and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



J 97 



tion under modern methods, witli efforts to 

 apply them to the present wants and conditions ; 

 and this state of things has, to a large extent, 

 affected the position of the cultivating classes as 

 well as agriculture in general, thus causing a 

 change in the real prosperity of the country 

 in respect of food supply and paddy cultivation. 

 Notwithstanding the fact that large expendi- 

 ture has been made on Irrigation Works by the 

 bountiful liberality of the Government, and that 

 paddy cultivation ha3 been extended to some 

 degree, the Government has still to confront 

 the problem of food supply to an increasing 

 population, and has to see that the country 

 yields its own food as in days of yore, when* the 

 population was a great deal larger than at 

 present. It is to the problem of food supply 

 that the attention of the Government has been 

 solicited, as this has become a matter all import- 

 ant to the welfare of the country and the pros- 

 perity of those employed in the various branches 

 of industry. In doing so the Government 

 cannot leave unnoticed the welfare of the people 

 who are destined to work on the soil, ar;d on 

 whom rests to a large extent the weight of pro- 

 ducing the food supply. Their position gener- 

 ally i3 a helpless one, and they require every 

 help and encouragement to carry on the work. 

 The people's attention as well as time is always 

 taken up in having something to do after or 

 before the operation of sowing and reaping, as 

 the paddy-fields require to be tilled or ploughed 

 up immediately after the crop is gathered, which 

 is not done now regularly ; on account of which 

 the ground gets hard and dried up ; besides, the 

 cultivators have in some places to keep watch 

 in huts during night to guard the crops from 

 wild animals and to do a great deal of fencing 

 and clearing water-courses during the crop 

 season ; in some districts they have to weed the 

 crop and transplant bare portions and to drive 

 away flies morning and evening when the flower- 

 ing season begins. 



The villagers require a great deal of encour- 

 agement in this respect to induce them to be 

 more earnest and painstaking at their work. It 

 is monetary help that they often need to meet 

 the day's exigencies now pressing hard on them, 

 and their wants and necessities have ofton been 

 hindrances to their regular and proper carry- 

 ing on of this cultivation. It is, however, the 

 opinion of a great many of the community who 

 are foreigners or strangers to Eastern ways and 

 methods, that no philanthropic measures 

 should be adopted towards the middle and 

 poorer classes, according to the ideas instilled 

 by the dogmas of Adam Smith who thought that 

 such subsidies and State protection were unwise 

 and should not be given when the State Exchequer 

 is not directly benefited. This is most repugnant 

 to the sentiments of Orientals as not being 

 altruistic, and it is one of the greatest errors 

 originating from Western thoughts imbibed by 

 many. They should know that the distress of 

 the poorer classes of cultivators, who suffer 

 from want, tells mcst disastrously on the in- 

 terests of the general community, and that on 

 their prosperity depends the welfare of the 

 country. The Government, however, would 

 like to see the cultivating classes enjoy the 

 welfare and simple delights of life as in olden 

 days. One of the greatest mistakes committed 



by a largo class of modern thinkers, who do not 

 know much of native habits and matters purely 

 Eastern, is that they are so pleased with the 

 advancement and excellence of their own insti- 

 tutions, that they cannot understand why the 

 people of other races are not contented with 

 what contents them ; and this has been the main 

 cause of the difficulty and inability they experi- 

 ence to grapple with some of the burning pro- 

 blems in Eastern life and thoughts. 



III. 



March gjW. 

 Sir, — In the articles, which I have contributed 

 to the " Rivikirana" for the information of the 

 people in general, 1 have pointed out the desir- 

 ability of creating a Fund on people's account 

 by taking l/10th of the produce of paddy lands, 

 showing my reasons for such a procedure, so 

 that one half of what is recovered from a tract 

 of paddy holds may go to remunerate the field- 

 headman and that the other half may be cre- 

 dited to the people for agricultural aid, out of 

 which small loans may be advanced on easy 

 terms to meet the wants of the people. This 

 Fund may be supplemented by a Government 

 grant-in-aid in proportion, or even by way of a 

 loan until the fund for the people is gradually 

 developed into a large sum to make it self- 

 supporting. 



The Government can consider at the same 

 time the utilisation of the present Irrigation 

 Department which is a very expensive item 

 hardly bearing good fruit. If it is converted into 

 an Agricultural Department with a few Engi- 

 neers and Chief Irrigation Headmen, having 

 the field-headmen under them, to look after 

 tracts of fields, the expense to Government 

 would bo very much less and the results much 

 more satisfactory. 



There are thousands of acres in the North- 

 Central, North-Western and other Provinces 

 where colonies of paddy cultivators can be settled 

 on easy terms and the success of such a scheme 

 will bring prosperity and at the same time 

 materially reduce crime. 



I have submitted the above as being the most 

 feasible and suitable to the condition of the 

 people; my object being to create a Fund to sup- 

 ply the monetary wants of the cultivating 

 classes and the appointment of a set of intelli- 

 gent and capable field headmen to supervise 

 paddy cultivation in a systematic manner. The 

 execution of such a work will have to be pushed 

 on persistently by Government without leaving 

 the same in the hands of the people only, or to 

 the sole management of communities, as it 

 would not ensure success in the end. 



If there be any reasons urged against such a 

 procedure as herein is suggested, they could be 

 disproved from facts of nature. Nature supplies 

 us with striking lessons as to how certain 

 things should be done to meet certain ends, 

 in order to achieve success and that there must 

 be a power (the Government in the present case) 

 to push on such projects, when there is sufficient 

 reason to execute what is necessary. 



Professor AH Church, the eminent chemist, 

 makes use of the word "directivity'' as some- 

 thing that guides the formation of a construc- 

 tive body making different arrangements in the 



