TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF THE 



CEYLON AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. XXVII. COLOMBO, JULY 15th, 1906. No. 1. 



Some Possibilities of Improvement in Village Agriculture. 



III. 



The next point to be considered is the possibility of improving native 

 methods in agriculture. There can be no reasonable doubt that such improve- 

 ment is possible, but here above all it is very important to know exactly what 

 we are doing, and to be very careful to test things thoroughly and to be quite 

 sure of their advantages before recommending or attempting to introduce them 

 among the natives. Agriculture is a complicated art, and a change in any one 

 item of a cultivation-process may bring entirely unforeseen and perhaps disastrous 

 changes in other items in its train. To take a concrete illustration. A planter 

 living near Peradeniya suggested to the neighbouring villagers that a little 

 manure would greatly improve their paddy-field, and offered, as they could not 

 afford to buy it, to provide them with it free of cost. This was accepted 

 the manure was applied, the crop grew magnificently, the planter was delighted. 

 But when harvest approached, it was found that the ears had been completely 

 destroyed by the paddy-fly, the more rapid growth having perhaps rendered 

 them a trifle less resistant. There is very little doubt that suitable manuring, 

 with improved pre2autions against fly, might be attended by good results, but 

 the whole matter should have been tested thoroughly on an Experiment Station 

 first ; as it is the villagers in the district in question have acquired a prejudice 

 against manuring which may last a century. 



Another formidable obstacle to any change in methods is custom. The 

 native is very conservative, and objects to any interference with his time- 

 honoured ways. Thus, for instance, among the Javanese and the Malays, one 

 sees side by side the comparatively advanced method of transplanting the rice 

 (as opposed to the broadcasting of Ceylon and some other places) and the 

 inefficient method of harvesting it by cutting each ear separately with a knife. 

 Yet even in Java the latter is tenaciously adhered to, on account of the fact 

 that the harvesting time is the great festive season, when all the young folk 

 turn out into the fields, and engagements are mostly contracted. In some parts 

 of Southern India the ryots plant their cotton with a drill, in rows; in others 

 they sow it broadcast, getting a less result from more seed and labour; ;£ a 



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