26 THE TROPICAL 
THE ADVANTAGES OF AN AGRICUL- 
TURAL DEPARTMENT. 
" Camellia,'' who writes some of the most in- 
terestinj,' and sagacious letters appearing; in the 
Pioneer, has a communication in a recent issue 
from which we extract the following, as of special 
interest to us in Ceylon, who already have the 
nucleus of our comins; Agricultural Department : 
— At the present tnoment it is indisputable the 
three great planting industries of the country — 
1 refer to 
TEA, 
coffee, and indigo — have entered on a critical 
p«riod, at all events financially ; and I do not think 
the most expert of either of the above \vill be 
found venturing on any sort of conlidenc forecast 
for the future of either of the above noted in- 
dustries,— certainly the great palmy days of all 
are past. Now it is worth while briefly consider- 
ing first tea, if the splendid province of Assam is 
due to anybody it surely is the tea planters, and 
British capital in the main. Asaani tea has lieen 
fairly floated now over fifty years. During that 
time it has paid Her Majesty's Government an 
enormous sum in revenue, it has been the life- 
blood of many Calcutta firms, river companies, 
docks companies and created a large number of 
Government ofHcials, and added very largely to 
Indian revenue in many ways, in short it has 
been one of the greatest factors of the century 
in India's prosperity and commercial enterprise. 
This being so I would maintain it is the duty 
of Government to assist it in every possible way, 
practically and scientifically, and when it is borne 
m mind what America, Canada, and all the 
Australian Governments are doing for their chief 
staples and have been doing for years past, it 
i« nothing short of a disgrace that the tea in- 
dustry in India at this time of day is without 
a mycologist, and only now just on the point of 
bringing out an agriculturist chemist 'tis true. 
Dr. Watt made a valuable investigation into the 
insect pests of tea no great time ago. Sub- 
sequently what did he say ? That he knew of 
nothing so beset with empirical nietliods as tea ; 
yet at' this present moment 
THK INDUSTRV IS ABSOLUTELY BEREFT 
of a single Government Officer, systematically em- 
ployed to investigate these empirical methods re- 
ferred to by Dr. Watt. I do not think it is too 
much to say as our American cousins would cer- 
, tfcinly say, — "Guess we would made things hum 
differently." And I feel sure if Mr. Stebbing 
or any one else cares to make enquiry, he will 
find planters now-a-days iu India have quite all 
they know what to do, to figure out accounts 
on the right side ; and while I fancy none of them 
want charity a first rate case could be easily made 
out for a far more liberal and just treatment 
at the hands of Government, especially in tlie way 
of a searching enquiry into ail things apper- 
taining to tea. Here with an Agricultural Depart- 
ment, worked on (Canadian or American lines, 
there would surely be a tea section in which 
experts would woik out the problems and eli- 
minate the empiricism from beginning to end. 
It is altogether too much to expect at 
this time of day when these industries have 
certainly got into troublesome times to ex- 
pect private individuals or associations of 
individuals can do much. Time is required 
money is rcciuired, laboratory and instruments 
and above all 
AGRICULTURIST. [July 1, 1900. 
PERSISTENT CONTIKUOUS INYESTIGATION 
in all these things nigh every individual comes to 
grief in some one particular or another, and no sort 
of solid progress is made or possilile. 
Furthermore I apprehend it is extremely few 
among planters and agriculturist who are scienti- 
fically trained to carry scientific experimenls and 
research very far. About two years ago the 
Madras planters thought to import the lady bird 
for their estates, and sent all the way to Australia. 
They spent, I believe, over R3,Ono and ai rived back 
with a perfectly dead cargo of lady birds. And 
the Himalayas, at all events, teeming with the 
lady bird, !-ome fifteen months ago, I believe with 
the aid nf a score of boys and RlOO. I could in 
one part of the Himalayas alone have collected 
easily ten to twenty thousand within a v.eek. I 
mention this to show what strange things may be 
done from disjointed private efl'oits, and to illus- 
trate how really urgent the 
NEED IS FOR AN ALL-EMBRACING GOVERNMENT 
DEPARTMENT 
that should be the planter's and agriculturist's 
true philosopher and friend in all things affecting 
soils, crops, inspct pests, and remedies, and cul- 
tural methods, manures and values and so forth ; 
and by creating a Department filled with men 
whose sole business were these matters, there 
would at once arise that fellow feeling that makes 
for wondrous kindness among men of the same 
calling : the planter and the agriculturist, would 
immediately be at home^ with his Government 
brother of similar instincts and aspirations. I 
will venture the opinion that no Civil Service, 
devoid of practical and scientific training, will 
ever induce tliis feeling. This is how it comes 
that in America, Australia, the West Indies, and 
Canada the same idea has just been ably taken 
up where quite a number of agricultural teachers 
have gone from England under the control and 
supervision of Dr. Morris, late Assistant Direc- 
tor of the Royal Gardens, Kew. You find the 
Departments and the practical agriculturalist 
bound mutually together in many ways, and 
in these countries it is conspicuously clear 
that the Governments very fully recognise that 
BY THIS METHOD, YOU EXPLOIT THE LAND 
and country, and increase its wealth, revenue, and 
stability. In South Austialia our agricultural 
colonists are doing bravely under anything but 
Eldorado conditions ; indeed when the many 
practical difficulties and extremely moderate crops 
are fully taken into account, it is surprising what 
they do under the generous help and guidance of 
their very helpful Agricultural Decartnient. Let 
India do likewise and then agriculturally we 
shall begin to live. All through I have quoted 
America, Canada, and the Australian Colonies by 
way of example merely. We can have none of 
these places in India, and yet it is certain that 
in some things we could go better than any of 
them, — parodying a certain eeleorated jingle I 
would say: "We've got the country, and the 
money, but we havn't got the meri," — that is in 
the Indian Agricultural Department. 
Nutmegs in West Africa.— An attempt has 
lately been made to acclimatise the nutmeg tree 
in German West Africa, but only in the botanical 
gardens. We have not as yet heard the results 
of the experiments made,— Indiayi Planters' 
Oazette, June 2, 
