February, 1909.] 



Ill 



We would suggest, as he becomes 

 more free of money difficulties, gradually- 

 curtailing the amount of water allowed 

 to the villager for his rice land, and the 

 application of some at least of the saving 

 to his "common." So long as the 

 present rate of water consumption is 

 allowed, so long will it be impossible to 

 open up any seriously larger extent of 

 country. Water must be available 

 before laud can be opened. 



Experiments should be set on foot to 

 determine the minimum water that can 

 be allowed to the villager. They should 

 then be limited, at first to say 25 % more 

 than that, and the amount gradually 

 decreased, thus setting more water free 

 for other land. 



The local villagers being few in num- 

 bers, lazy, and improvident, other 

 people should also be induced to settle, 

 and here comes in another very import- 

 ant consideration. Tiie newcomers 

 should be settled in entire villages of 

 oue race or caste, and by the mixing of 

 peoples thus brought about, the general 

 standard of living will be raised, and 

 some variety introduced into the local 

 agriculture. At the same time, among 

 the villages thus formed, blocks of land 

 should be reserved for capitalists, and 

 land in them only sold in large pieces. 

 In this way the villager will have object- 

 lessons at his door, and the capitalist 

 village labour. 



Every village thus formed should be 

 given some common land, part of which 

 should be devoted to pasturage, part to 

 crops that can be marketed elsewhere, 

 i.e., in general the crops that can be 



sold to the local capitalist estates ; and 

 a definite water supply should be allotted 

 to the common. Communal tools might 

 also be obtained by co-operation among 

 the villagers, or by a 10 % tax on the 

 produce. 



In laying out the villages, they must 

 be divided by road reservations, in 

 which, as traffic increases, actual roads 

 can be made, though at first mere clear- 

 ing of the track (pin-para) would suffice. 

 This is very important. Transport faci- 

 lities are one of the indispensable preli- 

 minaries to progressive agriculture. 



There remains then the attracting of 

 capitalists. Just as with the villagers, 

 the first to come are often small ones 

 crowded out of other parts of the 

 country. To attract these is something, 

 but more rapid progress will be made if 

 larger can be also got to come. The pre- 

 liminaries of laud, labour, transport, 

 and, above all, guaranteed water supply, 

 must be carefully attended to, and 

 caoital will then be attracted to grow 

 rubber, coconuts, cotton, and other 

 things. Under some of the tanks the 

 land should be saleable onhj in large 

 blocks and no small holders ailowed. 



This will serve as a brief indication 

 of some of the lines upon which we 

 would propose to work, and a careful 

 consideration of the whole question 

 during this year will be time well spent. 

 The general lines we have been laying 

 down are developed at greater length in 

 a book upon "Agriculture in the Tro- 

 pics," to appear within the next few 

 months, and which those interested in 

 tropical agriculture may find of interest 

 to study. 



The Teaching of Agriculture and how to Teach the People. 



AN OBJECT-LESSON PROM AUSTRALIA. 

 By P. G. Schradbr. 



In my article on "The Improvement 

 of Cattle in Ceylon," I made the follow- 

 ing statement : " There is no doubt that 

 ocular demonstration is of far greater 

 importance than preaching, especially 

 when dealing with the ignorant masses. 

 This must be taken full advantage of in 

 driving out the prejudices and lax 

 methods of the people." This shall be 

 my text for this article, and I feel certain 

 that it is the only way of starting to 

 improve the obsolete and ignorant 

 methods of the people. We know that 

 the most approved methods of the 

 present day of teaching infants is by 



means of object-lessons. In the same 

 manner the only way to teach the grown 

 up ignorant agricultural infants is by 

 the same methods. Now I will form a 

 short resume, as far as I know, cf what 

 has been done in the past. A School of 

 Agriculture was started in Colombo 

 under the able guidance of a graduate 

 of an English Agricultural College, but 

 it was a failure— why '? In the first 

 place the country was not ripe 

 enough for an institution of that 

 nature, the right stamp of students 

 were not attracted, and most of those 

 that came there came to receive a 



