Miscellaneous, 



348 



[October, 1910. 



removed above this position, but they 

 are in general above it, and it is in this 

 fact, and in what has already been cou- 

 sideted, that the hope for future pro- 

 gress lies, for we can see that progress 

 has been made in the past. Slight 

 though this progress may seem in com- 

 parison to that which has been achieved 

 in the agriculture of the colder climates, 

 it is none the less progress, and it 

 is not so many centuries since agricul- 

 ture in the north was also compara- 

 tively backward. What we have to do 

 is to trace out the factors which appear 

 to cause this progress, and then to re- 

 move from the path such hindrances as 

 will prevent or check their operation. 



Before the arrival in the tropics of the 

 more enterprising trading nations ot the 

 East and West, there was yet one other 

 factor which probably produced some 

 slight result, and that was the develop- 

 ment of facilities of transport. Until 

 these appeared, there could be noth- 

 ing in a country but agriculture of 

 the grow-what-you-want- md-consume- 

 what-you-grow type. 



Once, however, let the country become 

 comparatively settled and populous, and 

 means of transport of goods whether by 

 land or by water, would appear, and 

 with them a differentiation in agri- 

 culture, for A would find that it paid 

 him to grow let us say some fibre and 

 exchange this with B and C for some of 

 the necessary food supply, he having 

 had to neglect the cultivation ot some 

 of his food to grow the fibre. At first 

 sight it may appear that this is not pro- 

 gress at all, but the greater efficiency 

 thus introduced into agriculture must 

 not be forgotten, If 100 men each grow 

 say 75 % of their area in food, 10 % in 

 fibres, 10 % in oils, and 5 % in drugs, and 

 then a differentiation comes inj so that 

 75 men grow the food stuffs, 10 the fibres, 

 10 the oils, and 5 the drugs, all these 

 commodities will be more efficiently 

 produced, for each man can attend to 

 one crop only. In other words, the 

 total area that need be cultivated, or 

 the amount of work to be done by each 

 man may be diminished, or the amount 

 of total produce maybe increased, and 

 the excess sold to other parts of the 

 country, or to abroad. These two last 

 ways of arranging matters would ouly 

 come in at a much later period ; probably 

 at first the effect would be the reduction 

 of labour in the case of most of the 

 people, and the development of certain 

 of the cultivators into very small 

 capitalists, for the development of large 

 ones is impossible so long as agriculture 

 has only a local market, and that a very 

 limited one, 



It must be clearly understood that the 

 differentiation we have thus outlined is 

 one that involves those who practise it 

 in much greater risks than they have 

 heretofore undergone. The new methods 

 involve to a greater extent placing 

 of all the eggs in one basket, so that 

 there is of course much mote risk of 

 severe loss. If the man has only one 

 crop, a bad season may involve a partial 

 or total failure, whereas formerly it was 

 very unlikely that all the crops should 

 fail. Or again, there is the risk iuvolved 

 in disposing of the produce. Some of 

 the other cultivators may have had bad 

 seasons also, and be unable to exchange 

 food materials with the man we are con- 

 sidering. Or some of these people may 

 require less than usual of the crop that 

 he produces, and so be willing to ex- 

 change less than the ordinary amount of 

 food with him. It will thus be seen that 

 the differentiation we have indicated 

 almost inevitably involves the use of 

 money, and brings the question of 

 capital into much greater prominence 

 than heretofore. 



It is evident that until very large 

 markets are open, much wider than are 

 provided in a village or a small district, 

 the risks are great, and there cannot be 

 complete differentiation. But a certain 

 amount may occur, each man growing 

 say all his own food, and one growing 

 one, another another, of the luxuries 

 and less urgently necessary articles of 

 cultivation. 



Such, then, in very brief outline, was 

 probably the position when Arabs and 

 Europeans first appeared in the tropics. 

 Some of the people were in the pre-chena 

 stage, some in the chena stage, some in 

 the stage of more permanent cultivation, 

 and among the latter a certain amount 

 of differentiation had appeared, artisans 

 being paid by a levy on the field produce, 

 and some agriculturists producing goods 

 for exchange or sale within the country. 

 Export trade to other countries was only 

 of the most rudimentary kind. 



Such is still the position in very 

 many districts at the present day, 

 and it may be useful if we sum 

 it up in other language, quoting for the 

 purpose from a chapter that we wrote 

 for the Ceylon Hand-book at the St. 

 Louis Exhibition, but making some small 

 alterations in the wording. 



The ordinary Ceylou villager, living 

 on his ancestral lands, cultivates, as 

 his father cultivated, with cheap and 

 primitive tools, the few products neces- 

 sary for his simple mode of life, On the 

 irrigated land or " fields," as distinguish- 

 ed from the unirrigated or "high land,' 



