T O OUR READERS. 
In closing the Tenth Volume of the “Tropical Agriculturist,” we would 
once more direct attention to the large amount of useful information afforded and 
to the great variety of topics treated in our pages. From month to month, we 
have endeavoured to embody in these pages the latest results of practical ex])erience and 
scientific teaching in all that concerns tropical agriculture ; and our ambition has been 
to make this periodical not oidy indispensable to the planter, but of service to 
business men and capitalists, never forgetting that agriculture trenches upon every 
department of human knowledge, beside 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 care to notice minor industries likely to 
fit in with sub-tropical conditions ; and our readers have an ample guarantee in the 
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 commonsense as well as of prolonged tropical experience 
in this, the leading Crown and Flanting Colony of the British Empire. 
The Tea-planting Industry has sprung into so much importance in India and 
Ceylon, that a large amount of attention is naturally directed to this great staple, 
and we think it will be admitted by impartial judges that the Tropical AgricuUunist 
should be filed for ready reference, in every Tea Factory in this Island and 
India. 
A full and accurate Index affords the means of ready reference to every 
subject treated in this, the tenth volume, which we now place in our subscribers’ 
hands, in 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. 
We are convinced that no more suitable or useful gift can be made to the 
tropical planter or agriculturist, whether he be about to enter on his career, or 
with many years of experience behind him, than the ten 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 sub-tropical 
industry. 
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 “Trcpicai Agriculturist” continue to do well. 
A. M. 8 l J. F£RGUS0N. 
Colombo, Ceylon : 1st June 1891 
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