220 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist." 
[Seit 1, 1898 
In this view, says Dr. Leather, I entirely agree 
with him. Whilst in England awl America, he 
continues, there is no branch of ir^'riculture more 
energetically inched tli in that for the provi?iou 
of botli good i^e'd and new varietie:i; in India 
tliei e i=, for all practical purpOTe-*, no nnch agency. 
If, he says, there were a i)ody of educated agri- 
culturists, such as one sees in Kurojie and America, 
who could form Agricultural Societies, then a few 
principal stations could do something hy working 
in conjunction with such bodies. 
Now that an Agricultural Society has been 
established in Ceylon, we would resjiectfuUy 
suggest to the members the desirability of 
taking up this question of seed supply, and making 
some Dt'empt to work on the lines suggested by 
such eminent authorities on Agriculture as Dr. 
Voelcker and Dr. Leather. AVith an influential 
body of men such as form the Colombo Agri-liorti- 
cultural Society, ready and willing, we take it, to 
work for the cause of agricultural improvement by 
holding Shows and in other ways, it would bo a 
■wise policy on the part of Government to allow a 
grant to the Society for the special object of 
supplying native cultivators with good .'•eed and 
with new varieties. We have before now fully 
discussed the advantage of change of seed and 
selection of seed, and the possibilities of greatly 
improving the condition of the puddy cultivator 
by these means, and we therefore need not go 
over the same ground. But we would agoin urge 
upon the Government and the new Agricultural 
Society the desirability of co-operating in " ener- 
getically pushing" this most important but much 
neglected branch of agricukure- 
^ 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
The following gentlemen hfive been appointed a 
Committee by His Excellency the Governor to 
report on the area required for the representation 
ot Ceylon Products at the Paris Exhibit ion of 1900, 
as well as on the character and e.Ktent of the repre- 
sentation to be made :— The Hon. Sir F. R. Saunders, 
K.C.M.G. ; the Mayor of Colombo; the Chairman of 
the Chamber of Commerce; the Chairman of the 
Planters' Association ; the Director of the Colombo 
Museum; the Director of the Koyal Botanic 
Gardens ; and the Superintendent of the School of 
Agriculture. 
There is a probability of a steady demand spring- 
ing up for the oil from the Kekuna tree (Aleuntes 
triloba) through the specimens sent from Ceylon to 
the Imperial Institute. Already large orders have 
been received which it is difficult, just at present, 
to meet. 
Rinderpest has been prevailing in Colombo dur- 
ing the months of July and August, and though the 
disease has in a great measure been checked now, 
we hear of its appearance in the districts outside 
Colombo. The Government Dairy cattle have so 
far remained intact as a result no doubt of the 
stringent preventative measures adopted by the 
authorities. 
The following statement gives the rainfall 
recorded at the School of AgriQuUvire during each 
month in 1897 :— 
January 
3-61 
Febriiiiry 
2-80 
March 
2-35 
April 
... 118-' 
Alay 
... 1102 
June 
... 11-80 
July 
S-37 
August 
... 1130 
September ... 
632 
October 
432 
November 
... 1066 
December 
841 
The total rainfall for the year was thus 8958 
inches. The greatest amount of rainfall fell on 
Thursday, the 15th May, and measured 4'70 inches. 
We have to thank Mr. J. P. Williams, the well- 
known seedsman of Henaratgoda, for a parcel of 28 
varieties of vegetable seeds from America for trial 
and report, and also for seeds of the Florida Velvet 
bean. 
His Excellency the Governor has been pleased 
to become patron of the Colombo Agri-Horticultural 
Society, and H,E. the Lieut-Governor has consented 
to be President. The following form the Committee 
elected at a meeting held on tlie Hch August : — 
The Hon; the Government Agent, Western Province 
(Chairman). Sir F. E. Saunders, the Hons. J. N. 
Campbell, H- L. Wendt, Abdul Rahiman, and Giles 
F. Walker, Mr Ellis, Sir Harry Dias, Messrs C. E. H. 
Symons, J. C. Willis, P. Cooraaraswamy, J. C. 
Huxley, F. C. Loos, the Mayor of Colombo, Mr. 
Davidson, Messrs. J. Ferguson, James Pieris, 
H. VanCuylenberg, W. Nock, H. A. Perera, G; H. 
Perera, Jacob de Mel, W. A. de Silva, P. D. Siebel, 
T. Kurunaratne, J. Clovis de Silva, G. W. Sturgess, 
Dr. Vandort, Mahawalatenne R.M,, and C. Drieberg, 
(Hon. Secretary). 
We would draw attention to the importa 
points brought forward in the article on " The 
Ri.'lation cf Water to Soil Fertility," which is based 
on an exhaustive paper by Edmond Gain, Professor 
of Agricultural Physiology and Chemistry, Uni- 
versity of Nancy, France, on the Physiological 
Role of Water in Plants. 
SERUM INOCULATION AGAINST RINDERPEST 
IN INDIA. 
It is to be hoped now that the initiative hai 
been taken in India that Ceylon will follow suit 
in utilizing the means at the disposal of veterinary 
officers to minimize the ravages of Rinderpest by 
the method of inoculation introduced by Dr. Koch. 
The last number of the Indian Agriculturitt 
refers to the trials made with Koch's serum as very 
encouraging, and goes on to say that in North 
Behar where a herd wos inoculated, none of the 
animals subsequently developed the disease which 
was raging amongst the vLlage cattle aroundJ 
The operation of inoculation is said to be flo 
simple, and inexpensive, that, with the increasing 
number of trained veterinary studants, there 
would seem to be reason to hope that the time is 
approaching when it can be employed upon % 
