5(58 
Supplement to tht "Tropical Agriculturist. [Feb. 1, 1895. 
expressing the satisfaction it gate him tyo - 
many of ms friends around him in that hall. (Louil 
and enthusiastic applause. ) 
His Excellency next called upon Mr. Ferguson 
to address the meeting. 
MR. FKHGrsox. 
Mr. J. Fkkguson said he had long 'regarded the 
Agricultural School as one of the most use u 
institutions in the island, and Mr, Drifeberg, n 
Principal, as a very valuable public servant, ami 
emphatically the right man in the right place. 
He took blame, however, for the fact that this 
was the first time he had been present at the 
School's annual gathering. Session after session, 
Mr. Drieberg had reminded him of a standing 
promise, only to he asked to allow him to plead 
pressuveof work and to accept what used t • 
Ceylon coffee planter's standing promise oi 
"next year." When, however, Mr. Drieberg 
came to him yesterday afternoon, and pleaded 
accumulated promises, and a dearth of speakers, 
be had not the shatnefacedness to refuse to leave 
the treadmill for once, and enjoy tin- pleasure 
of seeing the institution and the pupils and hearing 
the report for himself. It was certainly a matter 
for special congratulation to U.K. the Governor 
that, through the expansion ofusefnlm tiggested 
by him, an educational institution of this kind 
calculated to confer so great a benefit on the 
community was able, even from a revenue |">int ol 
view, to answer the economical "will it pay" test 
of one of His Excellency's great predecessors. 
The School had been in existence tor some II 
years, during half of which .Mr. Drieberg das 
been Principal and its improvement under his 
care has been well shown in his successive Keports. 
Altogether, from 80 to 90 pupils have probably 
passed through the school and scattered over the 
island as most of them were, he ventured to say 
the habits of industry and though tfulness 
learned there, the sense imparted of the dignity 
of manual labour, of the value of careful culture, 
of the importance of agricultural improvement 
could not fail to produce much good fruit. 
He spoke of agricultural improvement and he 
might say that probably no country in the world 
of its size stood more in need of improvement 
in agriculture than Ceylon, or offered more scope 
for encouragement. To prove this, he would not 
touch on their agricultural industry usually most 
dwelt on ; for, important as it was, he consi- 
dered others equally, if not more important in the 
palm, fruit and leaf culture. If any competent 
agriculturist arrived in this island and took stock 
of what he saw, he must at once exclaim : Why, this 
is the very paradise for leafage, for palms, plantains, 
jack, bread fruit and allied fruits. It is related 
by Dr. Norman Macleod that on approaching 
Bombay and seeing coco palms for the first time 
and each scored by its owners he exclaimed : 
*' Oh ! India, the very hairs of thy head are num- 
bered." The simile is a very forcible one, seeing how 
the coco palms seem to rise so plentifully out of our 
soil. And it is quite clear front the way the 
ndustry in palm-planting has already spread — 
the acreage had more than doubled during his 
own stay in Ceylon — that it was not to stop 
until the coconut spread to Puttalam and on to 
meet the palmyra (with its love of sand and 
drought) from Mannar and Jaffna and the same 
on the East Coast until the whole island was 
girdled with palms and there were, perhaps, long 
avenues of palmyras down the North road to 
meet the coconut groves started by Mr. levers in t he 
North-Central Province. There was therefore, 
the prospect of a great expansion of agriculture 
in which pupils of the school might be 
expected to participate ; but stih more mere w4« 
room for iniprov euient in much ol the 700,000 
acres now plumed with perhaps* 50 Million trees 
giving an annual average crop of l.^iJU nullum 
I nuts worth more than our tea crop, or say 5o 
million rupees. Suw the condition of much ol 
this culture isshown by the average crop lor the 
island being so low a.- - Ju to 25 nut- per tree, 
whereas all well-cared-Ior plantation* gave ±<». 50. 
•jo or more nut- per tree. If through " improved 
agriculture, 1 the crop was raised to an average 
ol even 30 nuts per tree, it would mean an 
addition of to million rupees to the annual in- 
come ol the < olony. As to the actual state, of 
native garden* we need not go beyond this city 
of Colombo, where in dozens of case- he could 
point out sp.U'es oven-row ded with neglecU*d palm- 
and fruit-tree-, such spindle shank* with a soli- 
tary nut or mill a- niton tempted him to think 
the Sinhalese liad heard of. and taken literally to 
heart, Carlylo's famous miying :— »*' fttjduce, pm- 
duce, were it lint the iuluiiieaimal 1 ruction oi a 
product, produce it in heaven's name. i Laugh- 
ter), lie (the speaker) had olten wished that 
Mr. Drieberg and hi- deputies were clothed with 
authority by (Government to enter into native 
gardens sucli a» he saw daily between Colombo 
and Mount Lavinia and cut down the superfluous 
palm or fruit trees- to allow the rest to get fair- 
play. At Mount Lav inia itself they luul a model 
10 acres of coconuts, planted tinder the direction 
of the late Kev. Dr. Mac vicar (Chaplain of St. 
Andrews; an accomplished w riter and an autho- 
rity on scientific agriculture and these trees 
though wellnigh 50 years old were as fruitful as 
ever. Much could he done by precept us well 
as example among the people ; civil servants in 
Java hud to pass a year in an Agricultural 
College before taking up their duties : he hud 
often wished this was the rule in Ceylon to 
ensurethat activeinterest in model gardens and agri- 
horticultural shows with fairs and prizes such 
as had been spasmodically carried on at a few 
stations, but which ought to be the rule annually 
at every Kachcheri in the island. (Hear, hear). 
He would whjli also to see the sons of headmen and 
of landowners sent as a matter of course for at 
least a year to the Agricultural School before 
beginning the business of life, and some recogni- 
tion of such having passed through the School, 
afforded by Government. Turning to the students, 
Mr. Ferguson urged them to rely upon themselves, 
to maintain the habits of steady industry and reflec- 
tion they had formed in class and to keep on the 
study or .Botany or whatever branch was each one's 
special hobby. He was delighted to hear of the 
lectures from the Conservator they had had on 
Forestry, a branch intimately associated with 
garden culture, and his parting advice to the 
lads who had learned to read and think with 
pleasure in the exercise, was to follow the advice 
of a great teacher and "always keep a good 
book by you." (Applause). 
ME. "DOKNHORST. 
Mr. F. DORNHORST said that unlike Mr. Ferguson, 
he had been present at nearly every function 
of the Agricultural School, but that this was 
the first opportunity afforded him of addressing an 
audience like the present in connection with 
the school, and his task that evening was a 
pleasant one. At half-past three he received a 
letter from Mr. Drieberg soliciting his presence 
at the meeting to propose a vote of tliankw to 
the Governor for presiding. That was a task 
that brought pleasure with it. He had only to 
