the 

 profits is a deliberate impoverishment of 

 the country for the benefit of the 

 northern powers, are based upon un- 

 sound premises, and lack a proper think- 

 ing out of the subject. Without the 

 northern agriculturists, these profits 

 would not be made. They are not made 

 by an exploitation of the country, as is 

 the case with mining profits, and not 

 only so, but the country is indirectly 

 much enriched by the subsidiary trades 

 that spring up. The object of an ad- 

 ministrator should be, not to discourage 

 or check the more advanced agricul- 

 turists, but to raise the local standard 

 of agriculture to such an extent that the 

 removal of the foreign planter need not 

 bring about the disastrous collapse that 

 at present would most assuredly be the 

 case. 



The important question then is, what 

 ideal is to be aimed at by those who 

 have to do with the administration of a 

 tropical country, and with agricultural 



progress and improvement in particular. 

 There being very commonly these two 

 agricultures side by side, those of the 

 progressive capitalist, who is most often 

 white except in the plains of India, and 

 the unprogressive peasant, are we to 

 encourage both equally, or to encourage 

 the one at the expense of the other? 

 Actual experience at the present time 

 shows that while progress among the 

 capitalist agriculturists is rapid, there 

 is little or none among the peasantry, 

 who, after all, make up the great bulk of 

 the people of the tropics, while at the 

 same time there do not exist to the same 

 exteut as in the north (except in parts of 

 India) the various intermediate stages 

 of more well-to-do cultivators. The man 

 with the small farm, worked by a small 

 amount of hired labour in addition to 

 that of himself and his own family, is 

 not a marked feature of most tropical 

 societies. It is on no account to be 

 desired that there should always con- 

 tinue to be the two agricultures, the 

 progressive and the unprogressive, side 

 by side, inevitable though it may 

 be at present. A tropical countiw" 

 should be more of a unit, with every 

 stage of gradual transition from one to 

 the other, like the countries of the north, 

 except in so far as the differences of race 

 prevent amalgamation of the people. 

 In a northern country the peasant 

 agriculture is to a considerable extent 

 progressive, and there is not the marked 

 difference in efficiency between it and 

 the capitalist agriculture that is so 

 clearly seen in the tropics. Both forms 

 of agriculture are in a progressive state, 

 and one cannot say that the capitalist 

 agriculture is seriously outrunning the 

 peasant, especially since co-operation 

 has so largely come in among the latter. 



If agricultural progress is properly 

 taken in hand, the peasantry of the 

 country should begin to improve in 

 their crops and methods, while there 

 will also grow up a class of intermediate 

 well-to-do agriculturists between them 

 and the large capitalists, and as time 

 goes on, some of the richest of these men 

 will gradually supplant the foreign 

 planters if there be any, a process which 

 will tend much to the increase of the 

 stability of the country, though it will 

 obviously take much time. For the 

 present, at any rate, every encourage- 

 ment should be offered to foreign 

 capitalists, but the general line of policy 

 should be to bring up the efficiency of 

 the local cultivators. 



Many ideals have been more or less 

 definitely put forward at different times, 

 and we may consider three of these, 



