Vol. XIV. No. 353. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



365 



CEYLON: REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT 

 OF AGRICULTURE FOR 1911 



Thr Ceylon Department ol Agriculture, costing the 

 Government some 624,000 annually, is a large organization 

 which gives it- attention to a variety of problems pertaining 

 to the agricultural progre velopmenl 



The Report of the Director (Mr. R. \. Lyne) has recently 

 come to hand. It begins b) ng the work that is 



being done in connexion with coco-nuts: this consists 

 principally in manurial and cultivation experiments. The 

 former are designed to show the influence of mineral con 

 stituents on the yield of nuts and upon the upbringing of 

 h young plantation on poor sandy soil, while the cultivation 

 experiments largely concern the influence of cultivating the 

 land under coco nuts and keeping it stirred with the hoe 

 (dry-farming). Although most of the manurial experiments 

 have not yet been in progress long enough to permit of 

 definite conclusions being drawn, there are strong indications 

 that manuring will be found profitable, especially in the 

 case of old trees which tend to shed their nuts in an imma- 

 ture state. The result of manuring and cultivation has been 

 to raise the yield from an average of twenty-six nuts per tree 

 in 1911 to thirty in 1913, the unmanured plots declining 

 from twenty seven to twenty three. These particular experi- 

 ments referred to. further show that ploughing twice a year 

 is as beneficial as manuring. Lastly, the cultivation experi- 

 ments in the dry zone district demonstrated the important 

 fact that with intelligent husbandry the effect of a long dry 

 season can be counteracted. 



A great deal of interest, it 1- st ited, has been devoted 



by the press and the public to the circumstances of rice 



cultivation in Ceylon. Experiments conducted by the 



Department of Agriculture seem to how that the seeding 

 in Ceylon is too heavy; Imt. as pointed out elsewhere, the 



cultivator probably has good unconscious reasons for his 

 thick sowing. 



The work done during the year with tobacco is chiefly 

 interesting because it is new. With an idea >i finding 

 a European outlet for Jaffa tobacco, which cannot be sent i 

 formerly to India on account of prohibitive import duties. 

 the Department of Agriculture has engaged the services of 

 .Mr. Scherffius, a tobacco expert. 



At Peradeniya there C a g 1 collection of varieties of 



coffee, including (Joffea arabica, C. robusta, V. canephora, 

 C. liberica, and Uganda coffee. Judging by the demand for 



seed, coffee would appear to be slowly re-establishing itself 



as a staple crop. .Mr. Lyne says that the seed most in 

 demand is C rohusta, for it suffers very little from leal 

 disease, and is a prolific yielder. C canephora has also 



yielded well. 



i Considerable prominence is given to the subject of School 

 Gardens in the report under review. This is not only because 

 the gardens themselves are being satisfactorily worked, but 

 also because Scl 1 Gardens in Cevlon constitute a valuable 



medium tor the distributi m of seed and information to the 

 native population. | ),,,:, g ,|„. |);lM y ,, ,|,, , . 



distributing agents wi i 



time Wheil it bee;, ||C I,. ., | .,,, .,, ■e.,UI]t of V..IV CO I. lit 



i" make arrangements for the planting ol large areas under 



1 1 crops. 



Turning more particular!) to matters ol id 



research", reference is m tde first to Mr. < lampbell - worl 

 rubber in collaboration with the Imperial Institute. Tin's 

 deals with vulcanization largely, and the result in 



read) for publication. Another i -ruing rub 



which has been studied, is the movemei ts and i of 



plant food in Hevea, and the cause and origi -I on 



the same tree. The results of the former investi bave 



ahead) bee,, noted in this Journal, and concern the local 

 effect s of tapping i m t he I ree. 



M\co]og\ and Entomology are represented by work on 

 a mot disease of the plantain, which has not yet l n con- 

 clusively investigated, and the shot holi borer ol tea, and the 



red weevil of coconuts. In connexion with the -hot hole 



borer, infested estates are by law declarable b) the Director of 

 Agriculture as being in quarantine. In connexion with the 

 red weevil it is said that this pest has given much trouble: 

 irious remedies have been tried, but the Department has had 

 to fall back on the crude treatment of cutting away the 

 destroyed tissue wherein the grubs are found, and tarring 



the wound. 



Soon after the outbreak of war, says Mr. Lyne, consid- 

 erable alarm arose amongst Ceylon planters when it was 

 realized that supplies of acetic acid, used in the coagulation 

 of latex, almost all of which came from Germany and Austria, 

 were likely to run short, Mr. Campbell, who was at that time 

 Acting Government Chemist, and who is now on active 

 service, immediately began investigating the question of 

 I icing able to provide acetic acid or some substitute locally, 

 and numbers of private investigators also set to work on the 

 same problem. Cacao juice, coco-nut water and coconut 

 vinegar were all found to be suitable coagulents, especially 

 coco-nut water, which is now being regularly used on some 

 rubber estates. At Peradeniya pyroligneous acid from the 



destructive distillatii f wood and of coco nut shells was 



produced by an improvised still, and the results made public. 

 Supplies of acetic acid .soon began to arrive from England, 

 Mr. Lyne states, and the urgency of the question passed; 

 but results which will probably prove of permanent benefit 

 to the island were obtained. Acetic acid can be made 

 cheaply and in ample quaptity from coco-nut shells. It is 

 not sufficiently clear in colour for first latex crepe, but good, 

 clear smoked sheet can be and is being mad.' in lar^e 

 quantities with it. Mr. Lyne states that Ceylon produces 

 enough coco-nut shells to provide sufficient acid for all the 

 smoked sheet made in the island perhaps in the whole 

 East — and the cost of acid works out at much less per pound 

 of dry rubber with crude acetic acid from coconut shells 

 than with the imported products. 



A brief note must sufh'-e in referring to the commercial 

 side of Ceylon's principal industries. Naturally the war 

 affected adversely, for a time at least, the coco-nut, rubber, 

 cacao and tea trades, but, on the whole, the I ery h i, been 



satisfactory. The stability of the rubber industry his been 

 greatly increased by an all round deci h I of 



production. On some est d,-* rubber is being produced at .in 

 all-in cost of Id. per Hi. and even less. In such cases 



i profits could be realized if first grade rubber we 

 selling only at Is. per lb. instead of 2s. *'>./.. which is nearer 

 the usual price. 



