2 



INTRODUCTOET. 



out a perfectly qualified person to some distant part of the globe, to learn for 

 him those practical details which he desires to know. This is no uncommon 

 thing ; and many cases might be stated, showing the great advantages which 

 have arisen to those who have thus gained a march upon their neighbours." 



The Society of Arts, appreciating the importance of from time 

 to time encouraging the introduction of new and improved pro- 

 ducts from our Indian and Colonial Possessions, has offered many- 

 gold medals as premiums for a great variety of staples from abroad. 



The Grreat Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations brought 

 together an immense variety of productions from tropical re- 

 gions, of which the English public were comparatively ignorant. 

 Attracting public attention, as these necessarily did, information 

 on the best modes of cultivating and manufacturing them will be 

 pecaliarly valuable to the colonists, and is as eagerly sought after 

 by many brokers, merchants and manufacturers at home. 



In consequence of the recent liberal policy of Grreat Britain, 

 the competition of foreign countries, the want of cheap and abim- 

 dant labor, and other causes, those chief staples, Sugar and Coffee, 

 which for a series of years formed the principal and almost exclusive 

 articles of production in our colonies, and which had met with a 

 ready and remunerative sale in the British markets, have either 

 fallen off to an alarming extent, or become so reduced in price as 

 scarcely to repay the cost of cultivation. The partial abandonment 

 of the cultivation of these staples in our colonies has had the effect 

 of crippling the agricultural and commercial enterprise of several of 

 our most valuable foreign possessions, and throwing out of employ- 

 ment a number of persons : it behoves us, therefore, to direct atten- 

 tion to some of the many minor articles in dem.and ; — to those indi- 

 genous or exotic products of the soil in tropical regions, w^hich, 

 being inexpensive in cultivation and manufacture, might be under- 

 taken with a moderate outlay of labor and capital, and the cer- 

 tainty of a ready and remunerative sale in the European markets ; 

 and could moreover be attended to without neglecting or at all 

 interfering with the cultivation of the leading staples. 



It is erident that the export wealth of tropical regions must be 

 chiefly agricultural, the soil and climate being peculiarly fitted for 

 the culture of fruits, trees and plants yielding oils, gums, starch, 

 spices, and other valuable products, which no art can raise cheaply 

 in more temperate latitudes. The large and continued emigration 

 of farmers and other enterprising persons from Britain and the 

 Continent to Natal, the Cape Colony, Northern Australia, 

 Ceylon, the East India Company's Possessions and the Straits 

 Settlements, Brazil, New Grranada, and the Central American 

 Hepublics, Texas, the Southern States of North America, and 

 other tropical and sub-tropical countries, renders information 

 as to the agriculture and productions of those regions highly 

 desirable. Even to the settlers in our "West Indian posses- 

 sions, most of whom have too long pursued the old beaten track 

 of culture and manufacture, comparatively regardless of modern 

 improvements and the results of chemical, scientific, and practical 



