THE 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF THE 



CEYLON AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Vor,. XXXVII. COLOMBO, DECEMBER 15th, 1911, No. 6. 



With this number the period during 

 which the present writer has edited 

 this journal comes to au end, and he has 

 to express his grateful thanks for the 

 hearing that he has received even when 

 advancing opinions contrary to those of 

 most of his readers. 



He gives up his connection with the 

 local Agricultural Society with regret. 

 The Society is doing good work for the 

 people of Ceylon, even though the 

 shortly approaching agricultural millen- 

 nium, which was hailed upon its first 

 foundation, has not yet made its ap- 

 pearance. 



A source of great satisfaction to the 

 writer is that the move for which he 

 began to agitate as soon as the Society 

 was formed has now become an accom- 

 plished fact, in so far as the Ordinance 

 allowing tor the establishment of Credit 

 Societies has become law. Until the 

 villager is freed or nearly freed from 

 the clutches of debt he cannot progress 

 in agriculture proper, and the only way 

 in which as yet this freedom has been 

 found is by means of the Credit Societies 



so successful in Europe and elsewhere. 

 Agitation for such societies was begun 

 at about the same time in India as in 

 Ceylon, but more quickly came to 

 fruition, and now these societies are 

 spreading wonderfully there and making 

 a great difference in local affairs. So 

 much have they grown and so far taken 

 hold of the villager that the local money 

 lenders are showing a desire to invest 

 their money in them. Once let these 

 societies make a good start in Ceylon, 

 and set to work a young and energetic 

 organizer who shall devote his time to 

 working them up, and a change will 

 have to be recorded in local agriculture. 

 Until that happy period dawns, progress 

 must be confined to those who have 

 money, and they will steadily go further 

 and further ahead of the poorer goiyas, 

 a result not to be desired in a well- 

 governed country. All classes should 

 progress equally, and while the capital- 

 ist is progressing in agricultural 

 methods, the poorer man should at any 

 rate be progressing upwards to that 

 point where he too may begin to do so. 



