120 



[February, 1909. 



and on them alone depends the 

 success of the undertaking. Personality, 

 ability, 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." In this matter we cannot do 

 better than 



COPY JAPAN. 



She taught her people by import- 

 ing instructors, and sending her sons 

 into the best schools of the world ; 

 the imported instructors were re- 

 tained until she was able to pro- 

 duce properly trained sons of her 

 own. She had the same difficulties 

 as we will have : that the foreign 

 instructors had to woik in a new 

 country, and did not understand the 

 language, etc., but still the scheme was 

 an entire success. In importing instruc- 

 tors we must go to a country as 

 tropical as possible, and I do not think 

 we can do better than procure our 

 instructors from Queensland ; it is a 

 semi-tropical country and grows most 

 of the produce and fruits that we do. 

 It has an excellent Agricultural College, 

 of course it would be a mistake to 

 procure men who have just finished their 

 course at the College ; we must have 

 men who have had further experience 

 in the world of farming. It will be 

 found that these men will soon adapt 

 themselves to the conditions and re- 

 quirements of agriculture in Ceylon and 

 do good work. In recommending the 

 Queensland College, I am not speaking 

 from personal knowledge. Victoria, 

 the most go-ahead of the Australian 

 States, was first to start agricultural 

 education and has two colleges ; I know 

 her institutions thoroughly. I have 

 also visited the colleges of New South 

 Wales and South Australia — undoubt- 

 edly the sister-State Queensland is run- 

 ning her College on the same principles 

 and so can be relied on. It would also 

 be advisable (as I notice India has done 

 in sending some students to America 

 for agricultural education) to send a 

 number of young men to the Queensland 

 College or any other sister institution, 

 so that they may form the agricultural 

 instructors of the future. Surely it is 

 within all possibility that the Ceylon 

 Government can make arrangements 

 with the Federal Government to allow 

 the students to gain access into the 

 country for a stated period 



FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. 



There is an erroneous idea current 

 that the non-transplanting of paddy is 



the chief cause of the miserable results 

 now obtained by the cultivators of 

 that graiu. There is, no doubt, that 

 broadcast sowing causes the wasteful- 

 ness of a lot of seed, and it is for this 

 reason that seed drilling machines are so 

 extensively used in other countries, 

 Broadcast sowing of paddy in Ceylon 

 certainly does mean the loss of a certain 

 amount of seed grain, but it is by no 

 means the chief cause of the present 

 poor results. Every practical agricul- 

 turist knows that to produce a success- 

 ful crop every operation must be syste- 

 matically and thoroughly carried out. 

 The principal operation is the prepar- 

 ation of a good seed bed. If this is not 

 thoroughly done, the seclected seed, the 

 drilling in of it, and the irrigation, 

 etc., will not and cannot produce a 

 good crop. I cannot prove this iu a 

 better way than by showing the 



RESULTS OP MY OWN EXPERIMENTING, 



Attached to a coconut estate 1 was 

 superintending was some 13 acres of 

 paddy land under a tank that also 

 belonged to the estate ; this paddy land 

 had always been cultivated by villagers 

 on the share system. On my taking 

 'charge, for the first season I allowed the 

 villagers to carry on their operations 

 and closely studied their methods of 

 Avork and the results, etc. The result 

 was 14 bushels of paddy per acre. There 

 happened to be on the place some Eng- 

 lish-made ploughs with a pole and one 

 handle. I tested one of these ploughs 

 and found that it was absolutely im- 

 possible to do good work with it, as I 

 found the plough was far too sensitive 

 to every movement of the cattle, owing 

 to the pole, and that it was impos- 

 sible to steer it with one handle, and 

 also without a front regulating wheel 

 that it was impossible to regulate the 

 depth, so I set to work to alter it. I 

 cut off the pole to about the usual length 

 of the beam of the ordinary plough 

 used with horses elsewhere, to the end 

 of this beam I fastened a device to 

 which could be easily attached a chain 

 to take the place of the pole, then, as 

 the plough had no colter, I had to get 

 one made — or rather pretty well do all 

 the making myself, as the village black- 

 smith, though an excellent man, was very 

 dense in understanding the making of 

 what he never did before ; luckily, 

 blacksmithing had been a part of my 

 agricultural education, so between the 

 blacksmith and myself the colter, the 

 front guiding wheel, and the necessary 

 fixings, etc., were made and another 

 handle fixed on. On testing the impro- 

 vised plough I found that I could do 

 some fairly good plonging. I had made 

 up my mind to try some experimental 

 paddy growing to test some theories I 



