582 



[December, 1908. 



able conditions. " As no ender a (cattle- 

 keeper) was willing to allow his buffaloes 

 to be used for this work, I asked, and 

 was promised, the help of the headmen, 

 but they also at the last moment fell 

 back, and I was obliged to use ordinary 

 bulls. These animals not being accus- 

 tomed to the work, gave much trouble, 

 and owing to this the work was slow and 

 irregular. Despite this, I came to form 

 the opinion that, if trained cattle could 

 be got, cultivation with the plough 

 would be notably more speedy than 

 cultivation by " mudding." The supe- 

 riority of the Assam plough upon the 

 ordinary native plough, at least as used 

 in the 31atara District, from where I 

 had got down six new ploughs, appears 

 from the fact that, while in less than 

 two hours the six ordinary ploughs were 

 broken or unserviceable, the Assam 

 plough was found to hold good." 



Manuring oj Paddy.— Experiments are 

 being conducted at various centres. The 

 Mudaliyar, Rayigam Korale, reports 

 that he tried four plots with manure- 

 two with bone manure, the other two 

 with Freudenberg's special mixture — 

 and the results obtained were 15 against 

 19, and 13 against 18 respectively, from 

 plots sown with the same paddy in the 

 tame extent of ground. 



The Mudaliyar, Gangaboda Pattu 

 (Galle), reports :— " Mr. Abeyegunawar- 

 dene, who used the special paddy 

 mixture, states that he got 275 kurunies 

 of paddy from an extent of 16 kurunies 

 (1 acre extent) where he used the special 

 mixture, and 156 kurunies from a similar 

 extent of land where he put f cwt. of 

 bone dust- (8 kurunies = l bushel.)" 



The Secretary, Anuradhapura Branch, 

 reports :— " Your special paddy fertilizer 

 was experimented with by two members 

 of the Society, and the results obtained 

 by them are as follows :— 



Plot. Manured. Unmanured. 

 "1 ... 15-fold ... 7-fold 

 " 2 ... 39-fold ... 24-fold" 

 Publications.— Leaflet No. 39—" Fur- 

 ther Notes on Transplanting Paddy"— 

 has just been issued. A new Agricul- 

 tural Calendar is in preparation, and 

 will be issued at the end of the year. 



Stock Inspectors.— An examination iu 

 agriculture for admission into Class III. 

 of the Classification of Agricultural and 

 Veterinary Officers was held on Novem- 

 ber 16, when the following Stock Inspec- 

 tors appeared :— D. L. Dias, G. B. de 

 Silva. J. I. Aponsu, and Tassim Maha- 

 mooth. 



Live Stock : Ceylon Cattle for Papua.— 

 Inquiries have been received from Papua 



for particulars regarding Ceylon cattle, 

 with a view to purchase. 



Bee-keeping, — The Foreman and Seeds- 

 man of the Government Stock Garden 

 was sent to Hettiraulla and Pinnawela 

 Government schools, in the Kegalla 

 District, to start box hives with swarms 

 found on the school premises, and accom- 

 plished the work satisfactorily. 



Inspection Work.— The Secretary has 

 been visiting the Siyane, Hapitigarn, and 

 Hewagam korales ; the Organizing Vice- 

 President has been touring in the North- 

 W estern and Sabaragamuwa Provinces. 



C. DRIEBERG, 



Secretary. 



December 3, 1908. 



Correspondence. 



SOME OTHER ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



London, 20th October, 1908. 



Dear Sib,— I am interested in the 

 Hon'ble Mr. Lewis' instructive remarks 

 on the above subject in the T. A., for 

 September. I write, however, to correct 

 the impression that my paper in the 

 June number of the T.A. was intended 

 to include effective " Foliage Trees "such 

 as Mr. Lewis describes. The first para- 

 graph thereof explained that Fine 

 Flowering Trees only were referred to. 

 In the event of my being asked to give a 

 paper on '' Effective Foliage Trees," I 

 hhould include those mentioned by the 

 Hon'ble the Government Agent, and 

 would profit by his practical remarks 

 thereon. 



It is interesting to read Mr. Lewis' 

 record of the introduction of some of 

 the trees named by him into different 

 parts of Ceylon, and credit should be 

 given to whom such is due. But I think 

 it should be explained at the same 

 time that the trees were really in- 

 troduced into the Colony by the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, which carry on system- 

 atically the process of introduction and 

 acclimatisation of useful or likely useful 

 plants. The statement, for instance, 

 t hat " the Pat kia Roxburghii trees at 

 Kandy were introduced by the late 

 Col. Byrde twenty-five years ago" is 

 misleading, considering that these were 

 introduced and established in Pera- 

 deniya Gardens many years previous to 

 this, and that the Kandy trees referred 

 to can only have been obtained from 

 this source in the usual course of plant 

 distribution. 



Yours faithfully, 



H. F. MACMILLAN, 



