318 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



wished to try them further. Plants which would not live in 

 the botanic gardens (which were established all over the island 

 in its different climates, hot and cold, wet and dry) could of 

 course not be acclimatised, and could never be of use in local 

 agriculture. In the early days of the botanic gardens com- 

 paratively large areas could be given to individual plants ; but 

 as time went on, and the number of plants in the gardens 

 increased, this would necessarily become less and less possible, 

 even in the largest gardens, and at length the gardens must be 

 content with growing one or two specimens of each plant. 

 For the introduction of a new industry it is obvious that this 

 method can be of little use in a limited time unless the plants 

 can be easily multiplied. Nor can real experiments upon the 

 best methods of cultivation be tried upon so small a scale. 



To meet and overcome this difficulty the obvious best course 

 to pursue for the present was to open what may be called in 

 the American sense Experiment Stations, i.e. larger areas of 

 land entirely given up to a comparatively few commercial crops, 

 which could be studied with great care in all detail. Two such 

 stations have been opened in Ceylon, and were practically the 

 first upon a large scale to be formed in any British colony. 

 Experiment Stations were already common in many other 

 places, but they were as a rule on a small scale, growing 

 perhaps one-quarter of an acre with this crop, one-half with 

 that, one-tenth with this manure, one-fifth with that ; and it 

 was in Ceylon that the opening of large stations was first 

 definitely put into practice, and larger areas devoted to the 

 different crops and experiments. Thus the station at Pera- 

 deniya has twenty acres under tea, fifteen acres under lemon- 

 grass, and so on. 



The preliminary trial of new plants is still done in the 

 botanic gardens as before ; but for the trial of anything likely 

 to be of importance in local agriculture, the venue of the ex- 

 periments is as soon as possible transferred to the Experi- 

 ment Station, and experiments are also made there with the 

 crops already in common cultivation. This is a line of work 

 which the older botanic gardens were of course entirely un- 

 fitted for ; yet it is one which is already of great value, and is 

 increasing in importance every day. The old day of " new 

 products " has practically gone by for most colonies and de- 

 pendencies in the tropics. No longer are there any products 



