March 1907.] 



173 



Miscellaneous* 



In no part of the Presidency have I come across such wretched patterns 

 of plough, piccotah, and in short a more backward system of husbandry in many 

 respects, that in the Ganjam district, which, as its very name implies, is a rice 

 growing country, being blessed with comparatively abundant rainfall. The body 

 of the Ganjam plough has a very broad and fiat surface, both above and below, and 

 its work may very appropriately be called " scratching " in comparison with the 

 work of ploughs elsewhere. For some reason, the plough of South Canara, which is 

 also a rice-growing country, happens to be quite the reverse of the Ganjam plough 

 and seems to be of a superior pattern to that used anywhere, being hollow at the 

 bottom, like the English plough, and perfectly wedgeshaped in front, so as to 

 reduce the friction to a minimum. It is a crude veritable double mould board 

 plough. From what has been written above, it will be manifest that the agriculture 

 of the country might be very materially, readily, and surely improved by diff asion, 

 as it were, of the present localised superior methods pending successful results at 

 experimental farms and the importation of exotic methods which may be univer- 

 sally applicable. — Central Agricultural Committee Madras Bulletin, No. 3. 



[Tliese suggestions are worth consideration by those who have to do with 

 agriculture in Ceylon, more especially in the North.— Ed. " T. A,"] 



BOTANY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND ON THE FARM. 

 By Professor J. B. S. Norton. 



There are many persons, young and old, who have a desire for increased 

 knowledge, and have a natural taste for work in natural science, but who cannot 

 leave their work for a course at College. To such persons there may be no more 

 delightful or instructive pursuit than study and observation at odd moments of the 

 mineral, plants and animal objects found on the farm, or even city lots, and their 

 relations to one another. And there is no better way to develop the child's mind in 

 a sane and healthful way than by such exercises reasonably directed. Many persons 

 while hindered by sickness, or otherwise, from doing harder work, could make life 

 enjoyable and useful by such pursuits indoors or outdoors. This Committee can prob- 

 ably do no better work than to encourage such studies of the vegetable life of the 

 farms, gardens and yards of the State. Moreover, such work by individuals without 

 technical training may bring new ideas to the professional scientist, who, too often, 

 gets into scholastic ruts. 



Public school teachers could direct their pupils in such work, and some time 

 is now being devoted to elementary natural science in many schools. If the pupil's 

 attention could be attracted to roadside plants in coming and going from school, 

 as well as in the meagre time that can be devoted to that work in school hours, 

 much will be gained. In such work the first thing to be borne in mind, by teachers 

 as well as pupils, is that plants are living things which feed, respire, move, and 

 in the most fundamental life relations differ but little from animals. This attitude 

 of mind makes them seem much more worthy of attention, although the supporting 

 evidence of such a view is not so readily apparent as with animals without som e 

 investigation. And here I would say that the little things should not be neglected. 

 The mosses, lichens, mushrooms, even the green water ecum, are as interesting, 

 not to say beautiful, as larger plants like oaks and apple trees ; the weeds on city 

 lots and in back yards offer material for almost every line of botanical work the 

 city teacher needs to take up, and the life process going on and the variety of plant 

 structures to be found under the snow or underground in winter, are only somewhat 

 less varied, but more interesting because less known than the above ground 

 vegetation 



