158 . AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT III. 



adulterating theirs so much that they can sell it a good deal 

 cheaper than the pure stuff supplied by the society. In a case 

 like this the only thing to be done is to show that the good 

 manure gives much better results, or to adulterate it to such 

 an extent with sand or something harmless that it can be sold 

 at the same rate as the worse adulterated stuff sold by the local 

 people. 



Having got over the difficulty of the want of cash for the 

 commencement of agricultural operations, we must now work 

 at the other end of the problem, and consider the question of 

 supply of a market to the villager for his produce. In the case 

 of rice or other staples of long standing there is as a rule a good 

 enough local market, through travelling middlemen or otherwise, 

 for any that the peasant may have to sell after supplying his 

 own wants, but in the case of other things, more especially 

 anything that may be new in the district, a market must be 

 supplied, or the villager will not have gained anything. He 

 should if possible be kept out of the hands of the travelling 

 middlemen, for of course, being entirely ignorant of market 

 fluctuations, he is to a large extent helpless in their hands. 

 One of the first matters to be attended to, therefore, if the 

 cultivation of vegetables or other things of local consumption is 

 to be encouraged, is the provision of local markets within easy 

 reach of the villagers. Along the coast of Ceylon, for instance, 

 there are such, markets at every few miles, in the larger villages 

 near the seaboard, where the fishing community, who do not 

 grow vegetables, etc., for themselves, can purchase the produc- 

 tions of the interior villages. If the population in a district 

 is too small, or too entirely engaged in agriculture for the 

 establishment of such a market to have much likelihood of 

 success, then the encouragement of the cultivation of produce 

 for which the demand must be local will be of little use unless 

 some scheme of the nature of a cooperative selling association 

 can be also established. Such an association for instance is in 

 operation at Vavuniya, in the north of Ceylon, where there is 

 also no local market at all among the very small population. 

 It collects produce from the villagers, and forwards it fortnightly 

 to Colombo, where it is sold by auction in the local market. 



