and Magazineof the 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 

 IN CEYLON. 



IMPROVM) PROSPECTS. 



In a colony such as this, where agriculture is 

 the chief business both of natives and colonists, 

 the necessity for agricultural education needs no 

 demonstration. But while the requirements of 

 the colonist may safely be left to be provided out 

 of his own resources, those of the native sorely 

 need the fostering care of Government : for he 

 has still to be thoroughly weaned from the 

 agricultural practices of a former generation. 

 Indeed, native agriculture in Ceylon has almost 

 stood still, while the Island has progressed in 

 other respects ; the scope and methods of the 

 goiya's operations have not altered with the 

 times, nor been adapted to present-day condi- 

 tions. In the North of the Island agricultural 

 practice has been modified by Indian influence, 

 but in the Sinhalese districts no such change 

 is noticeable. It is all the more necessary, there- 

 fore, that some attempt should be made to move 

 so inert a body as is represented by the mass of 

 native cultivators. 



The first serious attempt that aimed at the 

 improvement of native agriculture in Ceylon 

 was that associated with the name of the late 

 Mr. H. W. Green, c. c. s., who, as Director of 

 Public Instruction, established a School of 

 Agriculture, and himself managed the insti- 

 tution till he was able to secure the ser- 

 vices of a qualified man. Mr. Green set to 

 work with much earnestness of purpose, and 

 was as sincere as he was hopeful and enthu- 

 siastic. But there were serious flaws in Mr. 

 Green's scheme. His selection of a site (guided 

 no doubt by considerations of economy) was 

 most unfortunate; his curriculum of work was 

 not sufficiently practical, and included much 

 that was merely calculated to attract scholars ; 

 he did not provide for tho institution being 

 utilised as a training ground for the large 

 number of petty village officers who, in a great 

 degree, control the destinies of the rural popu- 

 lation. It was hardly to be expected that the 

 sons of the conservative cultivators would have 

 locked to an institution to acquire an edu- 

 cation in which they had no faith. The same 

 difficulty as regards attendance was for a long 

 time experienced in England, where agricultural 

 education was decried by the practical farmers 

 of the day as a fad ; and this difficulty was a 

 more formidable obstacle in an Eastern country. 



In addition to his school, Mr. Green 

 appointed a staff of Instructors who were 

 stationed in different parts of the Island. It is 

 these officers that have been immortalised by 

 Mr. F. K. Ellis, late of the Civil Service, who, in 

 caustic vein, described them as "a happy band 

 of youths who for a series of years received 

 a good salary for cultivating Crown land with 

 cattle supplied by Government, and appro- 

 priated the produce for their own use. ' The 

 humour of the passage is characteristic of the 

 writer ; but the facts are unfortunately not cor- 

 rect, since many of the Instructors are known to 

 have done honest and hard work, while some of 



62 



Ion Agricultural Society. 489 



them carried out important experiments and 

 demonstrations, details being on record. Sub- 

 sequently the school and the staff of Instructors 

 passed into the hands of a Director on whom the 

 mantle of Mr. Green had not descended ; with 

 the result that, despite every effort, the insti- 

 tution began to succumb to a starvation policy, 

 and the Instructors — cut adrift — were left to 

 work out their own ruin ! The history of this 

 first attempt to improve native agriculture is 

 pithily summed up by the then Director of 

 Public Instruction, Mr. S. M. Burrows, c.c.s., 

 who, in his annual report for 1899, wrote:— 



" Two things are clear, even to a short experi- 

 ence : that the Superintendent of the School of 

 Agriculture has done his best under many 

 difficulties, and thatowing toa variety of circum- 

 stances, tho school in its present condition can 

 do very little good." 



Soon after this the school was closed ; but it 

 cannot be denied that, while it existed, though 

 it had no brilliant record to show, it made its 

 influence felt in many ways, and was responsible 

 for an awakening, at least among the better 

 educated classes of Ceylonese, to a sense of the 

 importance of agricultural study, and the 

 necessity for a change from old methods to new. 



During Sir West Ridgeway's regime agricul- 

 tural education came under the consideration 

 of a Commission ; its report — like the reports 

 of many other Commissions— lies among the 

 island's archives ! With the closing of the Agri- 

 cultural School, a very practical though un- 

 ambitious scheme was set on foot for imparting 

 elementary instruction in agriculture and nature 

 study through the Agency of School Gardens. 

 So far this scheme has worked well, and the 

 gardens have answered their purpose admirably, 

 not merely as distributing centres, but also in 

 inculcating the dignity of labour and reconcil- 

 ing the village youth to his rural surroundings. 



Since the constitution of the Ceylon Agricul- 

 tural Society by Sir Henry Blake, an impetus 

 has been given to the work of School Gardens, 

 and great encouragement offered in other ways 

 to agricultural improvement— by means of 

 shows and Experimental Gardens, lectures and 

 demonstrations ; but it has been left for H.E. 

 Sir Henry McCallum to bring up, as subjects for 

 administrative action, the questions of loans 

 to agriculturists and the agricultural education 

 of the masses. The financial embarrassment 

 of the cultivator and his stolid indifference 

 to his own interests are serious obstacles, 

 that have to be removed from the path of 

 progress. Both these are receiving H.E. the 

 Governor's serious attention. 



At last meeting of the Agricultural Board 

 a paper entitled " Suggestions for a local scheme 

 of Agricultural Education " was read by Mr. W. 

 A. de Silva, whose views, as those of a trained 

 agriculturist, who has carefully studied the 

 wants of his countrymen, are entitled to res- 

 pect. Mr. de Silva's paper is reproduced, but 

 we would like to add that he has rendered a dis- 

 tinct service to his community as well as to 

 Government by drafting out a practical scheme 

 for consideration. It was stated both by the 



