ho 



[February, 1909. 



conducted at M aka-iluppalama, in the 

 North-Central Province, have shown the 

 true reason. Village rice sown broad- 

 cast in a field simply supplied with rain 

 water has grown well enough, but has 

 become a mass of weeds, which cannot 

 be removed without great trouble and 

 damage to the crop. Whereas, if the 

 land is completely softened by the 

 rains, and well ploughed, tnen left to 

 soak, and kept always soaked, weeds 

 do not get much chance. This is the 

 real explanation. To improve on the 

 present methods sowing in the rains is 

 not enough. The land must be tilled 

 before the rains, and the crop must be 

 transplanted in rows, so that weeding 

 between can be carried out. This means 

 greater expenditure, in keeping the land 

 tilled all the year round, in transplant- 

 ing, and in weeding. This means capital, 

 which the villager has not got, so has 

 to live upon the natural capital of the 

 country. 



Now turn to the chena. The land is 

 cleared of trees, up to a certain size and 

 burnt off. Before the weeds begin to 

 grow, the crop is thickly broadcasted on, 

 and gives a good return on the fresh 

 forest land. But the weeds grow, and 

 it only occasionally happens that the 

 villager can afford, from his indolence, 

 enough labour to partially clear for a 

 second crop, which of course is not so 

 good as the first. The land is then allow- 

 ed to grow up in scrub, which keeps 

 down the small weeds, and after a few 

 years can be again cleared at far less 

 cosfc than weeding would involve, while 

 it has had the advantage of a kird of 

 fallow. 



Land which natives and Europeans 

 alike said was only fit for chena is now 

 being continuously cultivated at Maha- 

 iluppalama and yielding good crops. 

 But without capital, which is the un- 

 derlying secret of success there, the 

 villager of the North-Central Province 

 is as helpless as a baby to do anything 

 but chena, as he is helpless to grow rice 

 with the rains, and he must not be 

 blamed for his present methods, ■ 



Another point about chena is the 

 effect on the soil. To keep the natural 

 capital of the soil unimpaired, either 

 rotation, manuring, or chena must be 

 practised, and as a capital is wanted for 

 the two former (as has already been 

 indicated) the last is the only possible 

 resource. 



We have now to consider the problem 

 of what is to be done to get the inhabi- 

 tants of the North-Central Province out 

 of this state of things. If left as they 

 are, progress will be as it has always 

 been— very slow. With the opening up 

 of the country by transport facilities, 



capitalists will gradually be attracted 

 into it, but the villager willnot progress. 

 It therefore becomes a question whether 

 attention is to be devoted wholly to the 

 capitalist, or whether the villager, and 

 people like him, are to be helped also, 

 and whether they are to be directly 

 helped, or assisted to help themselves. 

 The latter is what we personally vote 

 for, but this question is one for the 

 Government, and has only to do with 

 agriculture in that its solution is an 

 essential to progress in the latter. * In 

 the old Sinhalese days, it is probable 

 that the villager was at least upon as 

 low a level as at present, and the kings 

 helped them by compelling them to 

 make tanks, which greatly increased the 

 natural capital of the country, by 

 making water available at any time, 

 instead of only in the last few months 

 of the year. 



While theoretically, no doubt, it would 

 be better to aid the villagers already 

 existing in the North-Central Province 

 to supply themselves with capital, im- 

 prove their agriculture, and take up the 

 balance of the available land, in practice 

 this would take centuries, and is too 

 long to wait. 



The villager should be settled upon hi? 

 own land, and a sufficient area reserved 

 about him, which he will at first of 

 necessity chena, but which he will, as he 

 gets more free of the money-lender, gra- 

 dually be able to lay down to permanent 

 cultivation. Now, there is little doubt 

 that he is so indolent that he would 

 prefer to go on indefinitely upon the 

 present lines, and compulsion must be 

 brought to bear upon him. We would 

 suggest that, provided he has been sup- 

 plied with the means of getting cheap 

 capital, the chena area be reduced by 

 25%, say, every sixth year, till he has 

 only 25% left. He will thus be compelled 

 to lay down the land to permanent crop- 

 ping. We would attach the chena area 

 to the village as a ivhole as common land, 

 and stipulate that part of it have the 

 trees sufficiently thinned out to cause it 

 to form good pasturage, and of course 

 make the area large enough to allow of 

 room for other crops when the necessary 

 proportion of the 25 % remainder was 

 given to pasturage. In this way the 

 chena difficulty might be gradually got 

 over. At present the villager must 

 chena, but the land will stand per- 

 manent cropping. 



It must be remembered that for annual 

 crops— which are much better suited to 

 the small capitalist than perennials, such 

 as rubber or tea or cacao— the chena 

 land must be irrigable. Pasture, on the 

 other hand, need not be so. 



