337 



Miscellaneous. 



bull will be unequal to the draught which lies not in the weight of the plough, 

 but in the depth of the furrows which it makes, in which lies its superiority 

 over other ploughs and over all other methods of turning up the soil. This, 

 however, is a difficulty overcome by procuring native or other bulls specially of 

 a superior type. 



But by far our greatest enterprise is the proposed establishment of a 

 seed paddy store for the purpose of issuing to small holders seed paddy 

 at 25 per cent, in lieu of the 100 per cent, they invariably pay now. Much 

 has been done in the past, and is yet being done to improve paddy cultivation 

 by the construction of new and by the restoration and improvement of moribund 

 irrigation works. These works are lasting monuments of skill, of beneficent adminis- 

 tration, and of well spent time and opportunities. They have, as far as our 

 part of the country is concerned, afforded a more regular water supply. They have 

 vastly improved the lot of the extensive land owner, but they have in no measure 

 improved the condition or added to the stock of food of the poor cultivator who, 

 under a system of usury, frequently carries home nothing from his plot or field, 

 and is all the year round in the grip of the paddy lender. It is to remove this 

 blot in village life that this proposal, now mature in all its details, is to be put 

 into operation. The work will be a simple one, involving no expense except the 

 capital required for the initial stock, for the raising of which, without outside help, 

 we have devised plans which have already been submitted to the Central Board. 



If anything were wanting to further commend this venture, it is furnished 

 in the universal feeling of satisfaction with which it has been received. These 

 Agricultural Societies are, at least in their early stage, educational bodies, and 

 like all other bodies require that their labours should be submitted to a periodical 

 test of a more or less competitive nature. That test would take the shape of 

 annual shows. The first of such shows, for its own success as well as for the 

 success of others to follow, must be essentially a function. It should draw to 

 it the whole Korle, and there should be some attraction to draw them to it 

 greater than collections of vegetables and grain, of specimens of the various 

 industries, and of hackeries and bulls. I need hardly say what that greater 

 attraction will be, and it is humbly hoped by the inhabitants of the Korle 

 that the occasion would be considered important, although only a village show, 

 for the great in the land to shew their appreciation of it by their presence. 

 If the success of the first show is thus assured I can safely predict, after a 

 long experience in similar matters, that, given a fixed venue and date, ail further 

 shows will be not functions but purely business affairs, to which the people 

 will go as they do now to local fairs held yearly. The stimulating effect of 

 these shows cannot too highly be estimated, not only as regards agricultural 

 enterprises, but also as regards various other industries of the Korle as well, 

 to exhibit which every encouragement would be given and they will also afford 

 an opportunity to the local Society of showing that their labours are real and 

 have not been given in vain. They will secure a continuity of our work. The 

 cultivator will every year have something to look forward to, and the Society, 

 whose objects naturally must have in them, like in the case of individuals, some 

 share of selfishness, will have yearly an opportunity of showing advance in 

 their work. 



Not the least desirable feature of the show will be that it will afford 

 to the people a holiday in their own Korle that does not involve any expenses 

 of travelling, or a long absence from home. To sum up, it should be the aim, 

 and it is within the scope of all local Societies, to make every villager raise 

 the necessaries of the villager's humble diet table ; who would be all the healthier 

 by the freshness of the produce, and the happier by the sense of gratification 



