TO OUR READERS. 
« 
In closing the Seventeenth Volume of the ‘‘Tropical Agriculturist,” 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 care 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 informa- 
tion 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 extension of the 
fibre industry (in rhea especially) ; rubber; cacao in Central America and the West Indies as 
in Ceylon; coffee and allied products in Brazil, Mexico, Costa Eica, East Java, Nyassaland, 
British Central Africa ; Liberian coftee in Sumatra, Java, the Straits Settlements; and to 
other new developments in coffee, coconuts and tobacco planting, &c., in the Malayan 
Peninsula and N orth 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 Agriculturist 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 Seventeenth volume, which we now place in our subscribers’ hands, 
in the full confidence that it will be received with ati 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) 
85 ; Cacao 25 ; Indiarubber 34 ; Coconuts and other Palms 30 ; and Miscellaneous Products 
nearly 1,000. In the 17 Volumes, the references to Eubber, Coffee, and Cacao number 
many thousands, as also to Coconuts and other Palms. 
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 seventeen 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 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 ; 4th July, 1898. 
J. FERGUSON. 
