and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— July, 1910. 



77 



as "granges," somewhat of the nature of guilds, 

 which by constitutional measures should be 

 able to control the agricultural policy of the 

 country. If but the isolated units, so fre- 

 quently referred to as "the voiceless goiyas," 

 would see the advantages of combining for 

 useful ends, how much sounder and more 

 hopeful will their position be. 



The starting of these organisations is an 

 easy matter, but how to maintain thorn 

 in a state of efficiency is the problem to 

 be solved. In a country like Ceylon which, 

 as far as its native agriculture is concerned, 

 is only just emerging from the dark ages, 

 a lead is what is essential — such as has 

 been effectually given to the people of Dum- 

 bara by the very admirable organisation, the 

 doings of which were so fully reported in the 

 Agricultural Society's annual report. If only the 

 revenue officers of Government saw their way 

 to take the lead in the same way, we should not 

 be long in improving the condition of the village 

 cultivator by teaching him the benefits of co- 

 operation and other rational and practical mea- 

 sures that have worked such wonders in other 

 countries, both in the East and the West. But, 

 as Mr. Thomssen says, so long as human selfish- 

 ness is allowed to rule individuals and com- 

 munities, little can be expected. What is then 

 wanted is the education of the people to a sense 

 of honour and of mutual trustfulness. In the 

 course of a reply to a question on the sub- 

 ject of agricultural education, His Excel- 

 lency the Governor foreshadowed a scheme 

 which should have far-reaching effects in the 

 Colony, in that it is likely to amplify the 

 work now being done through school gardens, 

 in expanding the minds of the younger 

 generation of villagers, so that they may 

 come to realise their present state of degra- 

 dation (to speak plainly), and be induced 

 to become ambitious in the right direction, 

 namely, with a view to improve their status 

 as cultivators and producers. Agriculture is 

 often glibly spokeu of as the backbone of a 

 country ; and yet, comparatively speaking, how 

 little favour it receives from the State in many 

 parts of the world. The enlightened agricul- 

 tural policy of the United States of America is 

 at the root of its phenomenal prosperity. By 

 following its example Japan bids fair to enter 

 the first rank among the agricultural countries 

 of the world. Why should the first of Crown 

 Colonies lag behind ? 



SAMOAN COPRA. 



The Reason fok Improved Prices. 

 Apia, April 28. — Samoa is now getting a good 

 name for itself, on account of the good quality 

 of copra that is now exporting. Formerly a 

 greater part of the native copra was made from 

 niu sami or unripe nuts thrown down from the 

 trees, This produced not only a bad quality of 

 copra but was the cause of a lot of waste, as it 

 took far more unripe nuts to mako a ton than it 

 does of ripe ones. It was a common thing for 

 traders to lose 20 per cent, shrinkage on their 

 copra in four weeks from purchase. Now 7i; per 

 cent, is about tho average. Herewith a copy of 

 the Ordinance published about two years ago ; 



1. Copra must be only made from ripe nuta which |have 

 fallen down and are lying under the trees. 



2 Copra must be well-dried and must not be mixed with 

 stones, shells or other kinds of rubbish. 



3. The buying and selling of copra which is either made 

 of niusami, or which is not properly dried, or which is 

 adulterated is punishable with a money tine of from one 

 mark to two thousand marks, or with imprisonment for a 

 term of not less than one day and not more than three 

 months. The bad copra will be destroyed. 



i. It is the duty of the Pulenuu to control in his village 

 the cutting, weighing and selling of copra. In the case of 

 a Samoan being punished in accordance with Paragraph 

 III of this Ordinauce the Pulenuu of the village in which 

 the breach of law lias been committed, will also be punished 

 as he did not do his duty by preventing this breach of law. 



6. If, in a village, two punishments by the regulations 

 of this Ordinance occur within six months, then the Pulenuu 

 of this village will be dismissed, and the village will be 

 placed under the rule of the next village until the Gov- 

 ernor's pleasure. 



7. This Ordinance will be carried out with great strictness 

 as it means the manuia (prosperity) of Samoa. Therefore 

 let Samoans obey and make a good copra. (Translated 

 from the Saocdi the native Government Gazette.] 



All native copra coming to Apia is inspected 

 by the police. The police have the right to enter 

 any copra shed to inspect the copra being 

 weighed. The merchant or trader caught buying 

 copra that is not in accordance with the law is 

 also liable to punishment. 



This is the whole secret why Samoa is now tur- 

 ning out the best copra made in the South Seas. 



The D.H.P.G. and others owniug copra plan- 

 tations are nearly all supplied with driers, using 

 the husks and shells as fuel. — Fiji Times, May 14. 



"ANOTHER PARA RUBBER FUNGUS." 



On two or three occasions we had observed 

 that on dead trunks of Para rubber trees, after 

 being untouched for some weeus the outer corky 

 layer of bark split off in flakes and beneath 

 appeared large black patches of a fungus. This 

 fungus was in the form of a crust, black, hard 

 and rather brittle about 1-16—1 inch thick and 

 looking like dried tar or asphate. It formed 

 rather irregular patches of various sizes from 

 one to ten inches across the edges of the potches 

 being rounded, and the mass usually longer 

 than broad. In one tree about 25 years old and 

 about two feet through, there were no previous 

 signs of any disease, but the tree rather suddenly 

 died and the fungus came out on the wood some 

 weeks later. Since then the next tree to it ha3 

 died, much in the same way as if it had been 

 killed by Fomes, but it was not attacked by 

 that. On removing the stump we found that 

 just below the tree was an accumulation of foul 

 smelling water. The roots of the tree were 

 quite dead. Several other trees in this part of 

 the garden, but at some little distance, died 

 in a somewhat similar manner. None of these, 

 however, so far as I remember except the first 

 mentioned one, showed any sign of the fungus 

 after death, and indeed on seeing the foul 

 putrid mass of water and decayed sticks in 

 which the trees' roots had been living, I was 

 more surprised that they had lived so long than 

 that they had died. About the end of last year, 

 a smaller tree eight inches through in another 

 part of the garden was overset with several 

 others by a gale and itsr oots were badly 

 broken, it was replaced in position, but never 

 recovered and remained erect, but dead for 

 some time. It then developed tho fungus in 

 several parts of the stem from about 5 feet 



