July 1 , 1897 .] 
Supplement to the “ Tropical Agriculturist." 
71 
the results of experiments in the improvement of 
paddj' cultivation. . . it is pitiful to hear of the 
results of the general run of paddy cultivation in 
this country. One sees an immense amount of 
time, labour, and patience expended in cultivating 
those fields, and the result, we are toi I is very 
often of the poorest description, far behind the 
result of the paddy cultivated in Indi . or Burma. 
In certain portions of the Colony isi . liich 1 have 
ridden about, I have made a jtoint of trying to dis- 
cover, from those who were with me, what was the 
yield of the fields through which we had been 
passing. I have often seen fields most beautifully 
cultivated, there being most painstaking arratige- 
ments for irrigation, for damming water, for plough- 
ing, and for every other pos.«ible item of cultivation, 
and I have been told that probably the results 
maybe six-fold or four-fold. I have it on the 
authority of one of our Government Agents 
that in his province there are many fields which 
do not yield more than five-fold. The work of 
this institution therefoie in promoting the im- 
provement of paddy cultivation is, I supp. e of 
all its various works, the most important and the 
most practical. For that reason I am particularly 
glad to hear of the satisfactory results that have 
been attained, and I can only hope that by every 
possible expedient, by the introduction of new 
forms of cultivation, and by the importation pos- 
sibly of new kinds of paddy seed, the work of the 
College will profit the country.” 
Mr. H. W. Green, the founder of this institu- 
tion, who had always been a keen observer of the 
various methods of cultivation as practised in the 
country, on same occasion spoke as follows : — "His 
Excellency had remarked on the absurdly and 
lamentably low yield of paddy. It was absurd 
and it was lamentable. He had also remarked on 
the beautiful cultivation of the fields and irriga- 
tion lands. If it were no heresy, might he (the 
speaker) say that it was beautiful on the outside, 
that everthing except the first step was beautifully 
done. It was like the house built on sand that we 
read about in a certain old book. The house might 
be beautiful, but there was no foundation. The 
Sinhale.se cultivator and the Tamil cultivator in 
some districts — not in Jaffna and districts where 
water was scarce, but wherever -water was plenti- 
ful — was inclined to begin at the top without the 
bottom. He forgot that, however bountiful nature 
might be in giving him rain or tanks for irrigation, 
he must prepare the soil for the water. He began 
to prepare the soil with the water on it. He said 
this method killed the weeds, and if he spoke the 
truth he would also say that it saved trouble ; but 
he should plough the land when it was dry, turn 
the whole thing over and leave it to the baking of 
the sun for two or three months before the water 
and the beautiful cultivation came on. That was 
the one sole foundation fault of paddy cultivation 
in this country.” 
I quote further from Mr. Green’s speech : — 
“ Wherever the experiments taught at that 
school hud been tried honestly — they had always 
been honestly tried — it had been fou.id that where 
the land had been thoroughly turned up and pre- 
pared, they had at least double the crop of 
their neighbours, and often more than double. If 
the people would only work carefully, there was no 
reason why we in Ceylon should' not have.’ the 
Burma yield. The climate was all right, every- 
thing was all right, but they did not prepare^ the 
soil for the working of bountiful providence.” 
Again Mr. Green says : " That his primay object in 
starting the school was to help small agriculturist.s 
and not the big ones — small owners of little tracts' 
of land who suffered distress from want of food 
that want of food he had seen, and he was satis- 
fied that it was caused by the people not knowing 
what to do with what they had. They threw away 
3 bushels of paddy in .sowing when 10 seers would 
be enough, and this .saving of seed paddy would 
keep a family in comparative comfort for a month 
or 6 weeks, and that in a time of famine and dis- 
tress was a great thing.” 
On the face of what has so far been said regard- 
ing the cultivation of paddy in this i.sland, it fs ini- 
po.ssible to deny that there is a great deal to be 
taught to the villager in this branch of agriculture. 
A few of the students trained at the school were 
sent out to the country expres.sly with the view 
of showing improved methods of paddy cultivation 
to the villagers. The experiments conducted by 
these young men from all we gather from records 
have been in almost every case a very great success' 
and the villagers have in some instances learnt 
much from them. But in a country like this 
where the people are so conservative, it is impos- 
sible to create a lasting impression upom them bv 
experiments conducted in a haphazard manne'r 
here and there. A series of experiments for a 
great length of time at each place and imder 
proper guidance should have been systematically 
carried out. Unfortunately, this has not been done 
Young instructors were in most case.s placed 
under the guidance of the native chief.s of the 
districts. These chiefs have not received any 
training in agriculture, and they them.selves are as 
Ignorant as the ordinary villager in these matters 
Mr. Elliott, late Government Agent, speaking at a 
prize-day of the School of Agriculture explained 
the true position of the instructors in tlie follow 
ing words “ Tliey had heard of what was doing 
within these walls, but he could give some account 
of what former students had done elsewhere es 
pecially int'ie Eastern Province. He had had their 
co-operation in several of the agricultural experi 
ments, and was happy to be able to te.stifv that 
they were all a credit to the school in which they 
were trained. They were capable agriculturists 
and intelligent workmen, who understood their 
work, and knew how and when to plough to sow 
to water and to reap. They were, however handil 
capped in their work and were rather expected like 
the Hebrew of old to make bricks without straw 
They had no money, no seed paddy, no implements 
given them, but were generally attached to an or- 
dinary village school and e.xpected to cultivate 
paddy in an improved style. Progress under such 
circumstances, was difficult, and their motto must 
be taken from the tortoise rather than the hare— 
‘ slow but sure.’ ” The Hon’ule Mr. Mitchell Mer- 
cantile Pep resell tative of the Legislative Council 
has e.xpressed the following opinion ; “ With 
regard to the good the school was doing nobody 
could be blind to that. Lads came from the 
country and studied agriculture there, and went 
