February, 



109 



cultivation only, these loans might be 

 for other or new crops {e.g., to start 

 sweet potato growing in the district), for 

 better tools {e.g., a society might purchase 

 a disc harrow or other tool and leud it 

 out to its members), for supply of manure 

 (by purchasing manure from Colombo 

 and advancing it to members, to be 

 repaid at crop time), for provision of 

 stud bulls, cocks, pigs, etc, for sale of 

 local produce in the Colombo or Kandy 

 markets, or for other purposes. But 

 the important thing at the commence- 

 ment is to get the villager- gradually 

 free of the exactions of the money-lender, 

 as has been explained in another place. 



This must be done gradually, or a 

 new class, that of distressed money- 

 lenders, will come upon the scene, and 

 we would suggest beginning with the 

 advance of seed paddy only, against the 

 security of the headmen, through local 

 committees, the money to be repaid 

 by a definite tax in kind upon the 

 p roduce. 



We would confine loans at first strictly 

 to the ordinary villager, and decline to 

 advance any money to the richer 

 people, unless at so high a rate of in- 

 terest that they could not profitably 

 lend it out again. 



Agriculture in the North-Central Province. 



By J. C 



In this paper we are, of course, merely 

 taking the North-Central Province as a 

 type of the low-lying irrigable country 

 of Ceylon, which stretches from Ham- 

 bantota round the mountains to the 

 north to Chilaw, and these remarks will 

 apply to most of it. 



This country is occupied by a very 

 small population (leaving the coastal 

 districts of Batticaloa, Jaffna, and Chi- 

 law out of consideration ), probably not 

 much over 200,000 in all, though the 

 area is over 13,000 square miles, or more 

 than half of the island. Now, in the 

 olden days of the Sinhalese monarchy, 

 this was the populous and wealthy 

 part of Ceylon, while the mountain 

 zone and the west — now the home of the 

 great tea, coconut, cacao, rubber, 

 and other industries— were a poverty- 

 stricken and neglected region. 



Now, there is no reason why there 

 should not to-day be a great population, 

 and large industries, in this now desert- 

 ed land. The important thing is to 

 analyse the position carefully, and to 

 set to work in the proper logical order. 



At present the North-Central Province 

 is largely occupied by a good-humour- 

 ed, fairly honest, but lazy Kandyan 

 population. By the opening of the irri- 

 gation works they have been practically 

 freed of the great amount of disease 

 which formerly devastated the country, 

 and have become, for villagers, fairly 

 prosperous. 



Looked at agriculturally, they have 

 a few conspicuous faults. They waste 

 a great amount of water upon their rice 

 crops, which they grow mainly in the 

 dry season with tank water. They cul- 

 tivate other things mainly on chenas. 

 They do not grow more paddy than 

 they want, and often leave the fields 

 bare for long periods. 



Willis. 



Now the last-named of these faults 

 is one of character and temperament, 

 and cannot be easily altered, but the 

 two former depend mainly on the agri- 

 cultural conditions of the country. 



A comparison of any other of the 

 outlying thinly populated districts will 

 show the same faults in operation. 

 There is evidently some general cause 

 for them. They depend, in general, upon 

 the fact that in all such districts one 

 finds, uoon the whole, less capable and 

 less successful agriculturists, who live 

 as much as they can upon the natural 

 capital of the country. 



This natural capital in Ceylon is 

 simply land or soil, water, and forest. 

 The native of the North-Central Pro- 

 vince, like any one else, has of course 

 taken the best land for his rice crops, 

 and to that there cannot be the slight- 

 est objection. He then, however, pro- 

 ceeds to grow his other crops largely 

 upon chenas, and for this he uses the 

 best land he can find, and ruthlessly sacri- 

 fices the other item of capital— forest. 

 After a couple of chena crops the land is 

 left to lie fallow in scrub for a good 

 many years before the process can be 

 repeated, There is neither need nor 

 space to go iuto details in a paper like 

 this, which is simply giving a general 

 sketch without argument. 



To turn now to more detail about the 

 other two faults mentioned, and first 

 the fact that rice is grown mainly with 

 tank water in the dry weather. The 

 Jaffna man who visits the North- 

 Central Province is at once surprised by 

 this ; he, without tanks, and in a drier 

 country, must grow during the North 

 East rains. The ordinary unthinking 

 man puts it down to dislike on the part 

 of the villager to being out in the rain 

 or to some such cause- Experiment 



