TH B iVl ACr AZ 1 N K 
OI' 
TB6 nWOL OF AGRICULTURE, 
COLOMBO. 
Added as a Supplerncnt monthh/ to the '■" THOPIGAL AGRICULTURIST!' 
The following pages include the contents of the Magazine of the School of 
Agriculture for February : — ■ 
AGKICULTURE AND ENTERPRISE. 
T cannot be questioned that there 
is a great lack of enterprise in 
the south of Ceylon, — of whatever 
class, and more especially among 
the natives. There are undoubt- 
edly cases that can be brought forward to disprove 
•this general statement, but these are few and excep- 
tional. Of late we have seen a number of Ceylonese 
leaving the Island to try their fortunes in other 
lands, impelled by the success of a few pioneers to 
imitate their example, till quite a little colony 
of young men has been formed in the Straits 
Settlements ; but there is little doubt that one of 
the chief incentives to this action is the charm 
of novelty in leaving this country and journeying 
over the seas to visit new lands and new peoples. 
Taking agriculture in its widest sense, we find 
very few of the Burghers of Ceylon as cultivators 
of the soil. It does not take long to count those who 
are engaged in the cultivation of tea, coffee, cocoa, 
coconuts, and cinnamon. Many who have gone 
in for these industries have proved themselves 
successful planters, while some have held up 
their heads well above the crowd. There have 
also been stray cases of those who have tried 
sheep farming, cattle and horse breeding, and 
tanning among the Ceylonese with more or 
less success; but how few compared with the 
hundreds that crowd the legal and medical pro- 
fessions, merely because these profes.sions show 
beaten tracts, and because these hundreds have 
not the enteiprise to strike out a new path for ! 
themselves. I 
Some time ago a native young man came to us 
full of the idea of starting off to America, after 
having read a plausible advertisement in a 
newspaper, with the idea of cultivating land. Of 
course it did not take long to dispel from his 
mind the gorgeous prospects he had conjured up 
there, from our own knowledge of the import 
of such advertisements ; and we strongly advised 
him if he had any special desire for anything 
like colonization under difficulties, he might 
begin on a moderate scale by applying to the 
Ceylon Government for a grant of land in some 
neglected region of the Island, on the promise of 
bringing it under cultivation of paddy, cotton, 
dhall, Indian corn, arrowroot or the like. But 
with this suggestion his enthusiasm died away. 
Why this should have been the case it is difficult 
to explain, except by supposing that it was the 
charm of novelty more than the determination 
to work for one’s living that was the dominat- 
ing influence in this special case, and thus 
accounting for the fact of a youth, who had 
never left the shores of his Lsland home, con- 
ceiving the idea of travelling thousands of miles 
to cultivate land under, what would be to him, 
insuperable difficulties, rather than of carrying on 
similar work under more favourable circumstances 
in his own country for his own and his kinsmen’s 
benefit. 
There are parts of this Island in a sadly depressed 
state, not so much because they are incapable 
of supporting a population, but because all 
that might be done to help nature to yield her 
stores of food has not been done. It is not to be 
thought that we look upon such cultivation as an 
ea.sy matter, and it must be acknowledged that 
it is no light task to work up lands that have been 
allowed (no doubt owing to objections against 
soil, rainfall, climate and situation) to lie neg- 
lected. Yet there is an experiment to be 
attempted, and an honest effort to be made, 
that have not yet been done. There must be some 
who, having come under the influence of agri- 
cultiu'al iastructiou in Ceylon, have a taste I'Of 
