and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. —Nov., 1910, 475 



19. This selected seed might then be ex- 

 changed at different places for a corresponding 

 weight of inferior seed brought in by the vil- 

 lagers. The latter would be equally good for 

 oil, &c , so that the actual loss would be the cost 

 of growing and distributing. 



20. For such an expert to do any good in per- 

 suading people to take up cottou, he would re- 

 quire to establish small demonstration gardens 

 at many places throughout the district in which 

 cotton may be grown with profit. For example, 

 he might grow it at every school, on a measured 

 area, take all the crop away to the gin, and pub- 

 lish, at the school, the figures of area, jat, cost 

 of labour, yield, and value of crop. He might 

 also have larger gardens at the kachcheries. 



21. To send the cotton down to Colombo to 

 be ginned would involve carriage of a great deal 

 of unnecessary weight, and a small gin might 

 perhaps be set up at Anuradhapura or Madawa- 

 chchi Station with advantage. Maha Uluppa- 

 lama has a gin sufficient to gin the crop of 1,000 

 acres, but the place is not central enough, nor 

 near the railway. 



22. I have no hesitation in saying that unless 

 an expert is employed in some such manner, 

 cotton cultivation among the peasantry will 

 never be improved, unless possibly among the 

 wealthier cultivators near Jaffna. But such a 



SCHEME WOULD INVOLVE AN EXPENDITURE 

 OP AT LEAST Hl5,000 PER ANNUM 



(salary, say, R7,500, selection garden R3,000, 

 travelling R3,000), and it is, I think, very 

 doubtful if the result would be worth 

 the cost. Leaving Jaffna District out of 

 account, there are, say, 100,000 people or 20,000 

 families in the cotton growing district. The ex- 

 penditure would therefore be at the rate of, 

 say, 75 cents a family a year, or allowing for 

 traders, &c, say, Re. 150. If these families 

 were to produce, say, R150, 000 worth of cotton 

 the expenditure might be justifiable. This 

 would mean R15 a family, or at 8d. a pound, 

 say, 301b. cotton apiece, or perhaps J— 1-3 acre. 

 But at the best probably not one in five would 

 ever do anything, and therefore it would mean 

 at least 150 lb. apiece, or 1 J to Ij acre, a result 

 almost impossible to hope for. 



23. It therefore seems to me that it is not 

 worth while, knowing the people of the North- 

 Central Province and the Wanni, to employ an 

 expert for their benefit, and the only question is 

 whether it 



MIGHT BE WORTH EMPLOYING A MAN FOR THE 

 JAFFNA PEOPLE. 



There is reason to suppose that cotton will grow 

 well enough in that district, but in view of the 

 fact that the duty on the Jaffna tobacco in India 

 has agaiu been reduced, there is no likelihood 

 of the more profitable crop being abandoned in 

 favour of cotton. At present, therefore, I do 

 not think an expert would be useful. 



24. If the North-Central Province contained 

 more enterprising people, e.g., natives of Madras 

 Presidency or even from other parts of Ceylon, 

 the problem would be a different one ; but as it 

 stands, I see nothing to be gained by having an 

 expert, though I must again point out that 



there is practically nothing further to be done 

 without one, unless capitalists who deliberately 

 intend to grow cotton and not rubber, coconuts, 

 or other crops, are willing to come to Ceylon 

 and put money into the work. ... 



John C. Willis, Director. 



The Coventor Replies to Downing Street. 



(12.) Governor McCallum, to Lord Crewe, Sep- 

 tember 21, 1910, in which he says : — 

 ....I fear that Dr. Willis' estimate of the posi- 

 tion, though somewhat pessimistic, is on the 

 whole justified by facts, and that the hopes ex- 

 pressed in paragraph 2 of my despatch of Janu- 

 ary 29th, 1909 (forwarding Mr McCall's report on 

 the subject), are little likely to be realised. The 

 experiments hitherto conducted by Government 

 have proved that the North-Central Province is 

 not a suitable locality for cotton growing on 

 account of the liability of the crop to be de- 

 stroyed by rain ; cotton will doubtless grow in 

 the more northern parts of the Island with 

 less risk, but, at present at all events, it has 

 no prospects of proving as remunerative a crop 

 as tobacco, coconuts, or rubber, and therefore, 

 even were expert advice available, it is very 

 questionable whether capitalists would think it 

 worth their while to cultivate it. 



Should the British Cotton Growing Associa- 

 tion itself wish to make further experiments in 

 the matter, the Colonial Government will be 

 very glad to afford any assistance in its power 

 and to put land at the disposal of the Association 

 for experimental crops 



Henky McCallum. 



ROSELLA V. CRANBERRY. 



At the experimental gardens at Port Brown 

 experiments have been carried on with the ro- 

 sella plant, which have proved a great success. 

 The rosella plant promises to become a great 

 rival of the cranberry. The plant was first in- 

 troduced into Texas about two years ago from 

 Jamaica by the Agricultural Department of 

 the United States Government, and since that 

 time has proved very adaptable to the lower 

 Rio Grande valley soil and climate. In the 

 matter of taste the sauce of the rosella can 

 hardly be told from the cranberry, and in some 

 localities in south Texas many truck growers 

 have supplied the local merchants who have 

 been selling it in place of cranberries with prac- 

 tically the same degree of satisfaction to the 

 trade. The rosella possesses the attractive trade 

 advantage, however, of being two colours, red and 

 white, and alongside of it may be growing a 

 bush bearing red fruit. The product of thero- 

 aella plant is really not a fruit ; it is the fleshy, 

 acid cycles of the flowers that are used for 

 making succes, jellies and refreshing drinks. 



It has been amply demonstrated at the gar- 

 dens that these plants are easily grown here,aud 

 are well adapted to the soil and climate of the 

 valley, and it is predicted by many that within 

 a very few years it will be an extensive and 

 profitable lower Rio Grande valley product. The 

 average yield of the plant is twenty quarts to 



