524 



[December, 1910. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



RECENT PROGRESS IN TROPICAL 

 AGRICULTURE. 



By J. C. Willis. 



II.— {Continued from 'page ^35.) 



Land. —Land in the tropics is usually 

 available enough as far as getting pos- 

 session of it is concerned. We cannot in 

 this course of lectures discuss the com- 

 plex and varied systems of holding it 

 that obtain in different parts of the 

 tropics. Two great distinctions, for 

 example, are the joint village aud the 

 system of independent ownership, the 

 latter probably the commoner. In the 

 former, the population of the village as 

 a whole own the entire land of the 

 village jointly. In a case like this, the 

 entire problem of agricultural progress 

 is altered, for all the owners must con- 

 sent before any improvement can be 

 brought in. On the other hand, the co- 

 operation thus introduced among the 

 people is a very powerful asset in pro- 

 gress, and must be encouraged to the 

 utmost. A joint village must be treated 

 as an individual in regard to progress. 



Systems of inheritance, again, are 

 very important, for if property (as in 

 Ceylon) descends to all the children 

 equally, the laud soon becomes very 

 much split up, and the same difficulties 

 as in the case ot the joint village make 

 their appearance, for there is usually 

 joint ownership of the land. 



The chief direction perhaps in which 

 action on the part of the Government is 

 required is to settle the conditions under 

 which land may be held, and there can 

 be little doubt that at any rate from a 

 theoretical point of view the system in 

 vogue in the Federated Malay States is 

 the best. Under this system, land 

 nationalisation, so much discussed in 

 the North, is already an accomplished 

 fact. All land is regarded as the pro- 

 perty of the Government, and may be 

 bought by anyone upon payment of a 

 premium of so much per acre, usually a 

 few dollars, and an annual quit rent of 

 so many dollars an acre. The original 

 grant of the laud from the Government 

 is for the period of 999 years, so that 

 there is no fear of the possessor being 

 disturbed, so long as he continues to 

 cultivate the land properly, and it is 

 just in this condition that the advant- 

 age to the agriculture of the country 

 comes in. Should the owner leave the 

 land untouched or uncultivated for 

 three consecutive years, the Govern- 



ment may step in and resume possession 

 of it. In this way, the great waste of 

 land that sometimes goes on may be 

 checked or minimised, unless, as in the 

 later coffee days of Ceylon, land is 

 going rapidly out of cultivation at a 

 time when the Government has not the 

 money available to replant it in forest, 

 or otherwise make use of it. At the 

 same time, the Government derives a 

 steady annual revenue from the quit 

 rents paid, and thus has a direct interest 

 in encouraging agriculture, which in its 

 turn will feel that it is paying its share 

 to the proper Government of the coun- 

 try, and will have more right to push 

 for proper recognition of its claims. 

 Agriculture beiug in most tropical 

 countries the basis of all prosperity, 

 should have a very powerful voice in 

 the government of the country, and 

 should therefore contribute largely to 

 the cost of government. 



The rate ot quit rent payable is liable 

 to a revision every thirty years, so that 

 the Government may relax or increase 

 the pressure upon agriculture, according 

 to the prosperity of the country. In 

 many ways, then, this is perhaps the 

 best way of managing the land question, 

 though it can of course only be put into 

 practice where other systems have not 

 already aliena ted the land in other ways. 



Assuming that our agriculturist has 

 got his laud, the climate follows as a 

 factor at present unalterable, and he 

 must cut his coat according to his cloth, 

 and only try crops that suit that climate. 



Drainage and irrigation are the next 

 factors, and here there is often room for 

 considerable improvement on the side 

 of the Government. All land needs to 

 be drained, though it is only certain 

 crops, or crops in certain districts, that 

 require to be irrigated. Irrigation is 

 recognised to be the work of the Govern- 

 ment, excepting the minor irrigation 

 works such as are required to bring 

 water to the rice crops in a "wet" 

 district, where the simple damaging up 

 of a little stream with a small earth- 

 work will suffice. It is impossible for 

 the small, if not even for the largest, 

 capitalist cultivator to make the neces- 

 sary irrigation works for the supply of 

 water on the large scale from great 

 rivers, and even were it possible for the 

 large man to do it, it would not then be 

 done with reference to the needs of the 

 country as a whole, and would be ineffi- 

 ciently done, as indeed is the case in 

 some parts of the Western States, Some 



