and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— December, 1912, 495 



sponge from the coagulator passed through as 

 quickly as possible, before it becomes hard. 



Hard rubber must not be passed before un- 

 screwing the back screws (referred to above) to 

 give room. 



At no time should the power required to turn 

 the handle be beyond a youth who should be 

 able to turn freely.— G. H. Golledgb. 



Gikiyanakande, 21st July. 1912. 



[Note.— For the purpose of these instructions 

 by "Glacial Acetic Acid" is meant full strength 

 acid as supplied by the importers. " Acetic 

 Acid " is a weak solution of the formerg]. 



AGRICULTURE AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 



A contributor to the last Tropical Agriculturist 

 records the fact that the British Association has 

 elevated Agriculture to the dignity of a section, 

 and goes on to say that the circumstance marks 

 an epoch. The President of the new section, 

 at the recent meeting held in Dundee, was Pro- 

 fessor Middleton who traced the history of agri- 

 cultural progress from the time of Fitzherbert, 

 who was the first to arouse an interest in im- 

 proved methods of culture in England by his 

 "Book of Husbandry" published in 1523, by 

 Middleton warns us against making the mistake 

 of thinking that a better demand for products, 

 or a rise in prices, brings about improvement in 

 agriculture, which can only follow a change of 

 system as the result of extended knowledge 

 based on new discoveries. 



The state of affairs in England in the 

 18th century is very similar to that in 

 Ceylon in the 20th. We read that in 1760 

 " implements of husbandry were rude, 

 thorough drainage had not been introduced, 

 artificial manures (except crushed bones) were 

 hardly known, oil cakes were scarce, grain was 

 too valuable to be given freely to cattle, in bad 

 seasons live-stock had to starve so ithat men 

 might be fed, in good seasons prices fell rapidly, 

 credit was difficult to obtain and interest high." 

 This deacriptiot) might almost be applied 

 literally to Ceylon at the present time, so that 

 agriculture as it exists among our indigenous 

 population is fully two centuries behind the 

 times. 



The following passage from Prof. Middleton" 

 address goes to show that agricultural progress 

 must run its course and cannot be hurried: 

 " Improvements in the arts of agriculture can- 

 not be rapidly introduced ; there is first of all an 

 experimental stage and when improvad methods 



have been learned they pass slowly from 

 district to district. Before any marked advance 

 in the art can take place, there must, 

 therefore, occur a period during which a 

 foundation is being laid. It was about 1760 

 that our population began to increase rapidly 

 and it was then that agriculturists were 

 called upon to produce more food. As we have 

 seen, they were able to double the food-supply 

 in seventy years. It cannot be doubted that 

 this marvellous feat was rendered possible by 

 the pioneer societies of the preceding century, 

 or that it was the spirit of the improver, which 

 the early associations had fostered, that ani- 

 mated the men from whom Arthur Young and 

 Sir John Sinclair learned. If in place of these 

 enterprising agriculturists, whose improvements 

 are described in the reports of the first Board 

 of Agriculture, our shires had been occupied 

 by the " dull-witted country gentlemen " re- 

 ferred to by Lisle, or the "upstart sparks" 

 condemned by Mackintosh, the history of this 

 country must have been very different. 



This gives us hope that the work begun by 

 our local Board of Agriculture, and passed on 

 to the new Agricultural Department, will in the 

 fullness of time succeed in replacing the "dull- 

 witted " goiyas by an intelligent and enterpris- 

 ing body of cultivators who will develop the 

 natural resources of this favoured colony to 

 their fullest extent. 



NEW PRODUCT SUGGESTED FOR 

 CROWN COLONIES. 



For news to reach here from London via New 

 York is scarcely the most direct route ; but we 

 have seen in no home newspaper some sugges- 

 tions made in October before the Royal Commis- 

 sion under Sir E. Vincent, enquiring into the 

 natural resources and trade of the British self- 

 governing colonies. One American witness Mr. 

 J A Evans, (of Messrs. Evans Sons, Lescher and 

 Webb) had previously, before the British Phar- 

 maceutical Conference, suggested the extended 

 cultivation and production of drugs and essen- 

 tial oil-bearing plants in the British Empire. 

 Before the Trade Commission, to which the sug- 

 gestion was afterwards assigned for attention 

 and enquiry though it concerns other than self- 

 governing Colonies, Mr. Evans referred to the 

 activities in drug cultivation in the German 

 and Dutch colonies and United States. Reasons 

 for sybtematic cultivation of drugs in the British 

 colonies were found in the restricted areas at 

 present producing and which subjected the 

 drug to the local conditions at time of harvest- 



