66 2 
Supplement to the "Tropical Agriculturist." [March i, 1890. 
make kurrakkan responsible for the said disease, because 
the people who use the very grain in the neighbouri ng 
continent are not subject to it. Moreover, the grain was 
in use amongst the people from times far remote, 
whilst the disease is of reoent origin, which is evidenced 
by the name itself. 
AGRICULTURAL SUPERSTITIONS. 
Seeing then that Agricultural Superstitions stand 
in the way of agricultural reform, we come to enquire : 
How are these superstitions to be done away with, or 
how can the work of agricultural improvement be 
carried on in spite of them ? Is it by directly and 
openly denouncing them, or by remonstrating with the 
cultivator for clinging to these absurd notions ? I do 
not consider either of these the best oourse to adopt. 
No amount of remonstrance or argument will prevail 
with the superstitious cultivator. He loves his time- 
honoured customs and practices too dearly to drop 
them in a hurry ; and he must be offered in place of 
his superstitions something as attractive io exchange. 
Gradually must the rational and practical facts of 
Agricultural Science be introduced to occupy the 
place of the crude fictions of Agricultural Superstitions. 
A taste for the superstitious implies a taste for the 
curious — for something out of the common round of 
every day life. The instinct of ascribing results to 
mysterious causes implies also the instinct of accounting 
in some way for known results. Our aim should be to 
make the best of this instinct and to direct it in the 
propt; - channel. To this end we must deal with the 
young mind as yet not wholly trammelled with the 
chains of superstition and teaoh it the plain truths of 
Agricultural Science. We must trust to the school boys of 
today to carry their education home, and, if they cannot 
influence their fathers, to bring up their children in the 
beliefs which they have grasped. But there are those 
among our native cultivators who reason after this 
fashion :— 
If this new system is an advisable one to adopt, why 
doesn't this Headman or that Chief take to it ? They 
are better informed and wealthier than I. There 
must be some flaw in this professed improvement, if 
they do not take advantage of it. 
It thus behoves those who command influence to 
set the initiative in the adoption of improved methods 
of cultivation, if not for their own sake, at least for that 
of their less enlightened and poorer brethren. 
Again, it would be a serious mistake for those who 
have the opportunity of impressing the need of im- 
provement in the old method of cultivation, to speak dis- 
paragingly of the latter. There is no doubt a good deal 
to recommend in the native method, and a radical re- 
form is not called for : due regard must be paid to that 
which deserves commendation, and native agriculture 
must not be contemptuously spoken off as the out- 
come of a barbarous age— there is no warrant for this. 
The cultivator should be made to see how some oper- 
ations which he has adhered to are borne out by scientific 
facts ; and how others are not, and how these coul 
be improved upon. Put thines to him in a practical 
way, and try to gain his confidence. The great mis- 
take would be to appear its the rule of the critic. We 
should be slow to criticise. It is only by this diplomatic 
policy that eventually the native cultivator wll be 
made to adopt methods of cultivation based on scientific 
reasoning, and drop those found on superstition only. 
Edwin Hoole. 
Happy Valley, Haputale, 18th Dec. 1889. 
GENERAL ITEMS. 
The meeting in connection with the "Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals " question was called none too soon, 
considering the friehtful exhibitions of cruelty one sees 
every day of his life in Colombo. It is to be hoped 
that the conference of influential men that has lately 
taken place will result in placing an effectual check 
on every form of cruelty to our dumb friends. 
Mr. M. A. Javasinghe, who passed out of the Schol 
of Agriculture last year, is at present emplovi-d in 
clearing a large acreage of forest-land near Nagoda 
which he intends to lay under cultivation. We wish 
him every success in his new undertaking. 
A novel implement is to be seen at work for break- 
ing up the road for purposes of repairs in the Cinna- 
mon Gardens. It is a powerful 'scarifier' drawn by 
two bullocks who seem to work without any great 
effort and tear up the road most effectually, doing 
away with the tediously slow and no doubt more 
costly method of picn. digging by coolies. Whoever the 
inventor, he deserves credit. 
Mr. Muir Mackenzie who was a student at the Royal 
Agricultural College, Cirencester, in 1886, has been 
appointed Professor of Agriculture iD place of Professor 
McOracken who has accepted an agency under Lord 
Crewe. 
The Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College 
is now inaugurating a course of lectures on Entomo- 
logy, and has secured the services of Mr. J. J. F. 
King, a fertile writer on the subject, who is well 
qualified for the work of lecturing. 
A statue is about to be erected in France, of the 
great agricultural chemist Boussingault, who died in 
1887 at the age of eighty-five. Boussingault was one 
of the founders of scientific agriculture, and may be 
said to be the initiator of the systematic application 
of scientific principles in field experiments. 
We heartily welcome " Colonia," the magazine of 
the Colonial College of Agriculture, Holleslay Bay, 
Suffolk. Judging from the first number, it promises to 
be a most useful and interesting publication. 
