835 



Miscellaneous. 



more in touch with the class in whose interests these efforts are made, th 

 attendance of not less than ten representative cultivators from each of thes 

 nineteen divisions is secured at these monthly meetings. 



On this occasion seed is issued, instructions regarding its cultivation are 

 given, leaflets are distributed, and proceedings of the meetings of the Central 

 Board are explained in the Vernacular, and the details of new proposals are 

 discussed. Experimental gardens have been, and are being, opened in central 

 situations on the high roads to the villages, and in these gardens fruit trees, 

 new products and vegetables, native and English, are being introduced ; and 

 whatever is introduced in these village gardens is also distributed to the surround- 

 ing villages. These gardens will in a short time be scattered all over the Korle, 

 But except three principal gardens they will be on a smaller scale, more like 

 school gardens. 



A proposal has been matured and will soon, it is hoped, be adopted to open 

 seed paddy stores in the Korle for the purpose of giving seed paddy to small holders, 

 who will then be able to borrow seed at 25 per cent, in lieu of the 100 per cent, now 

 levied. To improve the stock two villagers have been trained by the Veterinary 

 Surgeon and equipped, and are now working steadily on certain days in specially 

 appointed places. Between the 17th May and December, 1905, 255 animals have 

 been gelded in ten divisions. 



A farm has also been established in a conspicuous situation where useful 

 work is done. The ground is a hundred acres in extent, of which about 40 acres 

 have been utilised already. A part of it has been set apart for housing the cattle 

 belonging to the farm. At a small fee the cattle of the surrounding villages 

 are served by a stud bull supplied from the Government Dairy primarily for raising 

 a stock of our own. 



The rest of the ground is being planted up with various kinds of fodder 

 grasses to serve as a pasture land for that part of the Korle, with reservation for 

 a poultry run, already stocked on a small scale with native birds, and for a stock 

 garden where various products are grown. While thus affording every facility for 

 improving the village stock both at the farm and in the villages, and the lessons 

 illustrated by a model farm, we are also providing the material to supply, at no 

 distant date, a superior kind of animal for draught purposes generally, and for 

 working English ploughs which the Society proposes to introduce as tending to 

 obtain, as they did obtain with the primitive ploughs of old, better results in 

 paddy cultivation than by tilling with manual labour. This prospectus of the 

 Society scarcely needs any further explanation. Every villager has now the means 

 of raising all his wants if he will use them. But few do so at present ; and the 

 object of our Society is to induce them to do so. A few want persuasion, the 

 majority instruction, and to the latter class belong the large number of idlers who 

 contribute largely to the criminal population of the Korle. We are making 

 provision for both, and in order that these may not be ineffectual, the police officers 

 and constable arachchies who attend the Mudaliyar's office on the 1st day of the 

 month to report on matters criminal are furnished with the details of the previous 

 meeting, and also themselves report on that day any defaulter who has specially 

 been required to do something for himself and has failed. A little reproof generally 

 is all that is wanted. And in this manner I was able to report to the head office, 

 after ten months' work, that cultivations which were peculiar to three divisions of 

 the Korle had been taken up on a larger or smaller scale in all the nineteen divisions. 



The cultivation of English vegetables has also been introduced. During 

 the year seeds to the value of nearly 75 rupees have been distributed. The results 

 of the last distribution will soon come under public notice. And I venture to 



