62 
Magazine  of  the  School  of  Agriculture . 
but  slow  progress.  Cultivators  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  farm  occasionally  hire  them,  and 
landlords  buy  them  from  time  to  time  ; but  a stern 
and  passive  resistance  is  offered  to  their  general 
introduction,  by  native  ploughmen,  who  do  not 
appreciate  the  value  of  economising  labour.  This 
account  of  the  progress  of  the  improved  plough 
in  India  is  similar  to  the  experience  of  those  who 
have  endeavoured  to  bring  improved  ploughs 
before  the  attention  of  native  cultivators  in  Ceylon. 
If  agricultural  improvements  and  reforms  were 
taken  up  in  a more  whole-hearted  manner,  and  the 
effective  supervision  above  referred  to  was  pro- 
vided, better  ploughing  and  a large  variety  of 
crops — such  as  they  grow  in  India,  either  inde- 
pendently or  in  rotation — would  help  to  greatly 
ameliorate  the  generally  wretched  lot  of  the  Ceylon 
ryot.  
The  horse  and  cattle  breeding  and  veterinary 
institution  in  the  Bombay  Presidency 
has  organised  the  establishment  of  veterinary 
dispensaries  in  twelve  districts,  under 
subsidy  by  the  Government,  and  the  relations 
of  the  Superintendent,  Horse  Breeding  Opera- 
tions, to  the  Department  of  Land  Records  and 
Agriculture,  have  been  defined.  These  veterinary 
dispensaries  are  to  be  in  charge  of  graduates  of 
the  Bombay  Veterinary  College,  employed  as 
servants  of  the  District  Local  Boards  on  salaries 
of  R50  to  R100.  Their  duties  have  been  prescribed, 
and,  in  addition  to  ordinary  hospital  work, 
comprise  (a)  the  superintendence  of  Government 
stallions,  ( b ) castration,  (c)  attendance  at  shows, 
and  (d)  repression  of  epidemic  disease  in  the 
district.  Provision  has  only  been  made  for  the 
employment,  wherever  possible,  of  a travelling 
graduate,  towards  whose  pay  further  contribu- 
tion has  been  made  by  Government.  This  ar- 
rangement is  of  great  importance,  as  it  is  im- 
possible for  officers  in  charge  of  dispensaries  to 
attend  to  epidemics  in  the  districts,  or  to  visit 
the  villages  without  detriment  to  hospital  work. 
Through  these  officers  much  improvement  in  the 
treatment  of  stock  should  result;  they  will  en- 
courage owners  to  send  difficult  cases  to  the 
hospital,  and  they  are  to  report  the  existence  of 
epidemic  disease  for  the  information  of  the 
Imperial  Bacteriologist. 
The  contents  of  The  Journal  of  the  Royal 
Agricultural  Society  of  December  31st  are  as 
follows : — Cottage  Sanitation  ; Field  Experiments 
on  the  Fixation  of  Free  Nitrogen ; Wild  Birds — 
Useful  and  Injurious ; Utilization  of  Straw  as 
Food  for  Stock  ; Few  Poisoning ; Feeding  Experi- 
ments on  Cattle  and  Sheep  ; History  of  the  English 
Landed  Interest : besides  the  official  reports,  and 
a number  of  interesting  notes,  communications 
and  reviews. 
One  of  the  most  recent  inventions  patented 
ip  America  is  that  of  a cotton  reaper.  The 
number  of  hands  employed  under  the  present 
system  of  picking  is  said  to  be  almost  as 
great  as  that  required  on  a tea  plantation. 
The  machine  not  only  does  the  work  of  over 
a hundred  people,  according  to  size,  but  frees 
the  bolls  from  the  dead  capsule  iu  a more 
thorough  manner  than  the  smartest  picker  has 
heretofore  been  able  to  do.  The  invention  is 
adapted,  under  present  circumstances,  only  to 
flat  or  gently  undulating  lauds ; but  no 
doubt  the  necessary  alterations  could  be  made 
to  fit  it  for  work  on  hillsides. 
The  Madras  Government  has  shown  its  solici- 
tude for  the  welfare  of  the  agriculturist  by 
issuing  an  order  for  the  protection  of  57  in- 
sectivorous birds  therein  named.  The  Ceylon 
Government  rule  for  the  protection  of  wild 
birds  in  our  Island  still  remains  a dead  law. 
Mr.  B.  R.  Harrington,  who  has  been  success- 
ful in  burning  the  refuse  of  Calcutta  with  his 
incinerator,  is  now  prepared  to  supply  similar 
apparatus  to  any  towns  or  communities  needing 
them.  As  he  states  in  a memo,  he  has  issued 
on  the  subject,  his  incinerator  is  the  only 
furance  which  has  effectually  destroyed  the 
refuse  of  the  city  by  fire.  It  is  a perfect 
and  reliable  destructor,  simple  in  construction 
and  easy  of  management,  and  is  especially 
adapted  to  towns  where  fuel  is  expensive, 
Incinerators  of  the  same  type,  of  from  one  to 
eight  furnaces  in  a group,  can  be  constructed 
to  destroy  twenty  to  thirty  loads  of 
refuse  daily  per  furnace,  together  with  night- 
soil  from  a population  of  2,000.  These  incinera- 
tor furnaces  are  inexpensive  in  construction, 
the  cost  of  each  being  R6,000, 
Prof.  Wallace,  of  the  Edinburgh  Agricultural 
Chair,  writing  to  us,  complains  of  the  bad  times 
for  agriculture  in  Great  Britain  and  how  most 
farmers  there  are  runied.  The  Professor  leaves  for 
Chicago  in  March,  returning  to  Edinbugli  in  May. 
A new  and  much  enlarged  and  improved  edition  of 
his  Farm  Livestock  has  just  been  brought  out 
by  Crosby  Lockwood  & Son. 
“ The  Scottish  Farmer”  is  the  name  of  a 
new  Agricultural  weekly  started  this  year.  The 
paper  is  issued  from  Glasgow,  and  counts 
many  eminent  authors  on  its  staff  of  contri- 
butors. The  annual  subscription,  postage  inclu- 
sive, is  only  ten  shillings, 
Prof.  Dewar  has  succeeded  by  pressure,  freez- 
ing and  a surrounding  vacuum,  to  liquify  not 
only  oxygen  but  also  atmospherie  air  and  to 
retain  them  for  hours  in  the  liquid  form,  so 
that  they  can  now  be  easily  experimented  on, 
and  their  most  important  properties  demon- 
strated, 
