THE 
AOf^ICUliTURflli ]V[flGflZIflE, 
COLOMBO. 
Added as a Stipplement Monthly to the " TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST." 
The following pages include the Contents of the Agricultural Magazine for 
July 
Vol. XIV.] 
JULY, 1903. 
[No. 13, 
THE COLOMBO AGRl-HORTICULTLTRAL 
SOCIETY AND THE HENARATGODA SHOW. 
HE approaching Agricultural Show 
at Heuaratgoda aud the interest 
that is being evinced in it, re- 
minds one of the usefulness of 
Societies which have the improve- 
ment of native cultivation at heart. 
Going back to past times we find that in the year 
1842 was established the (probably first) Agri- 
cultural Society of Ceylon. The Proceedings of 
this Society for the years 1842 and 1843 furnish 
interesting reading, as showing the efforts by the 
Government and merchants of the day to introduce 
new products into the Island. We find iu these 
volumes that a good deal of correspondence was 
carried on "with other Societies in India and else- 
where with regard to new seeds and plants suitable 
for Ceylon, and that such seeds and plants were 
actually distributed for experimental cultivation 
among the members of the Society. How this 
useful body came to become extinct we cannot 
trace. For one thing it served as an example of 
how such Societies could make themselves useful, 
besides holding Shows at long intervals. 
In the eighties and nineties we find the Agri- 
cultural Society of Colombo holding Shows, but 
it would seem that this institution exhausted its 
resources over the big exhibition of 1891, which 
appears to have been a financial failure. 
In 1898 a less pretentious Fruit and Flower 
Show, promoted by Mr. W. E. Davidson (a very 
successful organiser), then M:iyor of Colombo, was 
held in the Agricultural School premises under the 
patronage of our present Govsrnor, Sir* West 
Eidgeway. This Show was so great a success, 
that the Managing Committee decided to form 
itself into a Standing Committee for the purpose 
of reviving the dormant Agri-Horticultural 
Society, without however undertaking its liabili- 
ties ! A balance of some Rs. 300 left after the 
Fruit aud Flower Show was placed to the cradit 
of the revived Society, and iu 1809 followed a 
large exhibition, promoted by the Hon. Mr. F. R. 
Ellis, a no less successful organiser than Mr. 
Davidson. This exhibition was also held at the 
Agricultural School under the patronage of the 
Governor, and iu ths end the credit of the Society 
was found to have risen to Rs. 600 ! 
Since October, 1900, the Society has shown con- 
siderable activity under the leadership first of the 
Hon. Mr, G. M. Fowler, and afterwards of the 
Hon, Mr. C. A. Murray, both of whom have been 
always ready to attend meetings and discuss ways 
and means of improving the status of the Society. 
In the early part of the year it was decided to 
hold annual village shows, as more likely to appeal 
to the cultivating classes than town shows, which 
it was resolved to hold only at intervals of three 
or four years. 
The first of these annual shows is now to be held 
at Heuaratgoda, in the Botanic Gardens, kindly 
placed at the di.sposal of the Society by the Director 
of Botanic Gardens, who, with his stuff, has shown 
a keen interest in all matters connected with Agri- 
Horticultural Shows. How far the experiment is 
going to succeed will be judged by the exhibition 
of produce— Agricultural, Horticultural, and In- 
dustrial — about to take place. 
Up till now the revived Society has worked 
quite indepeadeatly of Government aid, and if its 
financial status ia not very high, it is at least 
above reproach, and may be said to share iu the 
good fortune of our Governor's financial policy ! 
