230 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Under this head the great duty of a garden is to introduce 

 all the useful plants possible, to collect all the plants of the 

 local flora, and to have at least two living specimens of each. 

 This will as a rule take up all the available space of a garden. 

 For further work an experiment station must be opened, in 

 which any plants that have been acclimatised in the botanic 

 garden may be further worked at, and experiments carried 

 out aiming at improvements in the existing crops, methods, 

 tools and cattle. In general at least two-thirds of the area 

 of such a station will be devoted to the latter class of experi- 

 ments and only a small portion to the experiments with new 

 products. 



It is in this direction, perhaps, that the most important 

 advances have been made in recent years and every well- 

 equipped agricultural department has now at least one experi- 

 ment station. It would lead too far in this sketch to go into 

 details of the actual work that is being done but a few of 

 the experiments in progress on the chief station in Ceylon may 

 be quoted. 



The station having had to be planted from the start with 

 all crops but cacao, the tea and other crops are only now 

 coming into condition for experiments on preparation, and 

 work has been devoted to the effects of different systems of 

 manuring, in bringing them into good cropping condition. Tea 

 has been grown with and without ordinary manures, with green 

 manures, with and without " shade," and upon flat and upon 

 sloping land. On the established cacao experiments have been 

 tried with every kind and mixture of manure ; as this crop 

 was in bearing when the station was begun, experiments have 

 been made on various methods of preparation of the product. 

 Rubber, one of the greatest crops that have in recent times 

 sprung up in tropical cultivation, is being tried both unmixed 

 and mixed with various catch crops, which may perhaps enable 

 the cultivator of rubber to gain some income during the period 

 the rubber is attaining maturity without unduly delaying that 

 period. Camphor, which has proved fairly successful at other 

 elevations, is being tried, and manuring experiments are in 

 progress with rice, coco-nuts, etc. Papaws have been tried for 

 the preparation of papain, and many other of the established 

 crops of the island have been experimented with. With new 

 products the chief work hitherto has been with lemon grass. 



