170 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



A NEW EXPLOSIVE "ERGITE " 

 COMING OUT. 



July 10th. 



Sir, — Your article and recent references to 

 the use of dynamite or other powerful explo- 

 sives for breaking up and deep trenching of 

 the soil for agricultural purposes are of con- 

 siderable interest. All who have any know- 

 ledge of agriculture are aware of the value of 

 deep cultivation ; deep ploughing, and double 

 trenching in spade work, have excellent re- 

 sults in the crops, that follow such treatment 

 of the soil. In the Tropics deep cultivation 

 is known to be very beneficial, and in the case 

 of such a product as Rubber it has been 

 proved again and again that the larger and 

 deeper are the holes in which the stumps are 

 planted, the stronger and more vigorous will be 

 the growth of the plant. And it is very probable 

 that in a few years the use of explosives will 

 be pretty general ; and especially in the case 

 of hard soils and where there is a rocky or hard 

 sub-stratum the results will be very beneficial. 

 Of course there are drawbacks to the use of 

 such an explosive as dynamite, important among 

 which is the danger and high cost of the 

 dynamite. In this connection it may be of in- 

 terest to your readers to learn that a new ex- 

 plosive will very shortly be put upon the market 

 which will be particularly useful for agricultural 

 work. For the paet 30 years it has been the 

 unceasing endeavour of the greatest explosive 

 experts to produce a plaster dynamite by the 

 simple admixture of non-explosive ingredients, 

 that is, without the use of nitro-glycerine. This 

 has now been accomplished, and the new explo- 

 sive is possessed of all the advantages of the 

 present nitro-glycerine dynamites without their 

 disadvantages. It is of exceptional strength and 

 shows no tendency to deteriorate on prolonged 

 storage in hot climates and is unaffected by 

 mixture. Further as regards cheapness, the 

 total cost of production costs 3£d per lb. or £80 

 per ton cheaper than Gelignite, 



This new and remarkable explosive is shortly 

 to be placed on the market, and it will be of 

 interest to Ceylon in that a Ceylon man just 

 now at home is interested in the Company 

 just being proved to acquire the patents and 

 rights in the new explosive which is known as 

 Ergite. 



Further information will be available in 

 due course.— Yours faithfully, 



AGRICOLA. 



NATIVE AGRICULTURE: 



AND OUR NEW DIRECTOR OF 

 AGRICULTURE. 



Mr, R. N. Lyne, our new Director of Agriuul- 

 ture, arrived in Ceylon recently and made his 

 first public appearance at the All Ceylon Exhi- 

 bition when he read a paper before the Ceylon 

 Agricultural Society, on " Some Reflections on 

 Rubber Planting and Agricultural Education " 

 This by way of introduction to the following 

 interesting letter from our correspondent "B.": — 

 The general opinion formed of the new 

 Director of Agriculture after having heard his 

 very able paper, was, that in him we have 

 secured a very valuable asset ; and that if he 

 continues his work as outlined by him, he will 

 advance native Agricultural methods and will 

 confer almost incalculable benefits to the cause 

 of native agriculture. I should have wished to 

 say what I am writing now, at the meeting,' 

 but I am unaccustomed to public speaking 

 and the presence of His Excellency and a galaxy 

 ot distinguished gentlemen, almost paralysed me. 



The great mistake that Agricultural reformers 

 make is to run down existing methods. That 

 was the fatal mistake made by that good man, 

 Mr H W Green, who gave the start to improved 

 agricultural methods. He was an ardent re- 

 former, but was not practical and was mulishly 

 wedded to his opinions. His initial mistake 

 was to use the heavy Swedish plough for paddy 

 fields. This plough is too heavy even in high 

 land for one pair of buffaloes. I could not hire a 

 pair of buffaloes to work it on the sandy soil of 

 a coconut estate. Besides, it ploughed too 

 deep. Being ignorant of agricultural chemistry, 

 Mr Green did not know of the evils of deep 

 ploughing and of bringing to the surface the 

 sour sub-soil and in many instances the sandy 

 sub-soil. The villagers, whom he regarded as ig- 

 norant, know all this by practical experience. 



I had a long correspondence with Mr Green 

 on this subject and pointed out to him that the 

 objections to the Swedish plough were : 1, its 

 weight; 2, its high cost ; and 3, the inability of 

 the village blacksmith to renew worn out parts. 

 Nothing would convince him he was wrong. 



Mr Lyne is bound to succeed and to gain 

 the confidence of the "goiya" and his sym- 

 pathisers who are placed in higher planes than 

 themselves. He struck the right chord when 

 he stated : " according to his lights, the native 

 cultivator knows his business. It is our busi- 

 ness to try and understand his motives. Pati- 

 ence and an understanding of the motives of 



