Dec. 1, 1893.] Supplement to the '^Tropical Agriculturist." 
435 
criticism he said that as soon as tlie general 
community couid take up such matters, and 
competition sprang up, the Govei-nment would 
readily give up the undertaking, if it was 
deemed necessary, but until such time cume the 
Dairy would provide a good supply of milk. 
When such a time comes the Government would 
not regret the impetus given to the general 
community to take the matter up. It remained 
for him on helialf of Government to thank all 
those connected with the Dairy for carrj ing it 
to a successful issue. He was very much 
pleased to hear of the hearty co-operation of the 
Veterinarj' Surgeon Dr. Lye, in the work of 
this establishment, and this was what he expected 
from Dr. Lye and what H. E. had observed from 
several opportunities he had had of forming an 
opinion, but it was none the less pleasing to 
him and the Government to hear the public 
acknowledgement of it by the Superintendent. 
As there were other speakers to follow he would 
only add one word more, and that was. tliat 
he would wish those students who were now 
leaving tlie School should be successful in the 
"world, and h« hoped that they would not regret 
the time they had spent in this school. He 
also hoped that they would during their whole 
course of life greatly profit by the instruction 
received. 
The Hon. E. Elliott congratulated the Princi- 
pal on his report, and especially as to the new 
departure in regard to the Dairy. He was glad 
to hear the financial prospects were encourag- 
ing, but he warned the Superinteudeut against 
desiring to show a profit at too early a stage ; 
the work was experimental and pioneers generally 
worked at a loss. They had heard of what was 
doing within these walls, but he could give 
some account of what former students had done 
elsewhere, especially in the Eastern Province. 
He had had their co-operation of several in 
agricultural experiments, and was happy to be 
able to testify that they were all a credit to 
the school in whicli they were trained. They 
were capable agriculturists and intelligent work- 
men, who understood their work and knew how 
and when to plough, to sow, to water and to 
reap. They were, however, handicapped in their 
work, and ratlier expected like the Hebrew of 
old to make bricks svithout straw. They had 
no money, no seed paddy, no implements given 
them, but were generally attached to an ordin- 
ary village school and expected to cultivate 
paddy in an improved style. Progress under 
such circumstances was difficult, and their motto 
must be taken from the tortoise rath»r than 
the hare — " Slow but sure." In the Eastern 
Pro vince he had been able to find funds for 
working on a somewhat larger scale, and atten- 
tion had been paid to the improved cultivation 
of vegetables, arrowroot, cassava and other pro- 
ducts which would increa.'re the food supply in 
the drier zones. Cotton, too, had received at- 
tention, but the principal cultivation had been 
of paddy, and doubtless his hearers would like 
to know the result. Well, they had cultivated 
221 acres in three different localities in thrse 
years, of which one was a verj- unfavourable 
one, at a cost of R3,r)96 paying for everything, 
*nd t he crops raised had realised R4,688, leaving 
ftproflt of Kl,092, which was equivalent to a 
return of 14 per cent on the capital value of 
the laud. There was a good case for paddy 
cultivation and irrigation. He desired in speak- 
ing on this subject, not to say anything in 
depreciation of other branches of agriculture. 
He wished them God speed, but all did not 
do so, and paddy cultivation was run down 
in several quarters, and it had been actually 
suggested that the production of paddy in this 
island was falling off. It was easy to start 
a hare of this sort but hard to run it down, 
and a simple denial would have had no effect. 
He had therefore compiled the tables he held 
in his hands, from the most reliable sources 
available, viz., the published Blue Book returns, 
showing the area cultivated in each district for 
the past 
years and the estimated crop.'* 
yielded. The first fact he had elicited was that 
the area cultivated with paddy during 1892, 
(613,176 acres) was the highest for the period 
specified, and the estimated crop was 8,363,000, 
say 83 millions of bushels. But as only under 
one-sixth of the area was profited by irrigation 
works, aad the rest depended on the direct 
rainfall, the cultivation was still liable to great 
fluctuations, and it was not safe or fair to draw 
inferences from the results of a single year. 
It would be better to take the average of a 
series of years, and comparing on this basis 
the result of the first five of the past 2o years 
with the last five, the figures worked out as 
follows : — The average area cultivated had ad- 
vanced from 511,367 acres to 574, 5i* I acres, or 
an advance of 12^ per cent, and the outturn of 
crops had increased from 6,268,000 (say 6^ 
millions) to 9.476,000 (say 9^ millions) of 
bu,<!hels of paddy, or over 50 per cent. His 
hearers would doubtless enquire how it was 
that the area cultivated had increased only one- 
eigiith when the crops had increased one-half. 
The reply was simple and might be tersely put 
that where there was water there was no more 
land available, and where there was land there 
was no water. In the Western Province (except 
in the Jluturajawela swamps) which were now 
being improved and cultivated, he was inform«d 
by a credible authority there was no great extent 
of waste land suitable for paddy, not already 
under cultivation. He could answer there was 
but little in Galle and none in Matara. Further 
east there was lots of land, but the water stored 
only sufficed for the land already under culti- 
vation, but there were heaps of land onlj- wait- 
ing until further waterworks were provided 
for storing the floods which now at times rolled 
down useless to tlie sea. Only a vigorous gen- 
erous expenditure on irrigation was required to 
materially extend the cultivation of paddy, which 
our native friends of all classes were ready to 
undertake. Jsot only tiie individual called the 
ignorant " goyiya,'' but the Moratuwa capitalist, 
was equally willing, and as soon as ready access 
was provided, and when the railway to Bentota 
was completed, went down and competed for 
the lots of the land available in the Bentota 
Korale. Such men know what paid and what 
did not. just as well as any Eurpean capitalist, 
and though they and others had now embarked 
largely on the cultivation of coconuts and even 
tea, he did not know if a single acre of paddy 
land which had been in consequence abandoned. 
