October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



26g 



Forestry will have been strikingly apparent. The 

 coarse to be follow edin dealing with our forests 

 must be largely dependent upon the condition of 

 the markets in which their produce is to he disposed 

 of. It is manifestly injudicious to foster the growth 

 of timber which at maturity costs more to remove 

 to our coasts than it will fetch in the markets of 

 India, China or Europe, The tastes and wants of 

 the consumers of timber elsewhere must be studied 

 and consulted if our foresis are ever to be made 

 to yield any financial return for the expenditure 

 incurred in their preservation and development. 

 We may cite in illustration of this point the ex- 

 traordinary results observable in America owing 

 to the want of the knowledge which should control 

 forest operations. We have heard of one case 

 where the stumps of destroyed trees of the wild 

 cherry on land in tliat country, had sold for six 

 times th'i sum originally paid, — but a few years 

 before — for the land on which they had been grown. 

 The American walnut, which is now in such ex- 

 tensive use for furniture and cabinet work in 

 England, was for a long time a mere drug in the 

 market ; but of late years we are told it has more 

 than trebled in value, and the demand for it is 

 growing far beyond the possi'de rate of supply. 



Having thus briefly illustrated some of the points 

 involved in the profitable study of Forestry we 

 may return to our original question, as to the 

 best course for our Government to pursue when 

 the English Forestry School is open to receive 

 students. It seems to us that most of the gentle- 

 men who now compose our local Department might 

 well be sent home one by one to undergo a course 

 of training. There are, we should imagine, but few 

 of them who would object to this arrangement were 

 their reasonable expense guaranteed, and then, 

 future advancement might and should be made 

 dependent upon these Forestry officers being able 

 to furnish evidence that they had profited to the 

 full by the course of study opened to them. 

 We do not want to see our present staff, who 

 have borne the heat and burden of the day, super- 

 seded by men from the English School. But we 

 must not sacrifice ffficiency even to this con- 

 sideration, and promotion should be made depend- 

 ent upon present members of the staff qualifying 

 for it, if the means for obtaining such qualific- 

 ation are afforded as we have suggested, by the 

 Government, Bat apart from thus dealing with our 

 present Staff, it is manifest that we ought to look, 

 in the ojse of all future appointments to quolified 

 Btudents who will receive the diploma of the new 

 School. Under such conditions we may hope to see 

 removed any cause for such etrioturea as were con- 

 tained in Mr, Vincent's Keport. 



RICE CULTIVATION IN JAPAN AND 

 CEYLON, 



It is a ourioua fact that just a^ we have been 

 discussing the proflta from Kice Cultivation lu 

 Ceylon under Irrigation, and comparing these with 

 the re«n!t9 ac'ii' V'd by the Sn.liale^e in other 

 agricultural industries, papers from Japan should 

 reach us full of a discussion on the same subject 

 and advocating in some cases the supersession of 

 rice growing alt'igetber. This is the policy which 

 a cjntemporary most unjustifiably attributed to 

 One of the speakers at the recent meeting who, 

 hoB-ever, never fftid one word about the people 

 abandoning existini; paddy fields or turning them 

 to any other purpose than the cultivation of rice. 

 The goutroversy in Ceylon, however, has a direct J 



benriag on the future extension of native cultiv- 

 ation : whether, under the auspices of Govern- 

 ment it should be solely directed to rice-fields 

 and the growth of p.addy under irrigation works 

 wliich may be restored or repaired ; or whether 

 Government should not rather in certain districts 

 encourage other agricultural industries suited to 

 the climate, soil and the genius of the people. 

 This latter policy, we need scarcely say, has received 

 our support. But we find our Japanese con- 

 temporaries after cnmpaiing the great advantages 

 which their huge neiijhbour China with its 

 far-extendiug alluvial plains has for rice-growing 

 over their own islands with their broken rugged 

 configuration,— (just as we have been comparing 



Northern India or Burniah and Ceylon) calmly 



advocating 'the total abandonment of rice cultiv- 

 ation and the conversion of their fields into 

 mulberry plantations for the establishment of sericul- 

 ture ! The following summary from the Japan 

 Weehy Mail shows that English editors well 

 acquainted with the condition of the country give 

 the propo al of their Japanese contemporaries a 

 general approval. The reasons adduced by the Mail 

 are of considerable interest to us in Ceylon, We 

 secured, when in Tckiyo, a series of photographs 

 by a native artist of tlie various operations con- 

 nected with the outdoor work in the rice (and tea) 

 fields in Japan, and there can be no doubt of the 

 superior advantages of sericulture to a people and 

 laud so admirably adapted for its promotion. And 

 in the same way there are dL-stricts in Ceylon where 

 official encouragement might well lead the natives 

 into new industiies likely to prove as beneficial 

 to the people and the country at large, as paddy- 

 growing. We quote as follows ; — 



Sericultuee versus Eioe-growing, 



Ohma being a country of grand rivers has been, 

 in a manner, condemned by nature, to periodical 

 inundations. But the case is different with Japan, 

 where, owing to the peculiar configuration of the i.slauds', 

 no river of more than second class magnitude is to be' 

 found. Japan ought therefore, to be proportionately 

 free from inundations, were it not for her people's 

 peculiar device of building up the stream.s until, their 

 beds becoming raised above the level of the surrounding 

 country, they are couverted into huge mill-races, ready 

 to pour their waters out upon the neighbouring 

 district through the smallest Haw in their banks. This 

 is especially the case in the regions about Kyoto and 

 Osaka, auil the consequences have been forcibly illu.strat- 

 ed by the recent disastrous floods. The Jiji Shimjio, 

 with characteristic thoroughness and daring, recommends 

 a heroic remf dy against the recurrence of similar 

 disasters ; namely, the al>audoumeut of rice cultivation 

 and the conversion of the rice fields — for the irrigation 

 of which these elevated rivers are used— into mulberry 

 plantations. Our contemporary points out that the 

 gross Income derived from an acre of land devoted to 

 sericultural purposes is from 60 to 150 ^en, whereas the 

 income derived from the same area devoted to the 

 production of rice is ouly from 3B to 43 i/en. To this 

 argument may be added, what is unquestionably the 

 case, that the labour entailed by the cultivation of 

 rice is of a far severer and more degrading nature 

 than that required of sericulturists. Considering these 

 things, it seems to us that the Jiji Sliinijio has struck 

 a note which ought to harmonize with the instincts 

 of all true reformers in Japan. In connection with 

 the special object of the suggestion, namely, the 

 prevention of iimudatious, an objection of course 

 presents itself. The mere act of abandoning rice 

 cultivation will not ccmrine the rivers to their every- 

 day beds. Doubtless the Tokyo journal's meaning 

 is, that these elevated streams have ceased to perform 

 the functions of imtural drains, and that their waters 

 should be conducted out of such artificial channels 

 into rout's where au overflow would no longer be 



