CH. IV] CROPS AND METHODS OF PEASANT AGRICULTURE 169 



his own, and that it will cost him nothing to adopt it, but if it 

 involve more labour than the one in use, or an unaccustomed 

 form of labour, then he will often have none of it. This has 

 been the great stumbling-block in the introduction of trans- 

 planting of rice in Ceylon. 



Other great obstacles are poverty and ignorance, both of 

 which are dealt with in special chapters. 



There are innumerable directions in which native methods 

 can be improved, but very careful study is required, as explained 

 above. To take a few illustrations and suggestions. 



The tillage of the ground is by rude implements and by a 

 great expenditure of physical labour in proportion to the result 

 achieved. A great improvement is probably possible by the 

 aid of labour-saving methods and implements. This is evident 

 enough, and many well-meant endeavours have been made to 

 introduce such tools. The mistake has been to try to make 

 too large a step at once. The most modern machinery has been 

 introduced directly. Of course the villager does not understand 

 it properly, he cannot repair it if anything goes wrong, he 

 cannot afford to buy it, and in many other ways it is unsuited 

 to local conditions. The proper way of progress is the scientific 

 one. The local tool should be carefully studied and compared 

 with other tools of similar nature or used for similar purposes, 

 and then, when the principle of the whole subject is under- 

 stood, the local tool should be modified slightly in the desired 

 direction, so slightly that the villager need not have his pre- 

 judices offended, nor find anything that he cannot understand 

 or repair in the new instrument. Further, the cost should not 

 be appreciably increased. Each improvement in the tool should 

 be most carefully tested by comparative trials against the old 

 tool, before it is publicly introduced or recommended. The 

 very best tools and machinery for each purpose should of course 

 be imported from America and elsewhere for local trial, in order 

 to find out the principles on which advance has been made, 

 and what are the difficulties attending the use of such tools or 

 machinery in the country. 



Weeding is another direction in which native agriculture 

 appears capable of improvement. The native usually knows 



