January i, 1892.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
459 
XATIVI': AfilUCULTURi; IN CEYLON. 
“ Agrioulturist," whose communication appear 
elsewhere, is too pessimistic. Native agriculture 
has advanced in area and to some extent im- 
proved in modes of tillage and amount of yield 
since the capitulation and the days of the Madras 
Civilians and Governor North. The picture drawn 
by the latter of the scantiness of rice grown in 
the island in his day was far more marked by 
Bembrandt-liko shadow than the' scene depicted by 
Governor Havelock. Most of the people, however, 
have never heard of Malthus as a philosopher or 
of thrift as a virtue ; and it is too true that in 
many parts of the island population is out-growing 
the means of subsiatenoe. The remedy is either 
extended cultivation of the land, or improved and 
intensive cultivation of the portions already brought 
under the plough or the mnmoty. 
Let ns have extended rice cultivation by all means, 
but more important still is the duty, which ought 
to be, we were going to say compulsorily pressed 
on the people, of so cultivating the lands already 
under crops, as to increase the yield manifold 
beyond what is now harvested. The experiments 
to which Mr. Green alluded and those recorded in 
Mr. Drieberg’s comprehensive report show the vast 
room there is for possible improvement and the 
extent to which improved methods when adopted 
are rewarded. If wo felt as Governor Havelock 
seemed from the tone of bis nttorances to feel, 
that poor returns from rice culture are the rule, 
and that snob inadequate returns are due, not to 
the ignorance and oarelesanesB of the cultivators 
but to natural causes which can be neither con- 
trolled nor overcome, of course we should feel as 
much the necessity of abolishing tbe paddy tax as 
His Exocllenoy does. But in visw of what 
was stated in the Hall of the Agricultural 
College, apart from the opinions of experienced 
servants of Government and others, previously 
expressed, we hold that tbe duty of Gov- 
ernment is to retain the tax. using a largo 
proportion of it to encourage not only improved 
and extended rioe cnllure but the growth of 
other cereals and food products in the shape of 
root plants and fruit trees. We are specially glad 
to notice that the attention of the Principal and 
pupils of the Agricultural College is spooially 
direoted to such leguminous plants as dal and 
horse gram. The crops from such plants arc far 
richer in nutritive properties than rioe is, and the 
long-vexed question of leguminous plants deriving 
a largo portion of their nitrogen from the air 
seems to have been settled in tbe aflirmativo. 
Lawes and Gilbert being converts to that pro- 
position. To legumsB ought to bs added a larger 
cultivation of Indian corn than .it present — tbe 
" mealies,” to use the Gape Dutob term, for 
what formed the staple cereal of the colony whence 
Sir Arthur Havelock uame to Oeylon. If the natives 
BO used their cattle as to get plentiful supplies 
of butter as well as milk, the boiled heads of Indian 
oorn, seasoned with butter, would constitute a 
delicious as well as a nutritive diet. Indian oorn, 
like all other similar products, requires oeoasional 
applications of fertilizing matter, and one of the 
chief duties of the roijsionaries from the Agricul- 
tural College must be to teach the people the value, 
when collected and properly oomposted, of rofuso 
matter which, when neglected, becomes not only 
cilensivo but injutioua and dangerous to life and 
health." “ Agrioulturist ” draws a gloomy piolure 
of the condition of large uumbara of Binbaieas 
educated to look down on bonest labour, But edu- 
cation properly oonduoted, as it is at the Agrioultural 
School, ought over to reoognize the dignity of labour; 
and knowledge ought not to be a hindrance but a 
help to tbe oonsaientioos and industrious tiller 
of the soil, who ought to feel proud of "eating 
bread in the sweat of bis face." We were specially 
interested in that portion of Mr. Drieberg’s re- 
port which indicated that a Sinhalese gentleman 
who bad received a training at tbe College had 
been suooessful in raising tbe tuber known as the 
common or Irish potato — not to be confounded 
with the sweet potato, whiob latter has been so 
naturalized in Ceylon as to be often regarded as 
indigenous. Doth these valuable roots are really 
of American origin, and an abundant ooltivation 
of both would largely alleviate that pressure ot 
population on tbe means of existenoe which “ Agri- 
culturist" truly states is becoming a serious problem. 
We have alluded to tbe breeding ot cattle and 
horses, — ponies, snob as those for which Java is 
famous, would bo specially useful, — and wo have 
attracted attention to the neoessity ot increasing 
our food BoppUes in tbe shape of good and whole- 
some freshwater fish. This question, curiously 
enough, is an agrioultural one. The water of irriga- 
tion in Oeylon is plentifully peopled by fish, but 
we want superior varietiee such as the large golden 
oarp of Java in which island, as our late friend 
Mr. Moens told as, tbe cultivators gather two 
harvests, of almost equal value : first tbe paddy 
crop and then the teeming wealth of fish. The fewer 
goats in a country the better ; they are the inveterate 
destroyers of all vegetation. But could we not in 
regions ol tbe lowoountry too dry for tbe existence 
of tbe land leech, and in our mountains at alti- 
tudes too high for the leech peds, breed 
sheep superior to the long-legged, goat-like orea- 
tures vhiob in Jafioa ate mainly valuable lot 
manuring tobaooo and vegetable fields? And the 
mention of JafToa reminds ns that great benefit to 
the Sinhalese would resalt,' were they in many 
plaoes to imitate the careful and productive well-* 
oultivation for which the northern Peninsula is 
distinguished. 
Here is an Italian recipe (1669) for making 
Tea. "Take a pint of water and make it boily 
then put iu it two pinches ol Tea, and immediatel | 
remove it from the fire, for tbe Tea must not boil ; 
you Itt it rest and infuse time enough to say two 
or three patera (‘I'erpiice do deux ou trois pater'), 
and then serve it with powdered sugar on a poroe- 
lain dish; so that each one may sugar to bis 
taste — il(ulrfi$ Tirneit." 
In view ot the “ boom ” that there has been in 
Ceylon Tea of late, it is a little strange to hear that 
evou one tea planter thinks of deserting that island 
to try his luck in another part of the world. Wo 
are informed that a gentleman from Oeylon was in 
California last mouth, with a view of embarking in 
the Tea planting industry on the Faclfio coast. He 
belieros the climate and soil favourable fur tbe growth 
of the plant. He is indeed more sanguine than some 
section of the American Press. A contemporary on the 
Paoilio coast, |s:iys “Considering the cheapness of 
labour employed in this industry in China, Japan, 
and Ceylon, even if natural conditious on this ooat 
aro favourable, it is difiiault to see where the hands 
are to be fuaud willing to wo.-k in California Tea 
plantations for wages anywhere near as low as those 
paid abroad. Chineso and Japanese labonters are 
out of the question, and no white man has yet been 
found in California who will willlogly work for less 
than »I60 per day.” And a New York trade paper 
endorses this with the remark; — “It has been demon- 
strated that the Tea plant Will thrive in tbe Southern 
Btatei, but owing to tbe exponsiveness of labour Tea 
growing oaunot be made a profitable iudaitry,— -llgdrad 
Z'imm 
