CH. Ill] DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 219 



The department must obviously publish a journal, or, as is 

 done in Ceylon, circulars, i.e. occasional publications dealing 

 only with one item of work. This form of publication has the 

 great advantage that nothing need be published until it has 

 been thoroughly worked up, that the publication can be large 

 or small, and that it can be used to save correspondence, a 

 circular (marked or unmarked) being sent as a complete or 

 partial answer to a letter. 



The journal must evidently be in English, or other European 

 language, in most tropical countries, and something must also 

 be published in the vernacular for the benefit of the majority 

 of the population, who will not understand it. As such people 

 will not as a rule read long articles, perhaps the best form for 

 such publication to take is that of short leaflets, which can be 

 distributed by any organisation available for the purpose. It 

 is worth noting that even for the best educated and most 

 progressive part of the community, the publications should be 

 as short as possible. It is better to give a short article, and 

 repeat it later under another title, and in other words, than to 

 give so long a one that it is not properly read or assimilated. 



By the publication of a journal, by the visits of the planters 

 to the Botanic Gardens and the Experiment Stations, or to the 

 Mycologist and Entomologist, and by the establishment among 

 them of cooperative experiments, the planting or capitalist 

 community will probably be sufficiently served, for they can 

 write about anything upon which they desire fuller information, 

 and can visit the departmental libraries, museums, etc. 



The next question is, how to get at the peasant class, the 

 poorer villagers, and labourers. This is a difficult problem. 

 Perhaps one of the best ways of reaching them is through the 

 administrative officers of Government, who should have trained 

 agricultural instructors under them. The work to be done by 

 these instructors should be planned out by the Government, 

 or by their administrative superior, in consultation with the 

 head of the agricultural department, but they should not be 

 responsible to the latter department. This department should 

 inspect and criticise their work, and report to the administrative 

 officer concerned. 



