March i, 1886.] tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURlSt. 



603 



RtlPORT OH THK PROGRK-S AXI) OON- 



DlTlOy OF THE GOVKRNMEXT BOVAX- 



ICALGAUDEXS Al^D PARKS NILGIRIS, 



FOR THE OFFICIAL YEAR 1SS4-S5. 



Sea-^os. — The weather during the past year was, 

 with the exception of the months of October ami 

 Novfmher, unusually dry, and little or no planting 

 could be attempted till the end of the former month. 

 In October no less than '2264 inches uf rain were 

 regifttered. More than half of this fell in two days, 

 and the wash, which this heary fall octMsioued, was 

 V, ry great. The winter was comparatively mild and 

 little harm was done by frost. 



All the lawns iu the gardens have now been levelloJ 

 and the grass upon them is beinj; gradually brought 

 into better order. Last year the grub of tlie cock- 

 chafer did a good deal of mischief to the grass, but 

 thi?> w&s remedied by top-dressing the injured portions 

 with manure iu the early spring. Now that the floor 

 of the garden has been put to right, I hope next 

 year to re-establish the flower beds and shrubs 

 which, during the time that the alterations were 

 going on, had to be removed. The buiul uf the tank 

 below the band-stand gave way during the htavy 

 storm which occurred in October last. The destruc- 

 tion of the bund was due partly to the tank having 

 been dreiiged too deeply and partly to trees having 

 been planted upon it. The depth of the tank bus 

 now been lessened and made uniform and the bund 

 has been restored and strengthened. Provision has 

 been made for putting up a fouutaiu uext winter iu 

 this tank opposite to the band-stand. 



Baklivar. — ((/) K,cpei'i)ntnt(d Garden. — This garden 

 was of late years becoming overgrown with worthles.s 

 coffee, oranges, pomeloes, &c., aud which were cramp- 

 ing many of the more valuable trees. I have had all 

 these cleared away, and I ha%*e also cleareil of second- 

 ary jungle, about an acre of ground, which had hitherto 

 been left uncultivated. This will give a sufticienuy uf 

 room for planting out new introductions for .some 

 years to come. Most of the trees are flouri.-hiu^ ; 

 they have all been i<Ientified, and I have ordered 

 that they shall have a zinc tally, with a number 

 punched on it, attached to each. This, in the hot 

 climate of Barliyar, will be more lasting than the 

 usual painted label, and it will at the same time be 

 mn<"h more economical, 



Kai.hatti. — (h) E.r peri mental Garihn. — Nothing of 

 any importance has been carried out during the year 

 in this garden. The Cinchona morada and xrrde seed- 

 lings which were put out last year have done very 

 badly; the dry climate evidently di»l not suit them. 

 In my lasi year's report I stated that I doubted if 

 it was worth the while of Government to continue 

 the cultivation of this garden, aud I am now still more 

 of the opinion that it is not. 



TnoPOSKD MrsEi-M or NATLttAi. Hisionv in Ootaca- 

 Ml-.sr).— In my report of last year. I asked if Gov- 

 ernment would be inclined to satictiou th)^ establi.'*h- 

 ment of a small museum in Ootacamund, which should 

 contain typical collections of objects of interest to 

 those living on the Nilgiri plateau and in the Wynaad, 

 and I further stated that I thought such a museum 

 should take in all the chief branches of Natural 

 Science — Botany, Zoology, (leology. Mineralogy and 

 Ethnology. Government, in paragraph I'Z oi their 

 U. O, diited I'Oth Octobrr 188i. No. 1,1.">, Uevenue. 

 reviewing my report approved of the suggestion, and 

 they accordingly re<iue.sted me to work out the details 

 of the scheme in communication with the Superin- 

 temlent of the Government C entral Museum, Madras, 

 the Consen-ator of Forests, Northern Circle, and the 

 Collector of the Nilgirim. 



Owing to the alisence from the Hills of one or 

 other of the above a])point<Hl Cominitteo, no meeting 

 was held until the I3th of last month. 1 th :n ex- 

 plained what I considered should be the scope uf tlie 

 museum, and I pro<luced a plan of a building which 

 I thought would be sufficiently large to contain all 

 such collections m might be acquired duriog tha first 



few years of the museum's existence, and I pointed 

 out that the building, which I proposed, would admit 

 of being indefinitely extended. With respect to tiie 

 pt'ope of the museum, I urged upon my Polieagu?s 

 that it would be desirable that at first the collections 

 should be confined to such objects only as would be 

 of infiirest to tht; ordinary well-educated and intellig- 

 ent res!deu.t, European or Nati%-e, and that complete 

 collections of everything existing iu the district which 

 would be serviceable only to ^-pecialists shoidil be allowed 

 to stand over to a future day. These propositions, 

 hewever, met with their most decided disapproval. 

 They were unanimous in thinking that the scope 

 which I proposed was far too narrow, and that instead 

 of commencing with a small buihiing a-'d adding to 

 it as occasion niigl)t require, a Iiirg(> museum should 

 be built at ouce, which would accommodate a perfect 

 collection of all natural history objects. 



Seeing that we ware of such very opposite views as 

 to what ought to bo done, I asked D.^ctor Bidie, Mr. 

 Burrows and Mr. ( Jamble to put upou paper the views 

 which they had advanced in the discussion. This they 

 have kindly done, anrl I annex a copy of the report 

 which they have drawn up on I lie subject. 



♦ * # » 



Mr. Burrows, while agreeing in the opinions of Doctor 

 Bidio and Mr. Gamble, considered that in order to 

 make a museum in Ootacamuml a useful and success- 

 ful institution and to ensure its permanency, it should 

 be sj arranged aud managed so as to prove an 

 attraction to the public and a credit to the stiition. 

 It should be aceessibie bith to mere visitors and to 

 learners and should be one of the public institutions of 

 Ootacamuud. In this we were all agreed. Ethnological 

 collections, it was thought, in a district wh^ro 'here 

 are several aboriginal races who might be likely to 

 de rejise in numbers rather than increase and to change 

 perhaps their mode <»f life, would also be of real interest 

 aud require some space aud some care in arrange- 

 ment. 



Then tliere wotild be a necessity for a series of speci- 

 niuus properly representative of the coffee, tea, cinchona, 

 fibre and other industries of the district atul Wynaad, 

 and thr'ugh Jfr. Lawson thou^'ht that n small box of 

 ). few feet square would properly represent all that 

 was useful to show as regards cotlfec, the rest of the 

 m -eting did not agree with liim and thought that 

 unless such subjects were thoroughly aud well, perhaps 

 even copitmsly, represented as regards the soil, growth, 

 varieties, diseases and products of manufacture, the 

 collection would be of but little interest and planters 

 would not care for it. 



Then the Gold-mi'iing industry and the various 

 though not very exten.sive mineral products including 

 the building stones, &c., require to be shown, and 

 ihoughperhaps in themselves they would not take up 

 muchroom, yet they would add to the sum total of 

 the space required, and for this a wall space of 130 feet 

 would be totally inadequate. And in Mr. Lawson's 

 proposed room with three-feet eases, the spaces for tho 

 circulation of visitors would be retlnced to merely 

 \'S xb' feet in each room. We were further agreed that 

 if a mu.seum be instituted iu Ootacamund--as all were 

 of opinion shouli' be the case — it should be confined to 

 the disjday of local products, and its aim should be that 

 which in his address to the Biology section of the 

 British Association at Swansea iu 1S80, Dr. Giinther 

 thus described . — 



" 1 he principal aim of a Brovineial Museum ought, 

 iu my opinion, to be popular instruction. I do not mean 

 that it shoubl be merely a plnce for mild amusement 

 and recreation, but that it should rank equal with all 

 nimilar institutions destined to spread knowledge and 

 cultivate taste among the people. To attain this lim 

 it should contain an arranged series of well preserved 

 specimens rei)rc8enting as many of the remarkable 

 types of living forms as are obtainable ; a series of 

 useful as well as noxious plants and animals ; of economic 

 products derived from the animal aud vegetable king- 

 doms; aud list Vbut not least) a complete and accurately 

 named series of the flora and fauna of the neigh- 

 bourhood. 



