176 
REVIEWS. 
contents have as yet remained almost unknown to him. The numerous 
English journals published in many different tropical lands contain 
much that is of value and copy freely from one another, so that any 
information appearing in English is soon spread over the colonies. To 
judge from internal evidence, however, their editors rarely read any 
article written in a foreign language, and yet a perusal of the journals 
above mentioned would furnish much information that should be at the 
service of English planters and others in the tropical colonies. The 
economic history of the past century in Ceylon shows an alternation of 
periods of great prosperity with periods of great depression, due to the 
rise and fall of successive agricultural industries. It can scarcely be 
doubted that this phase of enormous fluctuations is nearly over, and 
that for the future we must devote our attention to industries in which 
severe competition will have to be faced, and in which the victory, as 
in Europe, will be to those who most intelligently apply to their work 
all the resources of industry, ability, science, and politics. This has 
long been recognized in the Dutch colony of Java, in which there has 
been a wonderfully steady prosperity for many years, attended by less 
fluctuation than in Ceylon, and in which the history of agricultural 
progress is not so marked by the ruins of extinct industries and by 
enormous areas of waste and almost valueless land. The finest scientific 
institution in the tropics for the aid of agriculture is without doubt 
that of Buitenzorg in Java, which it may be remarked is largely paid 
for directly by the planters concerned, a proof that they believe the 
results of scientific methods and investigations to be of direct practical 
value to their industries. The results of much of the work carried on 
in this institution are of value to Ceylon planters, if intelligently applied 
to the different local conditions. Unfortunately the fact of their being 
in the Dutch language renders them unavailable to most English people, 
but the attention of the editors of English tropical journals should be 
called to this mine of information. Among recent articles in the 
“ Mededeelingen ” may be mentioned a detailed illustrated account of 
Butin Schaap’s method of grafting coffee, which has proved of such 
value in the Java industry, accounts of the common diseases of tomatoes, 
coffee, &c., with methods of treatment, and many others. 
The French and German colonies are endeavouring from the begin- 
ning to work on scientific lines, and their journals contain much that is 
of interest to us. Several excellent critical articles have appeared 
dealing with the English tropical industries and calling attention to 
their faults, with the view of enabling their rivals to start competition 
on lines likely to be successful in the end. In the present period of 
decreased profits in tea innumerable inqumes are made for “new 
products.” In the strict sense such, things are now hardly to be found j 
in some place or other everything has been or is being tried or is 
regularly exploited. Detailed information about many such products 
is to be found in the journals quoted above. All may be seen in the 
