7r. 



Scientific Agriculture. 



man is very conservative in his ways ; and it is very difficult to make him depart 

 from his old stereotyped ways, and he has also great prejudices against anything 

 new or strange. 



The Agricultural Society would therefore confer a great boon on Jaffna 

 if they could in the first place devise some means of infusing into the mind of the 

 Jaffna man a tendency to view things liberally, and to give a trial to measures 

 intended to improve the cause of agriculture. As he is, lie will not adopt 

 any new measure, unless he sees for himself the beneficial results of the same 

 and is convinced of its advantage. He must therefore be shown by practical 

 means the advantages of modern agricultural methods and of the introduction of 

 new products suited to our climate and soil. 1 think experimental gardens at 

 different centres would well serve this purpose, and if our headmen, all of whom 

 are members of the Jaffna Agricultural Society, would take some interest in the 

 matter and open up small gardens in one of their own lands in their respective 

 divisions, they will do immense service to their country and to the cause of agri- 

 culture in particular. 



I must, however, point out that the apathy of the Jaffna man to adopt most 

 of the new methods proposed from time to time by modern agriculturists is not 

 without some reason. They are either not suited to Jaffna, or are attended with 

 difficulties too many to be surmounted. It would therefore be the duty of the 

 Agricultural Society to advise the people how to get over such difficulties and to 

 adopt such measures as are suited to Jaffna. 



Irrigation. — The next subject that deserves the consideration of the Agri- 

 cultural Society is the question of irrigation in Jaffna. Jaffna is comparatively 

 a very dry place, and it depends for its water supply solely on its wells and 

 "theeravoos." Water is drawn out in the case of wells by the laborious method 

 of working well sweeps, and in the case of " theeravoos " by hand buckets or 

 baskets. In working the well sweeps, not less than three people are put on the 

 work, and at times the number increases to five. An equal, if not a still larger 

 number of people is required to work in the ease of "theeravoos"; and in either 

 case the work involves a good deal of physical labour and waste of time and 

 energy. Suggestions have often been made of pumps and other hydraulic machines 

 or apparati ; and some of them have been given a trial, too, but no success 

 has been obtained in this direction. Any machinery introduced to help the Jaffna 

 cultivator must be simple and cheap. The machines hitherto suggested are more 

 costly than well sweeps, and this is a great obstacle in the way of any Jaffna 

 cultivator availing himself of their use. The Jaffna cultivator is generally of 

 limited means, and the extent cultivated or owned by him is very small. Costly 

 machines are not therefore within his means, and even well-to-do people would 

 hesitate to invest any money on such machines, as their worki ng expenses greatly 

 exceed those of the well sweep. The cost of working a well sweep would not 

 exceed Rs. l'J 2 a day, whereas the cost of working a pump, say a, Nona, would 

 come to Rs. 1*75 or Rs. 2 a day if such pumps are to be worked with bulls. Add 

 to this the initial expenditure which is immensely larger than that of a well 

 sweep, and the total expenditure would certainly be prohibitive and disadvan- 

 tageous. I say disadvantageous because there is not much difference between 

 the quantity of water raised by a well sweep and that by an ordinary well 

 pump, while the cost and working expenses of a well pump are much larger than 

 • those of a well sweep. But if the pumps could be worked on a large scale, they 

 would certainly be found to be of great advantage ; but I am afraid that our 

 wells would not permit this. They do not hold ample water to justify their 

 working with large pumps, and I think that this difficulty could be overcome 



