February, 1909.] 



HOW TO IMPROVE THE LOT 

 OP THE VILLAGER. 



Por the successful treatment of the 

 great malady that agriculture is suffer- 

 ing from in Ceylon, it is necessary to 

 study the diseased subject and the 

 disease closely from every point of view. 



The villagers can be divided into three 

 classes : (1) the " gamarala" or large land 

 holder, (2) the small land holder, and (3) 

 the so to speak serf class, who lives on 

 the gamarala's land and receives a share 

 of the produce in proportion to the land 

 he cultivates. The gamarala is, as a rule, 

 a man above want, he gets his land 

 cultivated by the serf class at little or 

 no expense to.himself, except the seed 

 paddy and the cost of feeding those that 

 are invited to help in harvesting, etc. 

 His land does not produce more than 

 those of other villagers, but as the 

 extent of his cultivation is greater, 

 he usually accumulates more paddy and 

 other grain, etc., than his actual needs ; 

 he also gets a lot of grain by lending 

 seed at interest. The second class, the 

 small holder, is the unfortunate who 

 leads a hand-to-mouth existence, who as 

 a rule does not produce sufficient for his 

 subsistence, and is more than likely in the 

 hands cf the wily Moorman boutique- 

 keeper. The last, the serf type, is the 

 worst off— he has to get his seed from 

 the gamarala, which decreases his share 

 of grain in proportion, and is, as a rule, 

 in debt to his landlord either in grain 

 or money, and also is in the hands of the 

 Moor trader, so that when he receives 

 his share at harvest nearly all of it goes 

 to pay his debts, as in a good number of 

 cases it does not suffice to do so, and so 

 he is in a chronic state of debt. 



Iam of opinion that by the introduc- 

 tion of a 



SUPERIOR SYSTEM OP CULTIVATION 



and by the establishment of a system of 

 village banks, the gamarala could be 

 evolved into an independent farmer, the 

 second class could make a very com- 

 fortable living, and the third class be 

 placed above want. 



Now, let us see what the faults are 

 that have got to be remedied of the 

 village cultivator (from an agricultural 

 point of view). In doing this I cannot 

 do better than quote Dr. Willis from 

 the July 1906 number of the " Tropical 

 Agriculturist." He says:— "The native 

 is very conservative, and objects to any 

 interference with his time-honoured 

 ways." 



"Another great obstacle is the in 

 dolence of the villager." "Yet another 

 obstacle, and pehaps the greatest of all, 

 s the poverty of the village cultivator." 



THESE FAULTS 



are nothing more than must be ex- 

 pected, as the villager has been pro- 

 gressing backwards for over two cen- 

 turies. Although three European nations 

 held SAvay, not one of them gave or 

 has given the impetus necessary. Also 

 these faults are nothing more than 

 what all the civilised agricultural nations 

 suffered from, the difference being that 

 in the temperate zones it is only by 

 human exertion that the soil can be 

 made to produce, also the necessity of 

 large quantities of farinaceous and animal 

 food to generate the necessary heat of 

 the body to withstand the extreme 

 temperature ; while in the tropics nature 

 is more magnanimous — for example, the 

 jak, breadfruit, and other economic 

 trees thrive without any attention which 

 greatly assists the villagers to eke out a 

 meagre existence, and the non-necessity 

 of heat generating foods has made the 

 villager what he is to-day, and he is 

 erroneously put down to be indolent. 

 The Siuhalese villager is not by nature 

 an indolent man ; history proves to us 

 that he was not indolent in the days of 

 the Sinhalese Kings — when Ceylon was a 

 granary and even exported grain, when 

 he built the great irrigation tanks and 

 schemes such as the Giants' Tank and the 

 other stupendous works that are a marvel 

 in construction and skill ; he has graduat- 

 ed down to the stage he is in to-day, 

 it might have been that if the im- 

 portation of rice, etc., was not a possi- 

 bility and was an unknown quantity as 

 in the days of old, he would not have got 

 so recklessly careless in his modes of 

 cultivation, etc. 



MODERN CIVILIZATION HAS DIFFERENT 

 EFFECTS 



on different people ; for example, modern 

 civilization in the form of bad whisky 

 and rum and the supplying of clothes 

 and food to the aborigines of Australia 

 is killing them off so fast that this cen- 

 tury will see them practically extinct. 

 In Ceylon the effect has been that the 

 country, coming under European rule, 

 stopped the forced labour that was ex- 

 acted by their own kings which forced 

 them to be industrious, and it also made 

 possible the buying of foodstuffs, i.e., 

 (imported rice, etc.,) which in the days of 

 old they could only produce by their own 

 exertions. Modern civilization also tend- 

 ed to lower the self-pride of the Goigama 

 caste, inasmuch as the cultivator and 

 cultivation of the soil was not looked up 

 to and kept up to that degree of reverence 

 and honour that it received at the hands 

 of their own kings and the other people ; 

 other trades and professions, very 

 naturally were and have been looked 

 up to with the result that agriculture. 



