Miscellaneous. 



[July, 1011, 



question of bringing the villager into 

 closer touch with the Society. — Carried. 



Mr. Francis Beveu moved and Sir 

 Solomon Dias Bandaranaike seconded 

 that the following Committee (with 

 power to add to their number) to organ- 

 ise an all-Island Agri-Horticultural 

 Show for 1911 be appointed -.—The Direc- 

 tor, Royal Botanic Gardens, the Cura- 

 tors of Peradeniya aud Hakgala Gar- 

 dens, the Government Agents of the 

 nine Provinces, the Assistant Govern- 

 ment Agents for several Districts, the 

 Chairmen of the Plauters' Association 

 of Ceylon, Chamber of Commerce, and 

 the Lowcountry Products Association, 

 Dunuwille Disava, Secietary, Ceylon 

 Agricultural Society, the Government 

 Veterinary Surgeon, the Maha Muda- 

 liyar, the Colombo Atapattu Mudaliyar, 

 the Hon'ble Messrs. Seneviratne and 

 Kanagasabai, Messrs. E. B. Denham, A. 

 J. R. de Soysa, M. Kelway Bamber, J. 

 D. Vanderstraaten, L. VV. A. de Soysa, 

 and Francis Beven, Mudaliyars A. E. 

 Rajapakse and C. M. Sinnaiah. 



The consideration of Mr. van Leen- 

 hoff's Report on the Tobacco Experi- 

 ment at Mahailuppalama was with- 

 drawn from the agenda on the sugges- 

 tion of His Excellency the President 

 that it should be brought up at the next 

 meeting of the Board. With reference 

 to an enquiry from His Excellency as to 

 how certain alterations in the report 

 came to be made, Dr. Willis explained 

 that they were made at a meeting of the 

 Tobacco Committee at which Mr. van 

 Leenhoff was present and with the 

 latter's approval. The Hon, Mr. Senior 

 added that some of the remarks in the 

 original report were made under a mis- 

 apprehension on the part of Mr. van 

 Leenhoff, whose knowledge of English 

 was not very perfect. It was therefore 

 found necessary to somewhat modify 

 the report in certain places, and this was 

 done with Mr. van Leenhoff's consent 

 and approval. 



Mr. R. W- Smith, Director of Irriga- 

 tion, read a paper on " Wells." The 

 paper by Mr. A. W. Beven entitled 

 " Notes on Coconut Cultivation " was, in 

 the absence of the writer, taken as 

 read. 



H.E. the President moved a vote of 

 thanks to the writers of the two papers. 



C. DRIEBERG, 

 Secretary, C.A.S. 



20th June, 1911. 



WELLS. 



By R. W. Smith, a.m.lc.e., b.a., b.b., 

 Trinity College, Dublin, 

 Director of Irrigation. 

 The question of water supply is so 

 inseparably connected with agriculture 

 that the following notes regarding 

 " Wells " and the selection of sites for 

 same may be of general interest. 



2. In the northern climes, especially in 

 North-Western Europe, the difficulties 

 experienced by agriculturists in connec- 

 tion with water are mainly found in the 

 disposal of the surplus supply. The 

 rainfall, though perhaps not excessive 

 in actual quantity as compared with 

 tropical countries, is tolerably evenly 

 distributed and the evaporation small. 

 The soil — especially in districts where 

 this question of surplus supply has to be 

 considered— is retentive, and absorption 

 is at a minimum. The result is that the 

 water which falls on the surface in the 

 form of rain has either to run off to 

 natural drainage outlets or remain in 

 excess on or near the surface. Artificial 

 drainage then becomes neceosary. 



3. This leads up to one main point 

 which has to be kept in mind when con- 

 sidering the question of the selection of 

 sites for wells, namely, that, speaking 

 generally, the source of all supplies of 

 fresh water is found in rainfall. Arte- 

 sian wells and springs are often credited 

 with some magic power which enables 

 them — like the traditional "brook" in 

 the song — to "go on for ever," but on 

 consideration it will be seen that even 

 they (magic as they are !) must have 

 some original source of supply or they 

 would become exhausted. 



4. When this water supply, in the 

 form of rain, reaches the surface of the 

 ground, it meets, in the ease of the 

 retentive soils mentioned above, one of 

 the worst conditions to be found. In a 

 short time the surface becomes satur- 

 ated, and, if it has naturally steep 

 slopes, the surplus water runs off into 

 drainage channels, and thence to the 

 rivers and is lost. There is only one 

 worse condition, and this is in the case 

 of bare rock, when the whole supply is 

 lost, at least to the immediate vicinity. 



5. The other and best extreme as 

 regards conservation of the supply, 

 occurs in the case of a pure sand soil, 

 where nearly the whole of the supply is 

 retained in certain cases. As these 

 notes are written for the consideration 

 of an Agricultural Society, the writer 

 may be pardoned for dealing with the 

 general question under consideration 

 from the point of view of the agricul- 



