COLOMBO 
Added as a Supplement Monthly to 
me 
"ROPIGA L A GRIG U L TUBIST. " 
The following pages include the Contents of the Agricultural 
for December : — 
Magazine 
Vol. 
DECEMBER, 1894. 
[Mos. 6 & 7. 
VEGETABLE RESOURCES. 
N many particulars the resources 
of India may be said to correspond 
with those of Ceylcn, and hence 
the memorandum drawn up by Dr. 
George Watt, CLE., Reporter on 
Economic Products to the Government of India' 
on this subject is of particular interest to 
us. The following is the grouping as regards 
these resources: — (1) Eood Crops, (2) Oil Seeds, 
(3) Fibres, (4) Dyeing and Tanning Materials, 
(5) Drugs and Narcotics, and (6) Miscellaneous 
Products. 
I n the first class we would place (as regards 
Ceylon) the following food products : — Paddy and 
rice; fine grains and dry grains; starches, spices, 
the coconut and its derivatives, cocoa &c. Under 
oil seeds would come coco-nuts, castor seed, gin- 
gelly or sesamum, mustard, kekuua (Alleuvities tri 
loba), margosa (the Indian ?iim), mi (Bassia longiA 
folia) Sec. 
Fibres would comprise, coconut fibre, wara 
(Cdlotropis ffiffantea), niyanda (Sanseviera 
zeylmiica), fcitul (Canjota wens), liana (Crotolaria 
juncea) &c. 
The class of dyeing and tanning materials 
would contain sapanwood, chaya-root, myrobolans, 
anatto, rnnawara (Cassia auriculaia), kadol {liliizo- 
phora muctonata) &c. Drugs and narcotics would 
be represented by tea and coffee (placed in this 
class by Dr. Watt), tobacco, cinchona, besides in- 
numerable native drugs. 
Lastly, under miscellaneous products we might 
put gums, resins, &c. 
Dr. Wutt discusses the possibilities of the 
development of our vegetable resources under 
two heads: (1) The extension and improve- 
ment of tlio supply and quality of existing 
products, and (2) the introduction of new pro- 
ducts; but , the improvement of the future, he 
thinks, should lie as much as possible in the 
path of natural selection and evolution of indige- 
nous materials and systems, and that improve- 
ment of Indian Agriculture in these directions 
is desirable and possible, is, he considers, a point 
on which it would appear there cannot be two 
opinions. Yet there are those who do not think so, 
and as regards to this class of people we are told 
" It is impossible to accept the verdict of en- 
thusiasts who have pronounced the native system 
of agriculture as superior to those of Europe, 
and who would have us believe that improve- 
ment is impossible and undesirable. In relation 
to existiug conditions the native systems are 
indeed admirable, and need but to be evolved 
to attain a high state of perfection. But there 
are few aspects of Indian agriculture in which 
improvement is not only possible, but in which 
it is not, as a matter of fact, taking place." 
We heartily endorse this opinion of Dr. Watt 
as applying not only to India but also to Ceylon. 
The first impressions, or the conclusions arrived at 
from a so-called close enquiry into, but really a 
Superficial examination, of the agriculture of the 
East by those whom Dr. Watt charitably calls 
"enthusiasts", (however eminent in their own 
country) canuot of course carry greater weight 
than the matured opinions of patient observers, 
such, for instance, as the author of the memoran- 
dum under review. 
It is hardly necessary, says Dr. Watt, to 
specialize here and there the wild or semi-wild 
products that deserve consideration, since India 
(and, we may add Ceylon) can count them by 
hundreds, and need nnt therefore look to foreign 
countries for now crops, while there is a long 
list of unexploited products which are running 
to waste. In Dr. Watt's opinion, ftn extension 
of the effort to bring these hitherto unknown 
products (unknown to European commerce) into 
a position of definite recognition is more worthy 
of serious consideration than the attempt to 
acclimatize the plants of other countries, Jn, 
