106 



fPEBRUARY, 1909. 



The difference is decidedly more 

 marked than in the countries of Europe 

 or America, where the small agricul- 

 turist can often hold his own very well 

 by co-operation, against the big one, 

 without having to do as in Ceylon, live 

 on his own products. 



To get at the real explanation, we 

 must analyse the whole subject. Before 

 progressive agriculture, i. e,, agriculture 

 on other lines than "grow what you 

 Avant, and consume all you grow," can 

 go on, there must be satisfactory con- 

 ditions as regards what we may call 

 the preliminaries to agriculture. 



The chief of these are land, climate, 

 soil, drainage, irrigation, cultivation, 

 crops, transport, capital and education. 



Now land is plentiful enough, and 

 usually easily obtained or available in 

 Ceylon, and the climate is nowhere 

 unsuitable to the growth of crops, when 

 once the best crops have been discovered. 

 The soil is generally good enough, and 

 drainage and irrigation are sufficiently 

 attended to. Crops are plentiful, nearly 

 all of any value either existing in the 

 island from ancient times, or having 

 been introduced by the Botanic Gardens 

 in the last 70 years. 



There remain then for consideration 

 transport, capital, and education. Now 

 the provision of transport facilities has 

 for very many years been regarded as 

 a cardinal point in British colonial 

 policy ; in fact it has been expressed 

 in the form that the first element of 

 civilisation is roads, the second roads, 

 aud the third more roads. Education 

 also has been liberally provided, aud 

 with the extension of School Garden 

 work the necessary agricultural bias is 

 being given- Already, in districts where 

 there are such gardens, one sees many 

 new products or types of cultivation, 

 and on enquiry usually finds that they 

 owe their origin to the School Gardens, 

 Later on, a more definite agricultural 

 teaching will be required in the higher 

 schools, but for the present the school 

 garden is enough. 



There remains, then, practically un- 

 touched, simply the provision of capital, 

 and it is in this that the great difference 

 between the capitalist " planter "—be he 

 European or native— and the villager, 

 lies. The latter has steadily gone down 

 to a very low agricultural level— if in- 

 deed he ever were above it— and has 

 no capital at his back. Now, any agricul- 

 tural enterprise requires some capital, 

 for the land must be prepared and the 

 crops given time to ripen. If the culti- 

 vator have no capital, he must have 

 recourse to the local moneylender, and 

 from him borrow seed, or advances to 

 cover the period of ^waiting, or what 



not, or he must sell the crop before it 

 is ripe, of course at a great discount. 

 In actual fact, in about 80 different 

 places in which we have enquired, the 

 usual rate of interest quoted has been 

 50 per cent. The lowest was 40 per cent, 

 and the highest 75 per cent., but as the 

 interest was generally collected with 

 the principal, long before the lapse of 

 a year, these rates are really higher. 

 It is idle to gird at the moneylender 

 for such rates. His business is to get 

 what he can, and when the villager 

 can only give such scanty security, he 

 must pay high interest to indemnify 

 the lender for the risk. Were it easily 

 possible to lend at lower rates, one would 

 expect to hear of its occurrence some- 

 times. 



So long as the villager is thus help- 

 lessly in the grasp of the moneylender, 

 so long can he do practically nothing in 

 the direction of agricultural progress, 

 however willing he may happen to be. 

 When we add to this the general apathy 

 and inefficiency he displays, and what, 

 for want of a more accurate term, we 

 must call his indolence, it may be readily 

 seen that agricultural progress among 

 the peasantry of Ceylon is a thing to be- 

 Jioped for, but not to be expected till the 

 clutch of the usurer is relaxed, and then 

 but slowly. 



To endeavour to improve local agri- 

 culture, other than capitalist agriculture, 

 without taking the subject in proper 

 logical order, is to beat the air. One 

 man introduces good European ploughs. 

 Without capital the peasant cannot 

 afford such tools, while at the same time, 

 they make too violent a step forward to 

 be applicable. They cut through the 

 plough-pan of the paddy field, and let 

 the water out. Another man introduces 

 a new vegetable or other crop. Is the 

 villager to sacrifice crops, already yield- 

 ing a return, to experiment with some- 

 thing untried ? He cannot do so with- 

 out more capital, A third man proposes 

 to teach agriculture in the village 

 schools. Where a re the trained teachers, 

 and how is the trained boy to apply his 

 knowledge unless he has money? If he 

 has money, and succeeds, his success 

 simply goes to emphasise the difference 

 already existing between capitalist and 

 villager. 



Practically every improvemeut in agri- 

 culture demands money at the start, 

 though it may prove very profitable 

 later, and it is but rarely that it yields a 

 profit that will pay the Ceylon money- 

 lenders ' interest, 



We may roughly represent the present, 

 and the possible, state of affairs by the 

 following diagram ;— 



