the vast majority are utterly illiterate. We are apt to blame the people of these tropical countries for their backward condition, but in that we sadly wrong them. They are not backward because they want to be so, and they would gladly make progress if they could. Something holds them back against their will, and we who have the good fortune not to be thus held back can do no greater service either to ourselves or to them than to discover exactly what that something is. In order to do this, the first requisite is a clear understanding of our problem. Therefore it will be well to review some of the conditions which for ages have acted as handicaps to every race whose lot has been cast in tropical America. Let us first consider the effect of these conditions upon primitive people, and then see how far there is a reasonable prospect that the white man can overcome them. Some of the conditions which we shall consider are familiar, and have been much discussed, but others have received relatively little attention.

To begin with one of the most familiar topics, the ease with which a living can be made is constantly cited as one of the reasons for the backwardness of tropical people. The importance of this among lower races can scarcely be questioned. If the traditional palm-tree will support a family, the members of that family are not likely to work, except under some unusual impulse. The necessity to provide for a cold winter, or for a long dry season, does not trouble them. Clothing may be desirable because it is the fashion, and because it serves as a means of adornment, but it is not a real necessity. A warm house is equally unnecessary, and a shelter from the rain can quickly be made with a few poles and palm leaves. Where such conditions prevail, progress is almost out of the question, since there is no stimulus-nothing to promote ambition or energy. In Central and South America, however, this most exploited hindrance of equatorial countries seems to be of relatively small importance. In certain regions, to be sure, the means of supporting life can be obtained with great ease, but this is limited to restricted areas, chiefly near the coast, or on the slopes of the mountains. Elsewhere, which means in by

far the larger part of tropical America, the case is quite different. Although a small number of people can support a precarious existence in primitive fashion, their lot is by no means easy, and the population cannot become dense, nor can it greatly advance in civilization, because as yet no means have been devised whereby a large number of people can procure a living.

This is due to the conditions of agriculture. The ease, or rather the difficulty, with which agriculture can be carried on in tropical countries is greatly misunderstood. The ordinary traveler sees the luxuriant vegetation and infers that crops can be raised with great ease. Noting, however, that in the few places where fields are cultivated they are usually full of stumps, bushes and large weeds, he promptly accuses the natives of shiftlessness. He sees too that a field is cultivated this year and abandoned next, and proceeds to berate the natives for lack of persistence. He fails to realize that throughout large portions of tropical America agriculture is so difficult that even the white man has not yet learned to carry it on. He may raise bananas and coffee in a few limited areas, but he does not do this in the worst places. Moreover these crops are much easier to raise than are the staple crops which have to be planted every year. I do not mean by this that he could not raise the staple crops, provided fevers did not exclude him from large areas, but merely that he has not yet done it. In the regions to which I refer, that is, such places as large portions of the Amazon Basin, rain falls at almost all times of the year, and the dry season is so short, or at least so interrupted by showers that the forests always remain damp, and vegetation grows with extraordinary luxuriance. Any one who has tried to keep a garden free from weeds during a rainy summer will appreciate the difficulty, but his task is incomparably easier than that of the denizens of the tropics, for he has the winter to help him. Moreover he can cultivate his land every year instead of intermittently.

As an example of the difficulties of agriculture, let us take the Pacific slope of Guatemala, which is by no means the wettest part of the country. I traversed the region in

March, 1913, in the middle of the dry season. The people had recently finished the work of making the season's clearings. The traveler in such a region wonders at first why everyone seems to be clearing new fields. The reasonable thing would seem to be to burn the corn stalks and weeds, and cultivate the old fields again, but this is not done. After a field has once been cultivated it is allowed to lie fallow for four years. The first crop is abundant and requires a relatively small amount of labor, but if the same field is planted a second time, the crop is very scanty. Apparently the soil is quickly exhausted, perhaps because of rapid weathering under the influence of constant heat, and rapid leaching because of constant moisture, or perhaps because of certain bacteria which flourish in tropical climates and break up the nitrogenous elements of the soil thus destroying their value as plant-food. Plowing might perhaps help matters, but it is very difficult-far more so than in temperate regions. In the first place, when a field is newly cleared the roots and stumps prevent plowing. If the field is left until the stumps have rotted, new plants grow up to such an extent that a fresh clearing is necessary, and the process of plowing is still very difficult. At the end of the first year after an ordinary field has been sown, plowing is out of the question except where the most advanced methods are available, and it is of no use to burn the fields over and plant a new crop, for the return will not justify the labor. Hence, after one cultivation, fields must be allowed to lie fallow for about four years. During this period the bushes grow to a height of ten to twenty feet, according to the amount of rainfall, and the ground recovers its vitality. Then the bushes are again cut and allowed to dry, and when the land has been burned off a good crop may be raised. Evidently the clearing and burning of the bushes are essential parts of agriculture. If the dry season is long, this process is easy, for three weeks of steady sun suffice to dry all but the larger trunks sufficiently so that they can be burned. If showers fall every day or two, however, the trees and bushes have little chance to dry. This happened in 1913 in Guatemala, and I saw many fields where the

THE JOURNAL OF RACE DEVELOPMENT, VOL. 5, No. 2, 1914

vegetation had been cut but could not be burned. After the dry season was over, it was useless to attempt to burn the brush, for even if it had been dry enough the new vegetation, which had instantly sprung up, was sufficient to prevent burning. Without burning, it would have been useless to plant corn, for the native vegetation would have strangled it. Hence in many cases the people raised no corn crop that year.

Conditions of this sort prevail not only in large parts of Central America, especially on the east side, but throughout much of the Amazon Basin. Just how large the area is, it is impossible to say, but probably 2,000,000 or more square miles is no exaggeration. In all this region, then, it has hitherto been practically out of the question to clear the forest and get it dry enough to burn. Hence agriculture has been impossible, and will remain so until the white man introduces wholly new methods. This he will doubtless do, but the task will not be easy. I would emphasize once more that although the white man has shown himself able to raise bananas and coffee on the borders of the moist tropical areas he has not done so in the worst portions. Moreover, he has devoted himself to special crops which yield a large return in proportion to the labor, and which do not have to be planted every year. They will always be important as luxuries, or even necessities, in northern countries, but they cannot be the primary food crops of a dense population. The primary crops, for the most part, must be planted each year, and this involves the plowing of the land, or else the cutting and burning of the bushes in order to give the seeds a chance. This can of course be done if sufficient effort is expended, but the fact remains that throughout a large part of tropical South America the task is so difficult that neither the white man during the past four hundred years, nor the native races during thousands of years, ever seem to have accomplished it in such places as the great Amazon Basin.

Before passing on to more important matters mention should be made of another factor which prevents people from living permanently in certain portions of the tropics

and from developing a high civilization. The difficulty in this case arises from the unequal distribution of the rainfall during the various seasons of the year. For instance, portions of the vast grassy plains, or Llanos, of the Orinoco Valley are almost impassable at certain seasons, because they are flooded by the heavy equatorial rains. Yet, during the long dry season, which here prevails during our winter months, those same plains become so dry that in many places it is impossible to get water except by digging deep wells. The difficulties which here confront agriculture are so great that the native races have never succeeded in surmounting them. In fact before the introduction of cattle, agriculture was quite impossible for another and wholly different reason. There was no means of breaking up the sod, which is an essential prerequisite, if crops are to be raised. Even the white man has found agriculture so difficult that he has rarely attempted it, and has utilized the plains only for cattle raising. This also is beset with many difficulties, because of the superfluous supply of water and mud at some seasons, and the drought at others. In still other regions, although a fairly dense growth of jungle covers the ground, the water supply presents a serious difficulty, for during the long dry season most of the springs disappear; hence deep wells are necessary and these are a difficult matter for primitive people, not well equipped with iron tools. This, it is true, has little direct influence upon the white man, but indirectly, as we shall soon see, it adds its quota to his difficulties.

The fact that in large portions of tropical America it has thus far been impossible for any large number of people to obtain a living has most important consequences in more favored regions. Among the factors which most promote progress, the intercourse of race with race holds a highly important place. Even the most active and energetic community is likely to stagnate if left to itself. In tropical regions the conditions which have just been described render intercourse peculiarly difficult. Where vast areas are uninhabited because of dense forests and the consequent difficulty of agriculture, and others because of floods and excess