BOTANY AND AGRICULTURE IN CEYLON 319 



which can be introduced into the country, and readily become 

 the basis of new industries. In former days there were many 

 such, which were in the hands either of the tropical or sub- 

 tropical races of mankind, or which were simply collected from 

 the jungles. Thus, to take only the industries which have at 

 different times risen to prominence in Ceylon, coffee, tea, and 

 cardamoms were cultivated only by the Chinese or other back- 

 ward races, while cinchona and rubber were collected from 

 the jungles. This is no longer the case, for everything of any 

 serious value in the tropics is now in the hands of Europeans, 

 Americans, or Japanese, and a fierce competition has to be faced 

 by any one wishing to cultivate it. 



This being so, it is evident that greater importance now 

 attaches to the improvement of those industries which are 

 already in any one country, and their conservation and 

 expansion, than to the study of the comparatively minor 

 chance of finding something that shall take their place if they 

 fail. It is with this in view that the Experiment Stations of 

 Ceylon were organised. They give a certain amount of 

 attention to the trial of new products, i.e. products that are 

 not as yet cultivated in the island upon any large scale, 

 but their main care is devoted to the study of the existing 

 crops of the country, the improvement of methods of cultiva- 

 tion, manuring, harvesting, and preparation of the produce 

 for market. 



Thus at the Experiment Station at Peradeniya, which lies 

 in the "wet" zone of Ceylon and in the European planting 

 districts, experiments are mainly devoted at present to cacao, 

 rubber, tea, citronella, and ground-nuts, so far as old products 

 are concerned, and to lemon-grass as a possible paying new 

 product ; while in the Experiment Station at Maha-iluppalama, 

 which lies in the almost uninhabited " dry" zone of Ceylon, the 

 experiments as yet have been mainly with cotton, a crop which 

 is at present only slightly cultivated in Ceylon, and that in the 

 poorest varieties ; but which the experiments at Maha-iluppalama 

 give reason to hope may prove to be a crop of considerable 

 value to Ceylon, if the best kinds of cotton, the Sea Island and 

 Egyptian, are cultivated. 



Not only do the Experiment Stations work directly at the 

 actual crops cultivated in the colony, but also at more general 

 questions. Thus they have proved the great value to be derived 



