THE 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF THE 



CEYLON AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. XXXIV. COLOMBO, JUNE 15th, 1910, No. 6. 



OHENA, JHUMING, TAUNGYA, 

 OR LADANG.* 



There can be no doubt that chena 

 "cultivation" is a most vicious and 

 destructive way of exploiting a country, 

 and there can be no doubt that it 

 is, theoretically, unnecessary — that the 

 land will stand continuous cropping;. 

 There is no reason to suppose that it will 

 not do so— no soil is so poor as all that, 

 where manure or green manure exists, 

 and theie is rain. 



The fact is that chena cultivation is a 

 symptom, showing the existence in 

 Ceylon of a low state of agricultural 

 equilibrium. Unthinking people declare 

 that native agriculture in Ceylon is in 

 a state of comparative perfection, that 

 the methods and crops cannot be im- 

 proved. Nothing can be more untrue, 

 and the reason that attempts to improve 

 the quality of the crops or the tools 

 have hitherto failed, is that people have 

 taken hold of the wrong end of the stick, 

 or rather, have attempted to lift the 

 wrong lever. 



What is really the case is that agri- 

 culture among the villagers has slowly 

 sunk to a low level, if indeed it were 

 ever at a much higher one, and every- 

 thing fits in with something else, so that, 



* Burning off the forest, cultivating a crop or 

 two, and abandoning the land. 



.for that level, the methods in use are the 

 best. We have before us the problem 

 of raising the level. 



It is no use trying to improve the 

 agriculture before we have first of all 

 made sure that all the preiiminat'ies to 

 successful and progressive agriculture 

 are properly seen to. The most import- 

 ant of these, as we have described at 

 length elsewhere, are capital, transport, 

 and education. Transport and educa- 

 tion facilities have been sufficiently well 

 attended to by the Government, and for 

 years we have been trying to persuade 

 people that capital is the essential key- 

 note of progress in Ceylon, The Euro- 

 pean planter is able to go ahead with 

 crops like tea, rubber and cacao because 

 he has the capital at his back to tide 

 over the period of waiting, and he can 

 adopt improved methods for the same 

 reason. 



Chena cultivation is one of many indi- 

 cations of a poor people, not possessing 

 the capital necessary properly to deve- 

 lop the land. Practically no capital is 

 necessary to open a chena, and yet a 

 good crop is obtained. The land has 

 been lying fallow for some years, and 

 its fertility is further increased by the 

 scorching it receives during the burning 

 off, and which, as has lately been shown, 

 destroys the amcebse, &c, which feed 

 upon the more valuable micro-organisms 

 of the soil, 



