112 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1888 
part ; when we consider that an industry of this 
tiud once fairly implanted is likely to bring both 
considerable pecuniary and moral benefits to many 
a now almost destitute family, I think we shall 
have but little difficulty in coming to a fair 
decision as to the merits of the proposal before 
us. From time to time we hear of loss of crops 
through drought or excess of rain and the con- 
sequent distress ; we hear also of fever epidemics. 
The famine-stricken villagers must be relieved by the 
distribution of grain, the fever-stricken by the issue 
of quinine. These measures, however, should only 
be regarded as good in so far as they are but tem- 
porary expedients. Surely we are not going to allow 
people living in the same district as ourselves to con- 
tinue in this hazardous existence ? Our object should 
be, not to make the villager more dependent on Gov- 
ernment protection, but to encourage him to pro- 
vide for himself in the case of emergencies; by 
so doing we shall also encourage in him a spirit 
of thrift and of honorable and manly independence. 
Now with regard to ways and- means : it is here 
that our difficulties will at once present themselves. 
I have already hinted at what 1 consider the most 
insuperable difficulty. The apathy and more than 
apathy — the obstructive apathy — of the goiya will 
be a hard nut for us to crack. I do not pretend that 
I have any new scheme or invention for overcoming 
this very strongly entrenched position ; on the other 
hand, I think it is too strong to be taken by assault ; 
we must proceed to its capture by the slower means 
of investment and siege. The apathy of the goyiya 
is so deeply ingrained in his character, that I believe 
in nine cases out of ten, were his ordinary means 
of subsistence withdrawn he would rather sit down 
and literally starve than attempt a new and untried 
means of gaining a livelihood. Nevertheless in spite 
of the strong opposition with which we shall as- 
suredly meet I propose to undertake the campaign 
with every assurance of its ultimate success ; I say 
ultimate success advisedly, as I cannot venture 
to think that we shall suffer no reverses, but these 
very reverses will I believe only stimulate us to 
carry the right war into the enemy's country. I have 
spoken of the goiya as apathetic. I assure you I 
do so in no depreciatory spirit. I have a very great 
respect for the Sinhalese as a nation, and I may 
say I have a great regard for many of the more 
enlightened Sinhalese whose acquaintance I have been 
fortunate enough to make. So far from attempting 
to depreciate the character of the cultivator, I hold 
that we are ourselves in no small degree responsible 
for his present charaeter. Eighteen centuries ago our 
ancestors were not a very active-minded race. It was 
not until the Romans, who at that time represented 
the energy of the known world, came and stirred 
the ancient Britons up, that they began to show 
that they were made of good stuff. The Romans 
persuaded and encouraged our forefathers to under- 
take certain industries, and what they could not 
persuade them to undertake they forced them to do. 
Yes, the Romans must have considered our fore- 
fathers a very mean lot; but we owe much to the 
very practical way in which they cracked our nut 
for us. Now, gentlemen, the Roman Empire and 
its methods of civilization have alike passed away, 
we cannot go in for coercion, and I am thankful to 
believe that we have no need for it. We may effect 
all the improvements that the nineteenth century 
demands by the more moderate systems of example 
and encouragement. I have said we may effect im- 
provements, I will go further and say that our 
very presence in this island iB only justified as 
long as we can prove that we are effecting 
a continuous and steady improvement in the circum- 
stances of the native race. The planting enterprise 
has provided work for an immense number of people, 
Tamils chiefly, but also both directly and indirectly 
to many Sinhalese. Work on estates in these days 
of toa cultivation is being offered to and accepted more 
freely by the Sinhalese. This is encouraging, but still 
the greater portion of the Sinhalese rural population 
is unaffected by this enterprize. Tho outlying vil- 
lages benefit in no way by the European's enterprize. 
These, the inhabitants of the more outlying districts, 
are the people that I wish to ei-courage to undertake 
the production of silk. I do not wish to substitute 
one industry for ano her. I should be very sorry 
indeed to find the villager forsaking his paddyfields 
owin!* to the greater attractions of work ou the 
estates; so with silk growing it should be regarded 
as an additional source of profit to the villager, not 
as a substitutive industry. You will ask me to give 
you some idea as to my scheme for introducing the 
silk industry : on this point I can be very brief. All 
I propose at present to do is to encourage the pro- 
duction of silk cocoons. Though we might go further 
and undertake the winding off of the silk from the 
cocoon, this is not absolutely necessary. The cocoons 
themselves are of good marketable value. Just as 
one step in the way of a beginning, I should propose 
to offer a prize ot RIO at the Agri-Horticultural snow 
for the best collection of indigenous silk cocoons. 
Should we find, however, that the raw silk could be 
reeled at a small cost and commanded in that form a 
proportionately better value, we might establish a 
small factory under the auspices of this Association, 
with one or two silk reeling machines (the newest 
improvement in the way of reeling machines costs 
about £15 in Manchester), charge a sufficient sum to 
cover cost of reeling and upkeep of factory and credit 
the producer with the balance proceeds of sales. 
Such an institution, I thiuk, would soon prove profit- 
able enough to attract private enterprize, and would 
not long be under the care of this Association. Iu 
conclusion I need hardly say, gentlemen, that I shall 
be extremely obliged to you for giving my proposal 
any consideration you may think it worth ; my hope 
and belief is that the introduction of the silk indus- 
try into Matale will mtrk the commencement of a 
new era of progress iu the district over which this 
Association extends its labors. (Applause.) 
Mr. R. S. Fbaseb inquired if Mr. Reeves would in- 
form the meeting how tne eggs ot these silk-producing 
moths could be obtained. — Mr. Reeves thought Mr. 
Fraser himself had introduced the eggs with which Mr. 
Alexander Ross had experimented some time ago. — 
These, Mr. Eraser explained, >vt re obtained lrom Japan, 
but were not quite tne best species. 
Mr. Reeves said he had been in correspondence with 
the President of the silk manufacturing company referred 
to, and he was of opinion that Ceylon should take to the 
cultivation of silk of an indigenous species. The Presi- 
dent also wrote that he would sell torus the moths of two 
or three kinds of an indigenous species. The speaker was 
of opinion that if the Association would advertize for 
moths the Sinhalese would find them and bring them 
into market, and it would be easy enough for them to 
do so. Producing a handbook of the Manchester 
Exhibition, Mr. Reeves proceeded to exhibit plates of 
a number of different species of silk-producing moths 
together with the plants on which they feed. The 
larger number of these moths and plants, Mr. Reeves 
was of opinion, were found in Oeylon. He had no doubt 
Ceylon was intended as a silk-produciug country. 
In reply to a question from Mr. Bobbon, whetherany of 
the Ceylon moths lived on the mulberry or only the tor- 
eign worms, Mr. Reeves on the authority of Mr. Haly of 
the Museum replied that a species of the Oeylon moth 
also subsisted on the mulberry leaf. 
Mr. Boebon pointed out that electric storms have a 
killing effect on silk-worms : a gentleman who had im- 
ported a large number of them into Uva and sent home 
some very good silk of his own cultivation had to give 
up the enterprize owing to a large number of his 
worms being killed by the thunder-storms. 
Mr. Reeves replied that in Assam thunder-storms pre- 
vailed to a large extent and withal it was an extensive 
silk-producing country, and he did not see why Ceylon 
should fail. 
The Chairman said they would be obliged to Mr. 
Reeves if he would put down facts on paper re infor- 
mation about suriculturs, so that it could be translated 
and distributed among the Sinhalese. At the forth- 
coming Show sericulture miglittbe encouraged, and by 
offering a good prize for the best collection of coc-u s 
later on they might iuduce the villagers to bring iu 
cocoons for sale and export then) . 
