September 2, 1889.] Supplement to the "Tropical Agriculturist" 
221 
Happy Valley, Haputale, 5th August 1889. 
My work here is of a different nature from that 
which I had in my former stations. Your readers 
might have heard of the grant of land — 200 acres in 
extent — made by the Government to the School of 
Industry here. Two hundred acres form a large extent, 
and there is room for agricultural work on a large scale. 
I consider it an honour that I have to initiate this work 
and a privilege that I have so worthy a Director 
in the Rev. S. Langdon. Although there is a good 
deal to be done, my work is yet in the experimental 
state. We have yet to find out what crops are best suited 
to the climate, soil, &c, which will pay best, and the 
most suitable time to grow them. So far barley, 
cotton, dholl, and potatoes have engaged our attention. 
There is moreover a nursery of tea containing 
seedlings sufficient to plant about six acres. We have 
also in a nursery a large number of cuttings 
of d fferent v a rieties of Australian g< ape-vines, kindly 
sent us by Mr. A. M. Ferguson, c.m.g. and Mr. Nock 
of the Hakgala Gardens. There is a garden where 
English and native vegetables are grown for school 
consumption only ; but in time it is hoped that the pro- 
duce will be large enough to admit of an outside sale. 
A fine bit of coffee land — some J of a mile off — was lately 
purchased for the school and is also under my super- 
vision. There is no assweddumized paddy land attached 
to the school, but if my work here will admit of it, 
I am anxious to have a piece of arable land in 
the adjoining village cultivated with the " Howard's 
Cingalee plough " for the next season. The weather 
was dry during July with a few showers at the back end 
of the month. The showers have done much good to 
the coffee which has since begun to blossom. 
Slowly but steadily the foundation of a regular farm 
is being laid, and we can already count some sheep, 
swine, and poultry of superior breed. There are also 
a number of cattle, and the manure from these is 
stored according to the ' pit ' system. 
Edwin T. Hoole. 
♦ 
C0RRESP0N DENCE. 
CHENA CULTIVATION. 
Sib, — Ohena cultivation is a branch of native agri- 
culture which has existed from time immemorial, and 
which in times of scarcity has Berved to mitigate 
the effects of a general famine. That chena cultiva- 
tion was known and practised in the island long 
before paddy cultivation was introduced, may be 
safely assumed. There was one consideration which 
rendered chena cultivation during the early period of 
the native monarchy a matter of necessity, as the 
only means of opening up the country and driving 
away wild animals from the vicinity of villages. 
Another advantage may be found in the abundant 
pasturage which a newly-reaped chena afforded. 
Besides this advantage it offered also the only field 
for raising vegetables and yami on which the villagers 
almost wholly subsisted. But above all, the strongest 
reason for the encouragement of chena cultivation 
at that time may be found in its application to the cul- 
tivation of cotton. The chena furnished the material for 
olothing, and until the looms of Manchester commenced 
to undersell the native cotton spinner, cotton grown 
on the chenas supplied clothing to our rural population. 
Much difference of opinion seems to exist, whether 
chena cultivation as now practised should be altogether 
prohibited or not ; as an argument, for the former 
may be mentioned the unwholesomeness of all dry 
grains as an article of constant and regular diet, 
the serious injury done to forests by indiscriminate 
chena clearing, and the diversion of the industry of 
the people from the more important occupation of 
paddy cultivation. I shall notice these objections before 
dealing with the other side of the question. First 
then, as regards the unwholesomeness of dry grain 
as an article of constant diet, we have seen and read 
of its effects on the population of places where rice 
forms but a small portion of their food. There is no 
doubt that the consumption of dry grain is attended 
with many and serious evils. These places have be- 
come the centres of endemic fever. Immediately 
after the fine-grain crop is taken in, and that too in 
the unhealthiest season of the year, fever and dysen- 
tery begin to set in. Dysentery is always higher 
during this season, and with the inability to get more 
nourishing food, even when suffering from sickness, 
the po or people if they recover at all owe it to a 
naturally strong constitution. 
The injury that is done to forests by chena cul- 
tivation, except in the mountainous and remoter parts 
of the island, is perhaps too exaggerated. The lands 
once cleared unless systematically planted with forest 
trees will not produce for a very long time a single 
valuable tree. The seeds that are burnt and destroyed 
are never replaced, and the rapid growth of jungle 
plants serve effectually to keep down the seed of a 
forest tree that may have germinated. If chena 
cultivation is suppressed for the sake of getting the 
people to take more to paddy cultivation it would 
be a good policy. I very much doubt these scrubby 
jungle plants becoming forest trees. It is believed that 
the native takes to chena cultivation as it is easier than 
that of cultivating paddy. It is not from choice but 
from sheer necessity that the native takes to it. 
The large areas of chena land that are wholly in- 
applicable for any other kind of cultivation, instead 
of lying unutilized may he used for the cultivation of 
grains, legumes, gram, collu and Indian corn. A 
ready market will be found in our larger towns for 
these products for the feeding of horses and cattle. 
It is only in districts where paddy land is not 
available or where it is dependent on Beason rains 
that chena cultivation is resorted to. Though dry 
grain is unwholesome it must be granted that it has 
proved the means of saving the people during the 
times of drought and famine. Again and again we 
have heard it stated that the unwholesomeness of 
dry grain is due to the preparation of it. 
Yours, &c, 
Alfbed Dbiebbbo. 
School of Agriculture, Colombo. 
GENERAL ITEMS. 
Mr. Robert Stevenson of East Lothian, deduces 
from numerous experiments that every 100 lb. 
liveweight gives butcher's meat 57'7 per cent ; tallow 8 
per cent ; hide 5 5 per cent ; and offal 28'8 per cent. 
A course of lectures on Forestry has been established 
in the Edinburgh University, and will open with the 
Winter Session this year. The lecturer will be Dr. 
William Somerville, whose agricultural career in Edin- 
burgh, London and Germany was a phenomenal success. 
It was stated at a meeting of the Abroath Analytical 
Society that the keeping indoors of cows during the day 
in hot weather and letting them out to graze at night, 
appreciably increased the amount of butter in milk 
yielded. This is a valuable hint to owners of oattlein 
hot climates, if only the neccessary protection against 
cattle-raising was provided us. 
A new edition of Prof. Wallaoe's book on " The Live- 
stock of the Farm " is just out. The work has been 
enlarged and illustrated. The first edition was brought 
out in great haste, and wanted revising badly. The 
new edition, says the North British Agriculturist, " is 
as different from the first as the finished linen is 
from the unscutched flax. It is thoroughly revised, 
the information being brought well up to date, and it 
is embellished by over ahunired illustrations." 
Mr. C. G. Johnson of Croft, Yorkshire, a well- 
known advocate of Ensilage, has published a report 
of his mode of farming, especially in reference to 
his use of Ensilage for feeding purposes. Mr Johnson, 
in the rearing of his calves, gave each cow two calves 
I to rear for a few months after calving, then only 
I one, and fed the cows only on Ensilage, so as to test 
I its merits for milk-produotion and calf-rearing. The 
animals were heal hy aud in good condition. His 
young stock were fed on Ensilage alone without 
cake or corn, <ind they appear to be getting on 
exceedingly well. The farm horses are fed on silnge 
alone, with good results. 
