¥ee. I, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
S37 
THE SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE IN 1893. 
During the past year the work at the Colombo 
School of Agriculture baa considerably exlended its 
scope. The original object of the School was to 
train young mea who would either as private land- 
owners cultivate their own lands according to the 
enlightened principles taught at the School, or as 
agricu tural instructorn inculcate these principles in 
the Schools to which they are a lached and also 
practically illustrate their teaching by means of 
Bxpeiimental Gardens. An Elementary Work on 
agriculture has for some years been used as a text 
book in all rural Government schools. With a view 
to st.ll further enforcing 4.gricultural Education, the 
Director of Public lustruction has centralized the 
various schools for training vernacular teachers iu 
the School of Agriculture, so that the future tead er 
may enter upon hia duties of educating the village 
yo ith, with a thf-oretical and practical knowled-e 
of Agriculture. To follow up this good work and 
to aid not only in the improvement of native agri- 
cultural methods as at present practis d, but also to 
extend the scope of na ive enterprise in the dir ction of 
fruit and vegetable culture and the raising of fudder 
crops, and generally of products, whether indigenous or 
introduced, suited to the con itious of the people, 
a more regular system of itinerary inspectio on tbe 
part of the Agricultural School authorities is desirable, 
so that their efforts might be more far-reaching 
and effectual in results The curriculum of the 
School has been added to by a course of Veterinary 
lustruction imparte 1 by the Colonial Veterinary 
Surgeon who has also given his attention to the 
subject of Cattle Disease in Ceylon. A Government 
Da ry was started in June last under the auspices 
if the School of Agriculture, with the object of 
carrying on dairying and d. monstrating the feeding 
and management of stock generally on a proper 
basis, of securing a supply of pure milk for meaioal 
institutions ia the capital, and at the same time 
of carrying on breeding operations with imported 
stock of good quality. This venture has so far 
proved a successtul and remunerative) one. It is in 
contemplation to increase the usefulness of the School 
by introducing into the curriculum additional classes 
with a view to util zing it as a preparatory School for 
those seekiug employment in the Forest Department. 
THE PLANTING DISTRICTS OF CEYLON 
EKVISITED. 
[By a Haputah Planter.) 
To the traveller, cast by chance or some more 
specific agency , upon the shores of our little tropi' al 
island, a cup of Tea is perhaps a cup of tea, just as 
to some quite moral people a promise is a promise, 
or to some physical souls a primrose is a primrose. 
But let the stranger tarry a little among our palm 
trees until prickly heat or some other factor 
teterminative of human conduct pushes him along 
the lines of greater traffic, and behold a revolution 
of proportions in his mind. Tea will presently 
subtend one of the biggest angles in his consciousness. 
It will be magically raised Irom the dead moootonous 
level of particular things to the height and dignity 
of a large generalisation. It will no longer be 
thought of cup l.y cup nor will the issue merely lie 
between sugar or no sugar, cream or no cream. By 
some sudden genius of transformation it will be 
conceived of in districts at one mcment and in 
millions of pounds avoirdupois at another. A hundred 
Tieterogeneous phenomena, such as limited liability 
companies, railways coolies, missionaries, hopes, 
bank balances, prayers- all these and many more 
are seem to fall into relations with tea, as with 
something absolute. Here, a few degrees from the 
equator, the wondering stranger finds himself in the 
midst of a development which has perhaps burst its 
bonds in the constitution of things as suddenl . and 
exuberantly as anything of its kind which history 
records. But enough of this stranger. 
To myself, returning to i eyiou after an absence 
of four yeara, the pioportious and activities of our 
great Tea Industhv are as pleasing as they are 
Hurprising. Living on the other side of tho world, it 
is very well to hear that the tea area is extending by 
thousands of acres. Ii is very well to hear of yields of 
500, 600, and 700 pounds to the acre. It is mighty well 
'o hear of golden streams setting from our great 
Western Babylon to our Eastern Port of Colombo. 
It is very well, even if not quite so well, to hear 
of Indian interlopers coming down like fallow deer 
to slake their thirst at our drinking pools. It is all 
very well to hear that tbe planters throng the 
ranks of shareholders in tea companies, that they 
are heard chanting Magnificats, Te, Detms, and songa 
of placebo, to tunes of ten, twenty, and thirty per 
centum. All these things I say are good to be 
heard, they are things gracious and of good report; 
but it is another thing to come and know them 
in the concrete. Mere cognitions of your headpiece, 
by means of testimony, are in one category of 
knowledge and sensuous intuitions are in another. 
Being under a necessity to return to England as 
quickly as may be, I have not been able to see a 
great deal of the tea distiucts, but for most part 
I have been over the same ground as when I was 
last here ; and the comparisons I am able to make 
between thmgs now and things four years ago are 
very satisfactory. It seems to me that in old tea 
fields the bushes spread thicker and wider, and cover 
the ground better than ever with their rich shades 
of green Young fields of tea seem tome of a lighter 
green than young fields used to wear, and if this 
really is so, it no doubt indicates more care in the 
matter of seed- The railway journey from Perade- 
niya to Nanuoya gives a traveller some idea of the 
scale on which tea planting is being carried on. 
Looking out upon the great ranges of tea, I was dis- 
appointed to see that more has not been done in the 
wny of timber clearings. Having regard to the enor- 
rnous consumption of fuel, and upon a general con- 
sideration of agricultural econ my iu relation to in- 
sect pests, I cannot but think ihat on many places 
more plantations should be made. 
There is a point beyond which it were unwise 
to press the much enduring Ceylon puMic; eo I shall 
spare your readers a recitation of feelings proper to 
a first joiirney over the Hapbtale Extension. And 
i deed mere are some emotions too sacred tor word?. 
Howi ver, 1 pay the extension my passing tribute and 
record my SHti^faction in travelling for once lifee a 
while min to Haputale. This extension is truly • 
tremendous deviee, and in pi-opordon to its mileage 
has been probubly more expensive of h' man hopei 
and tears, of rupee correnoy and Quamdiu Domines, 
than any line on the face of the earib. 
With Tea in Haputale I was very pleased. In thia 
district time i'* on onr side. At the higher elevations 
there are most luxuriant fields c£ tei producing 
heavily and yet annually improving, At lower eleva- 
tions plants are more difficult to esiablish and the 
importance of good jut there is great, but with careful 
selection, good work, and perseverance, I confi ieutly 
Inok for'>ard to fine fields of tea in heavy bearing. 
Those who remember the tyranny of coffee leaf at 
ihote lower elevations can scarcely donbt bat that tea 
will flash beivily when the trees get well down into 
tbe g'lod soil. 
Tokiug ricksha I went down a good way into 
U'lapnssfcllawa- I went 18^ miles down the cart roid, 
with two Sii halese, io 3j hours. I heard the other 
i^ay of a reverend 'hrologian whose bowels of 00m- 
pa-^fiion were greatly moved when he travel'ed in a 
ri' kshaw. I certainly cannot think it a proper means 
of locom 'tion for paraone, and I fear lest it m»y be 
imputed ta them for uurighteou^n^ss. To myeelf, 
however, to be taken aio' g by 1 1-ck men in the 
shalts, is a curious study in eocial physics. It helps 
me lo realise man's conu^xion vsith lower animal 
forms, and I am such that I have more joy over 
one good induction a posteriori, than over ninety and 
nine ti aui-ceudectal opecuia'ions a priori Goon faster, 
thon iu. mortal bullock, else my umbrella shall soand 
on thy heailpiece and meud thy sluKRard pace. Art 
thou retBiLded of Amof? Ttny dri k «ii e from 
tht ir cops and anoint themselves with the best oil 
and concern themselves not at all for the norrows of 
Joseph ? Who or what km I that I should put thee to 
