Nov. 1, 1900.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUKISt. 
299 
I look to this preliminary teaching to develops a 
taste for gardening, &c., and a useful guide to the 
selection of scholars for the Colombo school. The 
men should receive a small salarj' for the first 
year say of Eio. to be reduced to RIO in the 2nd 
year, and R6 in the third piyable half-yearly on pro- 
duction of a certificate to be granted by an In- 
spector or some other authority to be appointed by the 
Director that the payee is keeping up a proper 
garden. The produce of course he would ba at 
liberty to sell and keep the proceeds. After a few 
years it would be possible to reduce the remunera- 
tion to a small grant or a more substantial prize 
for the bdst garden in a given area, (fee. There would 
be then a margin for increasing the number 
without entailing a larger aggregate outlay. For cer- 
tificated schoo' -masters who have gone through the 
Colombo Agents, of course the Director would possi- 
bly secure re-employment as school-masters, -and 
they should receive some additional remuneration 
on condition of keeping up a good garden, stock of 
poultry, and being ready or willing to castrate bulls 
free on application. 1 note Mr. Willis in his memo, 
[p. 7) speaks of the necessity of having gardens, 
but he connects with it a higher standard of edu- 
cation which is beyond all requirements, at all events at 
present. He also yearns for a better class of student, sons 
of wealthy native landowners. Such men invariably 
acquire a knowledge of English, are attrasted to the 
towns, are not likely to take to a rural life 
and would only go to the Agricultural School for the 
general education he very properly deprecates. 
My students would be drawn from the sort of landed 
population who are likely not to be spoiled by a tem- 
porary residence in Colombo, and are pretty sure to 
return to their villages. 
To assist the Director in this kranch and to 
secure an officer who will devote his whole attention to 
the working of the scheme, I would utilize the services 
of Mr. Drieberg (with suitable additional remu- 
neration) as assistant for Agriculture and Inspector of 
Experimental Gardens. These he should personally 
visit and see how the gardens are working aud give 
them instructions. He should, however, remain 
Principal of the School, but be relieved of personal 
tuition or lecturing, and also supervise the Model 
Farm visiting it very frequently. 
I would suggest the D. P. I office might be housed 
at the Agricultural School. It would keep the 
Director more in touch with this branch of his duties 
and obviate the necessity of Mr. Drieberg's absence 
while attending an olSce in the Fort. 
At the Central Farm special attention should be 
paid to country vegetables for the production of 
good seed for distribution to the rural gardens, as 
well as to the importation of seed of other vege- 
tables which can be grown in the Island. There is 
a great demand in all parts for vegetables which is 
now met very imperfectly. Seeds of all kinds should 
also be cultivated for sale to the public atmoderate rates. 
Facldij Cultivation should also receive a great deal of 
attention at the central farm, and an area of 25 
acres be kept continually under tillage, but this 
should be largely of an experimental nature to test 
suitability of new kinds of imported seed, their 
periods of growth, ratio of return, &c., also the 
value of various kinds of manure. The discovery 
of a plough which will turn up the soil to a sufficient 
depth but can be worked by the ordinary cattle 
is a matter that 'should receive attention. Other 
points on which research is desirable will suggest 
themselves to the Superintendent, and he will 
be in a position to give advice and information 
based on in-actical experience, which Mr. Drieberg is 
not able to do at present. The labour for this 
experimental cultivation will, of course, be supplied 
by the students, and they will thus become generally 
familiar with the trials, and the results: it is to be 
hoped they will carry away some useful ideas, and 
give them a trial in their villages. By way of 
enoouragement students should be informed when 
leaving that they could at any time obtain the loan 
of an improved plough and a gift of good seed if 
thev see their way to utilizing them. 
More expenditure in pushing the actual experi- 
mental cultivation of paddy in all villages I would 
not advice. Except perhaps the advantages of deeper 
ploughing there is little or nothing the native culti- 
vators as a whole are not aware of, and when they do 
not work in the best known native methods it is due 
to poverty or other disability. One, for instance, is the 
difficulty of getting cattle and in some districts 
even good seed paddy is the want not in their 
power to rectify. When in the Batticaloa district 
recently heard a good deal of the paddy was not 
worth milling, it gave so small an outturn of rice 
which in the Hambantota district is as a rule 50 per 
cent. In such cases Government should step in and 
make a present of say 1,000 bushels of paddy. Again, 
where good seed has been introduced by some 
energetic Assistant Agent, it has got so hybridised 
as to lose its original productiveness and the know- 
ledge where it came from is lost, or if known it is not 
easy to get a further supply. 
As regards cattle it is worthy of consideration if 
Government should make advances on the security 
of the holdings to landowners to purchase buffaloes 
as is I believe done in India, repayment being spread 
over a number of years. There is at present I under- 
stand great scarcity of cattle all along the South- 
east coast of Ceylon, while there is a surplus in the 
western side 
Connected with this is the question of pasturage 
for cattle which has been much restricted since 
the prohibition of chenas, and is becoming serious 
both in the more settled districts and where cultiva- 
tion is being extended in the more outlying parts. 
But these are points which may be considered and 
dealt with apart from the scheme I hava formu- 
lated : — 
Estimate of Gost. 
Asst. to Director, and Inspector .. R4,000 
Teachers aud Instructors . , 4,000 
Keep of 40 students at R200 . , 8,000 
b Provincial gardeners.. 2,000 
10 District do ... ... • 2,400 
45 Village do ... ... 4,400* 
Allowance to certified teachers ... 'eoo 
Prizes of R50 each for the best-kept 
village gardens over. 2 years in 
existence ... ... ... 1,000 
— 10,400 
26,400 
3,60 
Contingencies 
Total Estimated Cost of Scheme when 
in full working ... ... ... Rso.OQO 
Bach village gardener should be entitled to a lease 
at a rental of cents an acre, of two acres of suitable 
Crown land for the pnrposs of cultivation of praedial 
products (excluding coconuts) so long as he keeps up 
a proper market garden. With this inducement 
and after 2 years' training and 3 years,' endowment 
while making a start in his own village, besides 
eligibility for promotion as a district gardener and 
the possibilities of Fubstantial prizes for the beat-kept 
garden, as well as others at district shows which 
should be held regularly— with all these encourasre 
ments, there is eveiy hope, if not certainty, of most 
of these men keeping to the trade aud working on 
the hues they have been taught. Thus in time there 
will be a large number of Government market gardens 
even in the most out-of-the-way parts of the Island 
more or less of an example and a source of advice 
and assistance, by issue of seed and otherwise, to tha 
vilkgers.— E. ELLIOTT, October, 1900. 
[Mr. Elliott, in the above paper, draws a distinction 
between Planting and Native Agriculture: the former 
* 15 at B180j 15 at R120 and 15 at K60 ^ 
