February, 1909. 



m 



STUDENTS WERE DIVIDED INTO POUR 

 CLASSES, 



two junior and two senior— one junior 

 and one senior being out working on the 

 farm every day, while the other two 

 were attending lectures, the subjects 

 comprising the breeding of horses, cattle, 

 sheep, and $>igs, irrigation, drainage, 

 arboriculture, ensilage-making, the grow- 

 ing of serial crops and their man- 

 agement, Chemistry, Botany, Geology, 

 Zoology, Entomology, English, Natural 

 Philosophy, Book-keeping, Surveying, 

 Horticulture, Viticulture, Apiculture, 

 and Olive-oil making. Four professors 

 lectured on these subjects, while there 

 was a separate outdoor staff to teach the 

 practical work. The outdoor working 

 day consisted of eight hours, the stu- 

 dents actively carrying out all the dif- 

 ferent farm operations, the staff only 

 teaching and seeing that the work was 

 properly done. Every season about 500 

 acres were put under serial crops and 

 about 60 under silage crops; vineyard 

 work was ca r tied on, and wine made from 

 80 acres ; dariying was carried on, about 

 twenty-five cows being milked daily, the 

 milk being turned into butter and 

 cheese; olive oil was made; orchards 

 were attended to ; about 4,000 sheep 

 were shorn; pig breeding was carried 

 on, and poultry received atten- 

 tion. Large experimental plots were 

 worked. Black*smithing and carpentery 

 were taught, all repairs to machinery 

 being done on the place. Other farm 

 operations too numerous to mention were 

 carried on. All this work was done by 

 the students, and done well, and the 

 farm paid its way. When a student 

 finished his course and went out into the 

 country, he was a power in the laud, he 

 was a thorough master of his profession. 

 Later on Victoria found it necessary to 

 open another College. The other States 

 started on similar lines, and all of them 

 have now large flourishing 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND 

 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS, 



yearly sending out young men to teach 

 and to work for the country's good and 

 their own. It was by ocular demonstra- 

 tion, by means of huge object lessons, 

 that Australia the great Agricultural 

 continent started teaching her sons 

 modern, scientific agriculture. And I 

 think my readers will agree with me 

 that this is the only way it can be done 

 in Ceylon. Of course we don't want 4,700 

 acres of land ; 100 acres with some paddy 

 land would suffice for our experimental 

 farms. Too much stress cannot be laid 

 on the choice of the men who are to 

 manage and work these places, as on 

 them and on them alone depends the 

 13 



success of the undertaking. Personality, 

 ability, education, a thorough mastery 

 of practical work, and men not ashamed 

 to take off their coats and show the 

 people how certain operations have to 

 be done, all these essentials must be 

 embodied in those who are to have in 

 their hands the future destinies of the 

 improvement of agriculture in the 

 Island. Soon we shall find, as Australia 

 did, that the masses who are by nature 

 agriculturists will take interest in the 

 object lessons, and give the new methods 

 a trial. Once they do that and find it 

 paying they will naturally enlarge their 

 scope of operation, and will, in a short 

 time, come to the conclusion that there 

 is money in new methods. They will 

 then want their sons taught the new 

 methods, and, by and by, when these 

 sons are turned out of the experimental 

 farms and work 



THE LAND OF THEIR FOREFATHERS, 



they will find more money coming in. 

 Their training will have taught them to 

 work to the very best advantage, and 

 when these young men in their turn 

 have sons of their own old enough to 

 receive agricultural training, i.e., about 

 1(5 years of age, during which time they 

 received a good elementary education, 

 then will be the time for Ceylon to open 

 her first agricultural school, and in time 

 turn out, as Australia is doing, hundreds 

 of young men yearly, who will "go out 

 into the land and make it bring forth 

 fruit abundantly." 



THE SCOPE OF EXPERIMENTAL 

 FARMS. 



In the foregoing article I suggested that 

 " 100 acres of high laud with some 

 paddy land would suffice for our experi- 

 mental farms." The question will arise, 

 "What is to be done on these lands"? 

 In other words, in what form are these 

 object-lessons to be placed before the 

 grown up agricultral infants of Ceylon ? 

 It is important that these farms should 

 be worked on business-like principles. 

 Everything done should be within 

 the scope of those who are to be 

 taught, and induced to adopt the 

 new methods. The produce must be 

 a marketable commodity, and must 

 show profit. Otherwise the farms 

 would be useless. They must be worked 

 with economy. A strict account of ex- 

 penditure should be kept, so that the 

 actual balance after the sales can be 

 made public. A great object-lesson is 

 to show the people how much money 

 these new methods will put into their 

 pockets. The following is a 



LIST OF THE IMPLEMENTS, ETC., 



