March 1908,] 



245 



Miscellaneous. 



if they will not grow there and occupy 

 land that to-day is the ranging ground 

 of wild-hogs and half-wild cattle. 



A DROUTH-RESISTANT NUT. 



Thousands of acres of almond orchards 

 in California have been unprofitable be- 

 cause the rainfall is too light in the re- 

 gions where the orchards have been start- 

 ed ; and to get a more drouth-retistant 

 nut plant for these areas the pistache 

 from the Levant has been brought in, 

 and there are nowbeing set outat various 

 places in California small pistache orch- 

 ards, the pioneers of the new pistache 

 industry, that will some day make this 

 delicious nut as common as the almond 

 is, not ; as a colouring and flavouring 

 material for ice creams, but as a nut for 

 the table, to serve as salted almonds are 

 now. Mr. Swingle, the enthusiastic in- 

 troductor of this nut, has searched 

 throughout the world for all the pistache 

 species that can be found, some to use as 

 stocks and others to breed from, and 

 there is every prospect that he will 

 succeed in introducing into the arid re- 

 gions of the South-west an entirely new 

 nut industry. 



These are some of the many problems 

 that the Government enterprise of Plant 

 Introduction is engaged in solving. 



They are problems that private enter- 

 prise will not naturally undertake ; they 

 are problems that concern the wealth- 

 producing power of American soil ; they 

 are problems that the Government has 

 shown its ability to solve in a manner 

 involving an insignificant outlay of the 

 public funds. They encouraged the pro- 

 duction of food and other products that 

 we now import from other lands, and 

 they concern the establishment of farm 

 industries which, for generations to 

 come, will support hundreds of thou- 

 sands, perhaps millions, of American 

 citizens.— The National Geographic Maga- 

 zine, Washington, Vol. XVII., No. 4, 

 April, 1906. 



[This is the only satisfactory way of 

 plant introduction now-a-days. All the 

 " obvious "introductions have been made, 

 and it i3 the work of a travelling 

 specialist to find new things in appreci- 

 able quantity.— Ed.] 



32 



THE POSSIBILITIES BEFORE THE 

 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY: ITS 

 BOARD, AND BRANCH ASSO- 

 CIATIONS, IF JUDICIOUSLY 

 WORKED. 



(Paper read by the Hon. Mr. J, Fergu- 

 son, c.m.g., at the Meeting of the Board 

 of Agriculture on 9th March, 1908.) 



1. Agricultural Commission of 1899. 

 —In 1899 H.E. Sir West Ridgeway ap- 

 pointed a Commission, under the pre- 

 sidency of Mr. Justice Laurie, to enquire 

 into, and report on, the advisability of 

 establishing a Department of Agricul- 

 ture. The Chairman and a minority of 

 members reported in favour of the 

 establishment of such a Department and 

 the appointment of a Director of Agri- 

 culture, to be assisted by an Advisory 

 Board. The majority, including all the 

 Ceylonese members, Dr. Willis and Mr. 

 A. F. Broun, Conservator of Forests, 

 were opposed to a new Department, and 

 favoured the appointment of a Board of 

 Agriculture, with a member of the Exe- 

 cutive Council as Chairman to be in close 

 touch with all the Government Agents 

 and Assistant Government Agents, as 

 well as the staff at Peradeniya. In 

 favour of the establishment of a Central 

 Agricultural Board with Branch Provin- 

 cial Boards, all to be assisted with 

 scientific advice (in preference to an 

 Agricultural Department and Director 

 of Agriculture), very strong opinions 

 were expressed in 1899 by such ex- 

 perienced Government Agents as the late 

 Messrs. F. C. Fisher, H. Wace, Allanson 

 Bailey, R. W. levers, and Messrs. Evan 

 Byrde, G. A. Baumgartner and G, M. 

 Fowler. 



2. The Starting of the Agricul- 

 tural Society.— Nothing was done 

 until, on the 17th October, 1904, the 

 Ceylon Agricultural Society was founded 

 by Sir Henry Blake, and a Board of 

 Agriculture formed on a very wide 

 official and unofficial basis. I need not 

 refer to the past working of this Board 

 further than to say that, in my opinion, 

 a great mistake was made when organis- 

 ing Branch Societies in the different 

 provinces and districts, in not putting 

 the same under the direct control, as 

 Presidents, of the several Government 

 Agents and Assistant Government 

 Agents. It is when these officials have 

 taken an active interest — as in the 

 Badulla, the Trincomalie, the Vavuniya 

 and Mullaittivu, the Colombo, Kegalle, 

 Matale and Nuwara Eliya branches — that 

 most benefit has been secured through 

 the working of the Society. 



