COLOMBO. 
Jdcled as a Supplement Monthly to Uie " TROPICAL AGRIGULTUBIST." 
April 
The following pages include the Contents of the Agricultural Magazine for 
Vol. XIL] 
APRIL, 1901. 
[No. 10. 
THE SCHOOL OF AGEICDLTUEE. 
N the recommendation of the last 
Commissioa appointed by Govern- 
ment to deal with this institution, 
the School was closed on Friday, 
the 291 h March, the end of the 
first term of the year. Thus 
terminates an educational venture which, if it 
was not a complete success, was certainly not 
Q complete failure. We do not for a moment 
intend to fcontend that the school fulfilled the 
object with which it was launched by Mr. H. W. 
Green, late Director of Public Instruction, but- 
what we do say is that it surely and 
certainly exercised an influence for good, — by its 
■very existence, if in no other way — on local 
agricultural ideas and agricultural practice in 
general. The institution was a centre of 
various forces, some sharply directed towards it 
as adverse and very often unjust criticism ; some 
rising out of it as benefits (however insignificant) 
it conferred on the agriculturists of the Island, 
while between these opposite forces were others 
inclined at various degrees representing various 
other phases of public opinion. The very cir- 
cumstance of the school, its work, and its 
object having been a subject of so much 
criticism and discussion was itself a factor in 
directing public thought to the latest develop- 
ments of agricultural teaching, and so of the 
science and practice of agriculture, and we make 
bold to say that but for the existence of the 
school with its much criticised methods of instruc- 
tion, the advancement of agricultural knowledge, 
and especially the expansion that has undoubtedly 
taken place in local ideas regarding agricultural 
practice, would have taken twice or perhaps three 
times as long to reach its present stage. In this 
way we say the school has served its purpose, and 
it is with some regret that we think of its passing 
into the region of the " Has Been." We also 
fancy that there will be some who will miss the 
old place, for it had its correspondents and en- 
quirers, those who came to look up the library of 
authorities, or read up the latest information in 
the excellent agricultural reading-room attached 
to the school. With the institution will also no 
doubt go the useful little monthly publication 
wliich the school had reason to be proud of, as 
having appeared regularly since July, 1889. The 
Magazine will probably cease to be issued after 
June, when it closes its Xllth Volume. 
We are, however, glad of one thing, and that is, 
that the cause of agricultural education is not to bo 
altogether abandoned, as a new scheme of agri- 
cultural instruction (already referred to by us in 
the March number) has received the sanction of 
Government. We liave reason to believe that this 
scheme has much to commend it, and we wish it a 
full measure of practical success. 
RAINFALL TAKEX AT THE SCHOOL OP 
AGEICULTURE DURING THE MONTH 
OF FEBRUARY, 1901. 
1 
Friday 
. . Ml 
18 
2 
Saturday 
. . Nil 
19 
3 
Sunday 
. . Nil 
20 
4 
Monday 
.. -12 
21 
5 
Tuesday 
,. Nil 
22 
6 
Wednesday 
. . Nil 
23 
7 
Thursday 
. . Nil 
24 
8 
Friday 
. . Nil 
25 
9 
Saturday 
.. -12 
26 
10 
Sunday 
.. Nil 
27 
11 
Monday 
.. Nil 
28 
12 
Tuesday 
.. Nil 
1 
13 
Wednesday 
. . Nil 
14 
Thursday 
.. Nil 
15 
Friday 
. . Nil 
16 
Saturday 
. . Nil 
17 
Sunday 
. . Nil 
Greatest amount of rainfall 
on the 26th, l-QO 
inches, 
Monday 
Tuesday . 
Wednesday 
Thursday , 
Friday 
Saturday , 
Sunday 
Monday 
Tuesday . 
Wednesday 
Thursday . . 
Friday 
Total. , 
Mean , . 
•06 
Nil 
•59 
•21 
•02 
•50 
Nil 
Nil 
1- 00 
Nil' 
•01 
•01 
2- 64 
•094 
ill any 24 hoursj 
