708 
Supplement to the ''Tropical Agriculturist*' [April 1, 1902. 
Agricultural Shows hope to effect any good to 
the real producer ? Every successful competitor, 
■whose exhibits are the fruits of his owu labour, 
miiy be pardoned a little pride in his success, 
but the boastful arrogant spirit of the exhibitor 
of another's produce iw beyond all toleration. 
Some dozen years ago we were present at a 
Village Show held in the hamlet of Dalugama 
near Kelani, under the patronage of llie late Mr. 
George Wall, and with the energetic ilr. Charles 
Stouter as Secretary, and were much impressed 
with — what we would call for the want of a 
better word — the "genuineness" oc the pro- 
ceedings. There we saw the produce of the 
cultivator shewn in his own name, and awards 
going in the right direction. The "Middleman" 
was out of the way, and why ? Well it was too 
small a business for him, and this decision 
on his part is the secret of the success of 
Village Shows — "a good riddance" we say "of 
a most undesirable element." But unfortunately 
since the Dalugama Show we have not heard 
of another Village Show — at least in the Western 
Province — and " more's the pity " till Saturday, 
the 22nd March, when a succesful little exhibi- 
tion of garden produce was held at the Dano- 
wita school situated in the Hapitigam Korale, 
some six miles from Ambepussa Railway Station. 
The exhibits were the produce of the school 
gardeus in the neighbourhood (Danowita, Dora- 
waka, Murugampoia, &c.) as well as of the 
gardens of the village children in their own 
homesteads, and for this reason the Show, 
though small, was of au interesting character. 
Advantage was taken of the presence of a 
large gathering of villagers for distributing a 
quantity of different kinds of seeds brought by 
the Superintendent of School Gardens from the 
Colombo Stock Garden. The acting Director of 
Public Instruction, under whose patronage the 
Show was held, was himself present and evinced 
the greatest interest in the proceedings. After 
the distribution of awards, consisting of articles 
likely to be useful to the exhibitors (who were 
all young children) the acting Director spoke 
to a large audience on the importance of 
■village children being given an early training 
in agriculture, by means of school gardens, and 
the advantages that must follow close applica- 
tions to the cultivation of land and persistent 
efforts to grow better and larger crops. Mr. 
Drieberg, Superintendent of School Gardens, 
spoke in a similar strain and called upon the 
older generation to contribute all the help they 
can in pushing on the new scheme for the 
agricultural training of village youths, and to 
encourage their children to give their spare time 
to the healthy and j)rofitable exercise of gardening. 
Mr, Jayatilleke, Principal of the Colombo Buddhist 
College, exhorted the people to take advantage 
of tlie o])portun)ties offered to them to improve 
their status as agriculturists and horticulturists. 
Hearty votes of thanks were accorded to the 
speakers, to the Mudaliyar of the Korale, Mr. 
jjouis Dassannika, and to Mr. Alexander Perera, 
Manager of tlie Colombo Stock Garden, all of 
whom had contributed their share of help to 
jnake the bhow u success. 
It was quite apparent that the proceedings, 
taken as a whole, appealed strongly to the sense 
and feelings of the large assembly, and that 
the object of the Show as an influence for 
good was in a great measure attained. 
We trust that the success of the little Show 
at Danowita will lead to similar Shews being 
held at different centres in other parts of the 
Island, with a view to awakening the energies — 
more or less dormant — and latent capabilities 
of our village population. 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
Mr. Fredrick Lewis's coming work on Ceylon 
Timber Trees should prove a valuable reference 
book to all foresters and others interested in 
woods. Mr. Lewis is well qualified for the task 
he has undertaken, having devoted his life, 
so to speak, to the subject of Forest Conservancy, 
while his knowledge of Forest Botany is 
acknowledged to be both comprehensive and sound. 
Up till now the literature on the subject of our 
timber trees has been very scanty, and Trimen's 
Flora contains only short notes on their distri- 
bution and value. Under the circumstances a 
work of the nature of that Mr. Lewis proposes in 
his introduction to give us will be a valuable 
acquisition. 
We would draw aDtention to the interesting 
report on Cho-cho, referred to in our last issue, 
from the pen of Mr. AY. Nock. Superintendent of 
Hakgalla Botanic Gardeus, who has done much to 
introduce and naturalize exotics in Ceylon. The 
vegetable is one which deserves to be popularised 
through our Village School Gardens. 
We reproduce a notice of Mr. Herbert Stone's 
paper (read before the Society of Arts, London) 
on the Identification of Woods. The subject is 
one which should prove of the greatest interest to 
foresters, and BIr, Stone is an acknowledged 
authority on all questions relating to Timbers. 
For these two reasons we have no doubt; tiiat the 
notice will prove acceptable to those of our 
readers who are concerned with forest work and 
timber-supply. 
A consignment of plants of the best varieties of 
table bananas is shortly expected from Queensland 
for the Colombo Stock G.iiden, whence they 
will find their way to the village School Gardens 
that have been started in various parts of the 
Island. 
We welcome the " Journal of the Department 
of Western Australia" as an exchange. It is 
a well got up monthly of handy size, and 
contains much useful reading matter. 
Brucea Sumatrana is the name of a plant 
about which there has been of late much enquiry 
outside Ceylon, owing to tlie medicinal virtues of 
the seeds as a cure for dysentery. The plant, an 
introduced one, occurs as a common weed about 
Kandy. Trimen thus speaks of it : The ■whole 
