Scientific Agriculture. 



7S 



we are given a railway, we have au easy and speedy means of transport, and there U 

 always a great demand for Jaffna products in preference to those of other places.- 

 Why should not then the existing extent of the cultivation of these products be 

 sufficiently extended to meet our own demands and send the surplus to other places. 

 Would it not be worth the while of any of our enterprising agricultural adventurers 

 to open up fruit and vegetable gardens at populous centres and send things to the 

 neighbouring towns and villages. 



Xeio Products.— An I have shown before, the Jaffna cultivator is very conser- 

 vative in his ways, and he is always very reluctant to give a trial to any new product. 

 This is a sad mistake. We read of marvellous results obtained in other places by the 

 cultivation of such plants as rubber, cotton, vanilla and other products, which there' 

 is ample reason to believe will well suit the Jaffna soil. Tobacco and maniocea were 

 themselves new products to Jaffna at one time, and to-day we see the beneficial 

 results of the introduction into Jaffna of these products by some of our energetic 

 and far-sighted forefathers. Other new products also could be introduced with equal, 

 if not better, advantage, and the subject only needs a venture by some of our enter- 

 prising countrymen. The advantage should only be shown once, aud the cultivation 

 is sure to be taken up by the mass at large. It is for public bodies such as the 

 Agricultural Society to infuse into the minds of the general public the manifold advant 

 ages of the introduction of new products suited to Jaffna, and this knowledge could 

 be imparted by leaflets published at frequent intervals, by experimental gardens aud 

 by agricultural shows held periodically. 



Agricultural Banks. — I know that our cultivators undergo great hardships 

 at times for want of funds to carry on their work. Tobacco cidtivators are often 

 found to borrow money on an interest at the rate of two per ten for a period of six 

 or seven months. Paddy cultivators suffer from want of seed paddy and the necssary 

 funds to manure, sow, weed and harvest their fields at the proper time. An 

 agricultural bank is a great desideratum to Jaffna, and the Agricultural Society 

 would confer a great boon on the Jaffna public if they could find their way to have 

 an institution of the kind opened in Jaffna. 



Agricultural Instruction.— The Jaffna cultivator has of course some practical 

 knowledge of agriculture, but he has no idea of the industry in a scientific manner. 

 He knows what to do to grow a certain crop, but he does not know the reason for 

 adopting the course that he follows. If he knew the reason he could do the work 

 much better, and lie might not meet with occasional failures as he does now. Our young 

 generation should at least be given some instruction on the subject, so that it may be 

 of great value to them when they attain manhood, and I think it is not a bad sugges- 

 tion that the Director of Public Instruction should be moved to make agriculture one 

 of the curriculum of studies in Grant-in-aid and Government schools. Agriculture 

 is certainly a more useful study than Latin aud Greek, or Geometry and Algebra. 



Agriculture in the Mainland. -Though the remarks I have made in this paper 

 are intended chiefly for the Jaffna Peninsula, I should say that they could apply with 

 double force to the mainland of the Jaffna district and to the Province in general. 

 We have ample scope to carry on cultivation in the mainland where we have 

 different kinds of soil and several tanks to facilitate our work. The people who 

 inhabit that part of the country at present, the Vanui people as they are generally 

 called, are a set of lazy people, and their idea of cultivation is paddy and paddy alone. 

 They direct their attention but little to any other cultivation, and their idea of the 

 duties of a cultivator is very peculiar. They think it beneath their dignity to work 

 on their tank bunds, and the little they get in their fieLls is usually sucked by the 

 Karativu money lender and cooly. When their paddy crop is reaped they think that 

 their work te over, and they may then be seen idling their time with a pack of cards 



