52 



52 



THE TROPICAL AGRlCULTUKrST, 



[FC8. f, 1887c 



>r»s 



TEJt YELLING SHOW OF AGRICULTUBAL 

 IMPLEMENTS IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 



The following Resolution of the Madras Board of 

 Revenue, is dated 13th November :— 



" The Director's report on the operations of the 

 Travellint; Acricultural Show, sanctioned in G. ()., 

 dated 10th June 1880, will be submitted to Gov- 

 vernment. The show, under the superintendence 

 of the Assistant Director, Mr. Benson, travelled for 

 two months, July and August, along the line of 

 the South Indian Railway tln-ough the districts of 

 South Arcot, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura and 

 Tinnevelly ; it visited some twenty of the more 

 important towns of those districts, and at each 

 place the working of improved ploui^hs, seed drills, 

 harrows, rice hullers and other appliances was ex- 

 hibited with success, and, as a result, some 300 

 ploughs cf an improved type were sold by the 

 agent whom Messrs. Massey & Co. had deputed 

 to accompany the expedition. What its cost was 

 does not appear, but, under the orders of (tov- 

 ernmsnt sanctioning it, that cost will have been 

 met from the allotment provided for the plough- 

 ing matches, whose place it takes. The Director 

 recommends that these tours should be continued 

 and the Board support him ; he proposes the 

 permanent deputation of a trained student to take 

 charge of them, and the employment of a com- 

 petent blacksmith, the time of both to be given 

 wholly to the work. The former proposal has 

 the Board's support, the latter has not ; it is not 

 desirable that the people should be taught to be 

 dependent on a itinerant Government blacksmith 

 to the discouragement of the local smith, nor, 

 in any case, would it be fair to the latter that 

 the former's work and material should be given 

 gratis, It riiust be brought home to the people 

 that it is to their profit to buy spare shares, 

 which should be readily available ; and, if it 

 cannot be shown that it is to their profit to do 

 BO, then the plough stands condemned and the 

 fact should be honestly admitted ; if the ploughs 

 cannot command themselves to the public on their 

 own intrinsic merits, without the assistance of 

 gratuitious repairs by Government, then any tem- 

 poraiy advance that they may make must be 

 looked on as a mere paper advance, and not as a 

 permanent fact. The Director suggests also that 

 the exhibitions should be limited to the working 

 of ploughs, but this does not appear to the 

 Board to be necessary ; the exhibition of ploughs 

 should certainly be the main object of the expedi- 

 tion, but it will not be possible to be ploughing 

 always, and the spare hours may usefully be spent 

 in the exhibition of other appliances, to the existence 

 of which, if not to their use, the native mind 

 will gradually become accustomed." — Madras 

 Mail. 



NATIVE AGRICULTURE AND AGRICUL- 

 TURAL EDUCATION IN CEYLON. 



From one of the most estimable and intelligent 

 of Sinhalese country gentlemen we are acquainted 

 with — Mudaliyar D. C. Ameresekere of Hanwella, 

 u friend of Sir C. P. Layard— we have received 

 the copy of a letter which he sent to the Public 

 Instruction Office so far back as October 1884. 

 !No acknowledgment has been received, but very 

 probably some of the ]\Iudaliyar's ideas have been 

 acted on. We quote as follows : — 



1. That the children of tlie agricultural classes now 

 sittondii'.g the village schools stay iu school for a very 

 !limitofl period and leave it in a helpless conditioi). The 

 yiittle leaining which is not very often more thao aQ i 



imperfect knowledge of reading and writing is of no 

 avail for them to get a permanent livelihood, nor are 

 they accustomed to do any trade that their parents 

 have hitherto doue. Moreover, most of the lads at the 

 present day thiuk it a disgrace to work in a field or 

 garden after having been in school for sometime. These 

 lads when they are grown ap try to earn food and cloth- 

 ing in various trilling and inclfectual ways and failing 

 to attain their object, they resort to vicious and uu- 

 lawfiil means, loatking \v»rk and those who work. It 

 is, therefore, percuptiljle to all, and to nie particularly, 

 (being a resident in the interior) that iu this manner 

 the island is gradually going down iu wealth and 

 civilization. 



2. That my opinion as regards the establishment of 

 village schools is summarised as follows : — An allotment 

 of jungle land of the extent of ten acres or more, a 

 sulhcient supply of agricultural in)plemeuts, and a 

 teacher should be given for each school by Government. 

 The parents of the children should fell down the jungle 

 and put up a school bungalow with accommodation for 

 the teacher to reside in. The school should be kept fer 

 six hours, three of which should be spent in learning 

 readujg, writiug and aiithmetic (of the native language) 

 and the remaining three for garden vpork. The land in 

 this case may be divided among the pupils of the 

 school, and be planted with coconut, jak, arecauut and 

 other fruit-bearing trees, together with yams and veget- 

 ables of different kinds according to the nature of the 

 soil. "When the school is in existence for five 

 years the entire land allotted for the school will 

 in this way be planted and the greater uunaber 

 of the trees will be bearing. An acre of the land will 

 then be worth about R30U, the same acre in its wasteful 

 state would not have been disposed of by Government 

 for more than KIO. One -halt of the planted land should 

 be given to the pupils of the school, the other half to 

 Government. By this means a considerable *um may 

 be added to the revenue also. The schoolmasttr 

 should be entitltd to half the yams and vegetables 

 grown on the land, and the pupils to the other half. The 

 teacher is here able to raise a considerable sum, hence a 

 schoolmaster who is now working for K20 per mensem 

 will be wiihng to work for RI5, as he will be able to 

 raise over E5 a month by his share of vegetables, ,S:c. 



'6. When the land has been fully planted, the school 

 may be shifted to alike piece of ground and the same 

 operations being carried on, like results may be obtained. 

 A child who attends school at the age of five will be 

 able to cultivate three pieces of laud before he reaches 

 20. At this age he can leave school as a civiUzed and 

 experienced cultivator with a ceitain amount of property 

 which is probably worth more than R500, and with a 

 thorough knowledge of reaHiug, writing, and arithmetic. 

 The descendants of tliese refined agriculturists will 

 then have reason to thiuk that these two (cultivation 

 and learning) are the natural courses that children have 

 to take up, and will i.o more entertain that erroneous 

 idea that work is a disgrace. 



4. When village agricultural schools are established 

 iu the manner I have indicated, the parents of the 

 childicn iu the interior will be too glad to give a help- 

 ing hand to education for its dissemiiiatioa. I am of 

 opinion, therefore, that this method will be one of the 

 best plans by moans of which the wealth and civiliz- 

 ation of the island may be raised to a higher standard. 

 — I remain, dear sir, yours obediently, D. Ajierissekkhe. 



CEYLON TEA IN AMERICA. 

 We call attention to the letter of Mr. J. 

 McCombie Murray on this subject, (page 521,) which 

 may be taken as addressed to " The Ceylon Tea 

 Syndicate " — if such a body is still in existence — 

 per favour of the press. We have from the out- 

 set maintained that America — the United States 

 and Canada — presented the most favourable field 

 of operations for a Tea Syndicate. Far more so, 

 in our opinion, than the Australasian Coloniea 

 with their limited population, less all told than 



