Miscellaneous. 



356 



[October, 1910. 



not yet moribund, have done nothing 

 practically to counteract these causes. 

 Special legislation has been resorted to 

 for preventing thefts of cocoa and rub- 

 ber. How is it that the same anxiety 

 has not been shown to protect the villager 

 from his ever-present enemies? He is 

 lectured about his idleness. Harsh lan- 

 guage is used about his lack of interest 

 in improving the conditions of his life. 

 His difficulties on the other hand are 

 not inquired into, and petty thefts of 

 prsedial products, which take the heart 

 out of the industrious village cultivator, 

 continue to harass him. The desirability 

 of establishing co-operative credit banks 

 has been proved, but the idea has not 

 yet passed beyond the stage of desul- 

 tory academic discussion. The villager 

 has already enough products which he 

 can cultivate, and his interest in poultry 

 farming can be roused. But the Agri- 

 cultural Society will only go on import- 

 ing seed and deploring the lack of 

 interest displayed by the villager in 

 improved methods of cultivation, rota- 

 tion of crops, and so forth. But no one 

 seriously and sympathetically enters 

 into the difficulties which beset him. 

 What we should like to see is some 

 legislation which will deal vigorously and 

 effectively with thieves of pisedial pro- 

 ducts, and the establishment of credit 

 banks which will deliver village culti- 

 vators from the exorbitant demands of 

 village money-lenders, Chetties and 

 Afghans wlio now prey on him. This 

 is the horde of miscreants who ruin 

 villagers and make them a depressed 

 class. We wonder how long the Ceylon 

 Agricultural Society will steer clear of 

 discussing the real causes which hinder 

 the prosperity of villagers. We must 

 confess tiiat we have no patience with 

 those gentlemen who make the Council 

 Chamber a place for airing their views 

 on agricultural methods and talk of 

 new products, while the need of pro- 

 tecting the labour of the villager and 

 his impecunious condition are passed 

 over as if they were non-existent. And 

 yet the Agricultural Society is supposed 

 to work for the betterment of village 

 cultivators. It is no wonder that they 

 have not been thoroughly roused by the 

 work of a Society which will do every- 

 thing except attack the peculiar diffi- 

 culties under which they labour. 



[This bears out the contention we have 

 made for years, that the proper ^ order 

 of agricultural progress is first to attend 

 to the "preliminaries" — land, labour, 

 transport, capital, education, &c— Ed.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



By C. Dribberg, Secretary CA.S. 



B. — Pila is not lantana. It is a legum- 

 inous plant which improves the soil 

 when used as a green manure. No seed 

 being locally collected, a supply has 

 been lately imported from India by the 

 Society, and members should apply to 

 the Supt. of School Gardens. 



G.— Sisal hemp is botanieally known 

 as Agava Sisalana- It is closely related 

 to the American aloe. The crop could be 

 got in the fourth year. The plant 

 thrives best on dry regions and on lime- 

 stone soils, and is not well suited to wet 

 districts, 



C. B. — The beli (or as it is known in 

 India, Bael) fruit or slime apple (jEgle 

 marmeos) is common about the suburbs 

 of Colombo, particularly in the southern 

 parts, and also in the Southern Province 

 (especially Matara and Tangalla), The 

 fruiting season is April to June, though 

 another and smaller crop of fruits is 

 borne at the end of the year (October to 

 December). The fruit, which makes an 

 excellent marmalade, is much valued as 

 an anti-dysenteric. The flowers are used 

 for the manufacture of Indian 'rose- 

 water.' 



P. — Pecannuts are the product of a 

 species of Carya or Hickory trees, which 

 do not flourish in the Eastern tropics. 



D. J. P. — Para rubber and coconut to- 

 gether are bound to affect each other 

 and are bestcultivated separately. How- 

 ever, if grown together, they must be 

 given sufficient room for proper develop- 

 ment and receive liberal manuring. 



C. G. T., Perth.— The best source of 

 information as regards rice and sisal 

 hemp is the U.S.A. Department of Agri- 

 culture. Farmers' Bulletin No. 110 on 

 Bice Culture should give you all the in- 

 formation you want. In Ceylon, rice 

 cultivation is carried on in a primitive 

 way, and the question of labour-saving 

 implements is only just beginning to re- 

 ceive attention. The chief difference in 

 the treatment of rice for the European 

 market is in the polishing it receives 

 which, while it makes the product pre- 

 sentable from a market point of view, 

 takes away from it its nutritive pro- 

 perties. Medical men in the Tropics are 

 inclined to think that the cause of beri- 

 beri among Indian coolies is to be traced 

 to the lack of proper nourishment 

 (chiefly the absence of phosphates) in 

 milled rice. 



C. S.— Mimosa pudica is of undoubted 

 value to coconuts, the only objection to 

 it being its prickly character. It be^ 

 longs to the class of nitrogen gatherers, 

 storing up the nitrogen gathered from 



