January i, 1S92.] Supplement to He ''Tvopical AgncuUnvist." 
5*5 
Mr. Clielliah, Agricultural Instructor at Nin- 
tavur, gives au interesting account of the culti- 
vation of 35 acres of paddy land, which yielded 
1,140 bushels, or an average of 33 bushels per acre, 
and showed wlien all cost of cultivation was 
deducted a profit of nearly K1,000. Mr. Clielliah 
reports that the cultivators in his district are 
following his methods of culture, that many 
applications have been made for the loan of his 
ploughs, and that half-a-dozen cultivators have 
purchased improved implements. He also men- 
tions the interesting fact that he has found burnt 
lime, when applied to the land before sowing, a 
certain preventati^-e against insect attack. " My 
experience leads me to infer," says this Instructor, 
"that everything connected with paddy culti- 
vation is under the control of the influential irri- 
gation Vaniyas, who if they be trained agricul- 
turists will have grand opportunities for improving 
paddy cultivation and making it a successful and 
profitable industry. ' 
Mr. Rodrigo is still working well at Bandara- 
gama, where since his appointment as Agricul- 
tural Instructor the attendance at the village 
school has considerably increased. 
I must ask your indulgence, sir, for the length 
at which I liave referred to the results of our 
Agricultural Instructors' work, but I am anxious 
that there should be some record of it, and that 
Your Excellency as well as the public should know 
something of the outcome of our teaching in this 
school. It is supposed by many that our great 
object is to get the goyiya to cultivate with 
Howard's Cingalee plough on every description of 
land ; but from the references to the reports I 
have ' made it will be seen that while the use of 
improved ploughs is advised, where it is advisable 
to use them, other desirable methods, besides 
ploughing, are brought to the notice of the native 
cultivator, while not the least important work of 
the Agricultural Instructor is the importation and 
popularizing of products comparatively unknown 
to special districts. I am most anxious that 
greater facilities should be given us for the distri- 
bution of seed among the poorer cultivators,— a 
measure which at this stage of our agricultural 
reform it is most necessary to favour. 
I must not omit to mention that great help and 
encouragement have been given towards the fur- 
therance of our work outside the School by both 
Government ofl&cials and private gentlemen. 
Among tlie former, are the Government Agents 
of Kurunegala. Ratnapura, and Batticaloa, the 
Assistant Government Agents of Kegalla and 
Matara, while among the latter I must specially 
mention Mr. Clovis de Silva of Moratuwa among 
a number of our benefactors. 
Our School Magazine still flourishes, and the 
project of issuing Sinhalese leaflets embodying 
useful agricultural intorinatiou for the people has 
been an unciualitied success, and will, I feel con- 
fident, bear much good fruit. I must acknowledge 
my indobtoduess to the assistant masters, Messrs. 
.layawardene, Silva, and llodrigo, for the 
willing and ofiicient help they have rendered me 
in carrying on the work of the School. Mr. 
Jayawanlono is still our practical instructor, 
anil his self-imposed dairy work has been as 
creditable as it has bocu successful, 
The crops that have been and are being raised 
on the School grounds include paddy, Indian 
corn, arrowroot, dhall, horse-gram, manioc, cumbu, 
black, gram, latliyrus sylvestris, grasses, fruits, 
and vegetables. It is contemplated to adopt 
the method of improving our poor sandy soil by 
folding cattle on the land next year. 
On the whole I am led to believe, when all cir- 
cumstances are considered, and tlie difficulties 
which beset them are (as is seldom the case) fully 
appreciated, that those concerned in the work of 
agricultural education, whether within school- 
walls or in the open field, have good reason to 
congratulate themselves on the support and en- 
couragement they have received in their work 
from all classes, and on the fact that their 
detractors are in a very small minority. I trust, 
sir, that in spite of the necessarily slow progress 
of agricultural reform — whether in this country 
or any other country in the world — Your Excel- 
lency will — before the close of your reign in this 
island — be able to recognise very general and 
marlced traces of the beneficial influence which 
the School of Agriculture has exercised on the 
native agriculture of the country. 
Mr. J. B. Cull then addressed the meeting. 
After the lengthy report which had just been read, 
he need only say a very few words. There were, 
however, one or two points to which he might 
refer. The School was established by his prede- 
cessor nearly seven years ago, on the abolition 
of the old Normal School. It began, to a certain 
extent, in a humble way. Its numbers since thea 
had been increased, though not very appreciably. 
At the outset of course it met with difliculties — 
difficulties which he thought were almost inevi- 
table. There was the difficulty as regarded the 
conservatism in cultivation which prevails in all 
countries. Husbandmen were very tenacious of 
old systems and unwilling to embrace new systems. 
In the second place there was the difficulty — 
though it might seem paradoxical to say so — 
of the bountifulness of nature. In the greater 
part of this island nature responded with so 
lavish a hand to any call that was made upon 
her that the husbandman was not inclined to 
make any effort to increase the productiveness 
of the soil. At the outset also it, of course, met 
with som-e detractors. There were fears as to 
its permanance and usefulness. Both these fears 
had proved to him, he was glad to say, and were' 
still i^roving groundless. Its permanance he 
thought they might take as assured, and of its 
usefulness he did not think there could be any 
doubt judging from the number of applications 
that he received as Director of Public Instruc- 
tion, from month to month, from the various 
Agents in the island for the facilities of agricul- 
tural instruction. The number on the list at 
present was 26. He could see that the area of 
the usefulness of the school might well be 
enlarged, and he hoped it might be in his power 
to do so before long. He felt perfectly sure that 
if one could only have a successive supply of agri- 
cultural teache rs to go out to the various schools 
in the island and energize there, — not only in 
the schools but amongst the village popula- 
tion, — good results could hardly fail to be produced. 
In this respect he was very glad to bo able 
to uckuo>Ylcdgo with thanks thu generosity of 
