Miscellaneous. 



246 



[March 1908. 



3. Why a Central Board is Neces- 

 sary. — It may be asked, if this is the 

 ease, why there should be a Central 

 Board (or a Society) at all when the 

 Revenue Officers could carry on agricul- 

 tural improvements with the direct 

 sanction and aid of the Executive 

 Government. To answer this I have 

 only to mention what was made abun- 

 dantly clear by the Commission of 1899 — 

 that the great drawback to agricultural 

 improvement in the native districts 

 during the past century has been the 

 want of continuity, the want of some 

 one Central Board and officers to take 

 cognizance of what has been begun in 

 each district, and to see that if Experi- 

 mental Gardens, Agri-Horticultural Ex- 

 hibitions, Garden Produce Shows, head- 

 men's or leading residents' gardens with 

 experiments in new products— pepper, 

 cacao, tobacco, etc. — are once introduced, 

 the same should, if at all possible, be con- 

 tinuously or permanently carried on, or 

 good reasons given why any such experi- 

 ments should be dropped. It was shown, 

 for instance, that often, through the 

 interest of a particular District Revenue 

 Officer, a start had been made with a 

 new product or industry, or an old 

 industry had been revived and improved 

 — and how considerable progress had 

 been made — during five or six years 

 of a particular local administration 

 through the Agents' or their Assistants' 

 influence over, and pressure upon, head- 

 men and cultivators. But that, when a 

 successor came with no taste for agri- 

 cultural improvements, the experiments 

 get neglected and the progress was lost. 

 Promising Experimental Gardens have 

 been begun, in which, if accompanied by 

 periodical district Shows and all duly 

 reported on and recorded in the annals 

 of a Central Board, there would be some 

 hope for continuity ; but in not a few 

 cases these have been abandoned. An 

 experienced Bevenue officer has said to 

 me in years gone by : " Our stations are 

 full of the neglected sites where one Re- 

 venue Officer started an experiment in 

 new products or a regular Experimental 

 Garden and his successor let it die out." 

 The existence of judiciously managed 

 Local Branches of a Central Agricultural 

 Board are calculated to counteract such 

 want of continuity ; and not only so, but 

 to secure some measure of uniformity 

 all over the Island in respect of agricul- 

 tural improvements, through the publi- 

 city given to periodical or special 

 reports, and the notice taken ot the 

 same from time to time at the Board 

 meetings. If ever a spirit of emulation 

 in agricultural improvement and pro- 

 gress is to be fostered among the Dis- 

 trict Headmen or leading agriculturists 



in the native districts, it must be 

 through an agency of this kind. 



4. Agri-Horticultural Shows.— 

 Take the one item of Agri-Horticultural 

 or Produce Shows, and if a Board of 

 Agriculture and its Branches did noth- 

 ing else but secure the systematic estab- 

 lishment of such Shows throughout the 

 different provinces and districts, it 

 would, in my opinion, be doing a notable 

 work which could not fail to tell on the 

 agricultural enlightenment and advance- 

 ment of the people. Not only so, but 

 such district gatherings and Shows 

 should provide a subject of general inter- 

 est and even amusement to the people. 

 The British Government in Ceylon, as 

 nas frequently been remarked, has done 

 far too little to encourage sports and 

 pastimes of an innocent nature among 

 its native subjects, and, as a conse- 

 quence, " to have a case in Court" and 

 to dance attendance once a month, or 

 once a quarter, at the nearest judicial 

 court has been regarded by families and 

 villagers as the nearest official provision 

 afforded them for a holiday. One of 

 the most successful Agri-Horticultural 

 gatherings ever arranged in Ceylon was 

 by the late Mr. Baumgartner at Matara 

 in 1889 where, following on the Show of 

 Products and Stock and the distribution 

 of prizes, there came a series of native as 

 well as Western games with due rewards 

 to winners which, with the medals, 

 money and certificates for produce 

 prizes, sent the country-folk back to 

 their villages far better contented with 

 their rulers and themselves than prob- 

 ably they had ever been before. The 

 chief provincial capitals and minor sta- 

 tions should each have such a Show and 

 holiday time once a year, if possible, 

 or neighbouring districts might alter- 

 nate ; while the less populous districts 

 could have Shows and gatherings on a 

 more moderate scale. As to the advant- 

 age of these we can see what Govern- 

 ment Agent Evan M. Byrde wrote from 

 Anuradhapura Kachcheri on June 30, 

 1899 :— " Since the inauguration of Garden 

 Products Shows in this Province, the im- 

 provement in the growth of fruit and 

 vegetables is very marked, and now 

 what is needed is fresh stocks of seed 

 and an established Board of Agriculture 

 to keep up the interest in this useful 

 work. I may add that during this 

 month I have held three Garden Pro- 

 ducts Shows in the Province, and the 

 result far exceeded my expectations ; in 

 fact, all who attended these shows, 

 including even the villagers, expressed 

 astonishment at the large number of 

 exhibitors and exhibits, and in very 

 many cases the exhibits were very good 

 indeed." This is sufficient proof of what 



