153 
TitE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
[Sept 1, 1900. 
Up the line at l.s. per ton per mile, and '22,500 tons 
are brought down the line at id. per ton per mile, 
the result will be on the former £(54,000, on the 
latter £12,000=476,000, from which d'iducting i'19,000 
for working expenses, £57,000, or a dividend of 19 
per cent, will be received. 
In reference to e.xpenditure, I may venture to 
observe that the Company might have safely taken 
credit for the moderate cost of fuel to which they 
will be subject, any quantity of wood being procurable 
at the several stations at the most trifllDg expense : 
this item in the United State.s stands the several 
companies in at one-third of the co-t of the same 
item in Great Britain, and the relative expense 
would be yet further diminished in Ceylon where 
labour is so cheap. 
Although the Company continued to issue 
Annual Reports in London, nothing was done in 
Ceylon until Sir Henry Ward took the matter 
up, and after a further report and survey hy 
Capt. Moorsom in 1856-7, the Company oni'e more 
came to the front and made an agreement with 
the Oeylon Government (passed in the Legislative 
Council, 22nd Jany, 1857) ; and sent out (in 1858) 
Mr. Doyne and a staff of Europeans to con- 
struct the line. The cutting of the first sod was 
celebrated by a banquet, 600 persons attending it, 
with Sir Henry Ward as President on 3rd August. 
But by July, 1859, Mr. Doyne reported that the work 
cou'd not be done under the system adopted by 
the Company for £2,214,000 in place of the 
£1,200,000 which was expected to be the maximum. 
He and his two Chief Assistants threw up their 
posts and went to Australia, and so it came about 
that Mr, (now Sir) Guilford Molesworth by a 
hew route, which had been sufjgested as worthy of 
trial by Mr. Doyne, and with Mr. Faviell as a 
responsible Contractor, eventually constructed 
the Colombo-Kandy line 1863-1867, the total 
cost from first to last— including money 
wasted by the delay and in compensation 
to the Company— being £1,738,483. (The Com- 
pany closed its career with a 19th Report in 
February 1861.) And such in brief is the history 
of the Railway ori<^inal!y surveyed and estimated 
for by Mr. Thos, Dbane, whose work as a pioneer 
enguieer was always referred to with the greatest 
respejt by his engineering successors who alone 
Understood the great amount of arduous labour 
Mr. Drane must have undergone in performmg so 
difficult a task as a Railway Su'-vey between 
Colombo and Kandy so far back as 1844-5 and 
wi'h only native assistance: 
" Peace to the memory of a man of worth." 
Skkdi.f.ss Oiiangk^ in Califoiwia. — An American 
lady IravelliiiK in Babia some thirty years since "hap- 
pened" upon some fruits of this now world-renowned 
Variety, .and got some trees home. Two of these founj 
their way to the River side estate in California the 
proprietor of which is Mr. H. Tibbetts. They were 
then carryin;,' some sixteen frui's— the average annual 
i^hipniciit from this place has now reached 1,000,000 
Jjoses.— Cf«/'(?C«c;/'o>' C'krmicle. 
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN 
GREATER BRITAIN. 
PAPEK KKAt) RRF&RK THK FOKEIGN' AND 
COLONIAL SECTION OF THE .SOCIETY OF AUT.S, OX 
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 27, 1900. 
By li. Hkdger Wallack. 
( Continued from pa<je 80.) 
As regards the technical schools of the colonv 
agricult'ire, according to the report for 1809, was 
only taui^ht at one institution, the students being 
examined in the subject under the Eaglish Science 
and Art regulations. 
This colony further employs three d.iiiy instructors 
three frnit experts, and one poultry expert and has 
a number of experimental station?, including two 
pouliry farmii g stations ; and the Department of Agri- 
culture freely distribules leaflets and paniphleis" of 
interest to agriculturists. This free distiibution of 
information with tlie object of educ.iting oind assist- 
ing those settled on the land one might add is a 
feature common to all the colonics of the Ausiralasian 
group. Before passing on from this group to the 
next, that is to the East Indian, 1 would note so 
as to complete the Australasian group, that there is 
a botanic station in Fiji, and a technical school at 
Viti Levu where the native is taught the rudiments 
of agiicullure, i.e , how to propagate and grow fo^d 
and economic plant?. 
Coming to the next group, the same change in the 
object of ihe agricultural (dn^aiion provided, has to 
be noted, aj was remarked when passing from Canada 
to the West Indies. The af'ricuitural education pro- 
vided in the East Indies, is like«ise intended for 
the benefit of the natives of the oounuv and no 
provision is made for those who represent ihe plantine 
industry. The European must, therefore, learn by 
experience the details of his calling as a planter 
The East Irdian planters in some re.-pecis, I venture 
to think, difier from the planters of the West lLdie.= 
They can be roughly divided into two classes or 
groups. There are those, for instance (generally en- 
gaged in the tea or coffe indus;r\), who have to 
manage a large estate, contiol a "large number of 
native labourers, and be responsible for the economic 
plant grown from its nursery stage, till so to speak 
its produce is harvested, and ihen, still further 
have to direct control and be responaible for the 
manufacture of this product into a commercial com- 
modity. On the other hand, there are those who 
(usnally engaged in the ind-go or sugar industry) 
have under contract, the economic plant grown for 
them by native tenants or proprietors, and accept 
no responsibility till the natives harvest the nroduce 
and place it in their hands to be manufactured into 
a commercial product. The former group, obviously 
is more in need of a good agricultural training than 
than the latter, ard the question naturally arisea 
why it has not been provided? Of coarse 1 assume 
that it will be granted that a training in temperate 
eultivation under temperate conditions is not suitable 
and that the system of pupilage which is practically 
that of apprenticeship, under a manager who might 
be good, bad, or indifferent, is not regarded as one 
capable of affording the best results. 
Taking the Straits Settlements as the first of the 
East Indian group, I would note that, according to 
Mr. Moore, a Malay translation of an En<?li3h 
book on the " Principles of Agriculture " is used as 
reading-book in the native schools, while in the 
English schools, agriculture is one of the extrs 
subjects of tlie Code. 
In India audits dependencies a good deal of in- 
terest has been taken lately in agricultural education 
by the Siipereme and I'rovincial Goverments. I have 
been favoured, by the courtesy of the Under Secretary 
•f State of the Governmeat of India, Oepartjn(}a( 
