August, 1910.] 



127 



Plant Sanitation. 



as to the means to be adopted to prevent 

 the advent of the scheduled and other 

 pests. 



This id what we mean by sympathetic 

 application of the order, Our reason 

 for urging that it be applied gradually 

 is that the inspectors will have to learn 

 their business. For our part, we doubt 

 there are twenty men in the country who 

 could identify unerringly the sixteen 

 pests mentioned in the schedule. We 

 cannot achieve knowledge by an order 

 of the Board, and here, as so often is 

 the case, we must educate our masters— 

 in other words, we must train our 

 inspectors. The simplest way in which 

 this can be done is by giving them a 

 definite status in local institutions with 

 agricultural and horticultural depart- 



ments where they may bring their 

 material for examination, and where 

 they may carry out investigations in 

 respect to the pests with which the 

 locality is infested, with the object of 

 arriving at the best means of prevention 

 and extermination. Certain authorities 

 have begun work on these lines, and 

 among them the Berkshire County Coun- 

 cil, in connection with the Agricultural 

 and Horticultural Department of Univer- 

 sity College, Reading, and though it is 

 too early yet to review the results, we 

 raav look forward with confidence to 

 success attending the scheme. Subject, 

 therefore, to its intelligent application, 

 the order is to be welcomed as a step 

 towards the systematic control of plant- 

 diseases. 



LIVE STOCK. 



THE PROBLEM OP AGRICULTURAL 

 CATTLE IN CEYLON. 



By Mr. W. A. db Silva, 

 Municipal Veterinary Surgeon. 



[Read before the Board of Agriculture 

 at its Meeting on August 1, 1910.] 



The maintenance of a sufficient 

 number of agricultural cattle in the 

 Island is a matter that deserves careful 

 attention. With the opening up of the 

 country the area on which cattle were 

 kept without expense to the owners is 

 gradually being reduced. Animals now 

 are, in many instances, allowed to stray 

 along roadsides and cultivated gardens. 

 They pick up what they can for their 

 food. The scanty supply of food is 

 rapidly deteriorating the breed of cattle. 

 The primary use to which cattle are put 

 in this country is for work in connection 

 with the cultivation of rice fields. We 

 have also to depend on- cattle for most 

 of our transport work. 



There are, according to recent figures, 

 about a million head of cattle and 500,000 

 buffaloes in the Island. Nearly a third 

 of these will be young calves and old 

 animals unfit for work. 200,000 may 

 reasonably be put down as animals used 

 solely for transport purposes, leaving 

 800,000 for use in the cultivation of about 

 600,000 acres of rice land. 



An acre of rice land requires on an 

 average the services of 30 head of cattle 

 for its cultivation. All the work in 

 connection with rice cultivation in a 

 given area has to be clone within the 

 period of from ten to fitteeu days. 

 Hence an average of about 3 head of 



cattle per day is required. To meet this 

 requirement fully we must, it will be 

 seen, have perhaps three times the 

 number of effective cattle that we now 

 have ; whereas the problem that has to 

 be faced at present is to devise means 

 even to keep the present smaller number 

 without inconvenience to the public. 

 On the other hand, the production of 

 rice is a subject that deserves careful 

 consideration, as. apart from the grain 

 being the staple food of the people, its 

 price should form the basis of wages 

 for all labour in the Island. 



The rapid extension of inter-communi- 

 cation between the various districts in 

 India, and the increase in the standard 

 of living of millions of its inhabitants, 

 are tending to reduce the quantity of rice 

 available for export from that country. 

 If the present increase of the local 

 demand continues in that continent, 

 Ceylon, in the near future, will have to 

 face a very serious problem, both in 

 connection with the food supply of the 

 indigenous population, and the large 

 Indian eooly population that has to be 

 maintained in connection with our plant- 

 ing industries. The time may not be 

 far distant when rubber, tea, aud coconut 

 planters may have to maiutain tracts ot 

 rice land iu some of the tank regions to 

 provide the food necessary for feeding 

 their labour force. 



The cattle question resolves itself into 

 this. To maintain the proper cultivation 

 of the existing rice fields, according to 

 the usual methods now in vogue, the 

 present supply of cattle is hardly 

 adequate ; and, on the other hand, even 

 this inadequate supply it is difficult to 

 maintain without extreme inconvenience 



