TO OUR READERS. 
In closing the Eighteenth Volume of the " Tropical Agrioulturist," we would 
as usual direct attention to the large amount of useful information afforded and to the 
great variety of topics treated in the several numbers. From month to month, we have 
endeavoured to embody in these pages the latest results of practical experience and 
scientific teaching in all that concerns tropical agriculture ; and our ambition has been to 
make our periodical not only indispensable to the planter, but of service to business men 
and capitalists, never forgetting that agriculture trenches upon every department of human 
knowledge, besides being the basis of personal and communal wealth. 
While directing our attention chiefly to the products prominently mentioned on 
our title-page, we have always taken eare to notice minor industries likely to fit in with 
sub-tropical conditions ; and our readers have an ample guarantee in the index pages before 
them, that, in the future, no pains will be spared to bring together all available information 
both from the West and East, the same being examined in the light of the teachings of 
common sense as well as of prolonged tropical experience in this, the leading Crown and 
Planting Colony of the British Empire. 
Special attention has, during the past year, been given to the introduction and 
extension of an industry in rubber-yielding trees (more especially in the planting of 
Para and Castilloa trees), and much literature on the subject will be found throughout our 
pages ; also on cacao in Central America and the West Indies as well as in Ceylon ; coffee 
and allied products in Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, East Java, Nyassaland, British Central 
Africa ; Liberiau coffee in Sumatra, Java, the Straits Settlements ; and to other new 
developments in coffee, coconuts and tobacco planting, &c., in the Malayan Peninsula, 
Sumatra and North Borneo, as well as in this Island. 
The Tea-planting Industry has sprung into so much importance in India (South 
as well as North) and Ceylon, as also in Java, that a considerable amount of space is 
naturally given to this great staple ; and we think it will be admitted by impartial judges that 
the Tropical Agriciolturist should be filed, for the convenience of planters, in every Tea 
Factory in this Island, in India and in Java. 
A full and accurate Index affords the means of ready reference to every subject 
treated in this, the Eighteenth volume, which we now place in our subscribers' hands, in the 
full confidence that it will be received with an amount of approval, at least equal to that 
which has been so kindly extended to its predecessors. 
To show how fully other Products besides Tea are treated in this volume, we may 
mention the number of entries under several headings as follows : — Coffee (including 
Liberian) 66 ; Cacao 31 ; Indiarubber 42 ; Coconuts and other Palms 25 ; and Miscellaneous 
Products nearly 1,000. In the 18 Volumes, the references to B,ubber, Coffee and Cacao 
number many thousands, as also to Coconuts and other Palms. 
We are coavinced that no more suitable or useful addition can be made to a 
Planting Company's Library or gift to a tropical planter or agriculturist, whether he be about 
to enter on his career, or with many years of experience behind him, than the eighteen 
volumes of our periodical which we have now made available. They are full of information 
bearing on every department and relating to nearly every product within the scope of 
8ub-tropical industries. 
In conclusion, we have to tender our thanks to readers and contributors, and our 
wish that all friends may continue to write instructively and to read with approval ; for then 
indeed, must the " Tropical Agriculturist " continue to do well. 
Colombo, Ceylon ; Ibt July, 1899. 
J. FERGUSON. 
