January i , 1892.] 
Supplement to the “ Tropical Agriculturist." 
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 Helds, and the result, we are 
told, is very often of the very poorest description — 
far behind the result of the paddy cultivation 
in India or Burma. In certain portions of tho 
colony in which 1 have ridden about I have 
made a point of trying to discover from those 
who wore with me, what was the yield of the 
Helds through which we have been passing. I 
have often seen Held.s most beautifully cultivated, 
there being most painstaking arrangements for 
irrigation, for damming water, for ploughing, and 
for every other po.ssible item of culti^'ation, and 
I have been told that probably the results may 
be si.xfold or fourfold. 1 have it on the authority 
of one of our (ioverninent Agents that in his 
province there are many of the Helds which do 
not yield more than fivefold. The work of this 
in.stitutian therefore in ])romoting the improvement 
of paddy cidtivation is, 1 suppose, of all its 
various work.s, the most im])ortant and tlio most 
practical, t'or that reason I am particularly glad 
to hear of tlie satisfactory results that have been 
attained, and I can only hope that by every possi- 
ble expedient, by the introduction of new form.s of 
cultivation, and by the importation possibly of 
new kinds of paddy seed, the work of tho College 
will profit the country. There is one other line 
of agriculture whie.li I think was dwelt upon by 
the Director of I’ublic Instruction, and in which 
1 am also glad to hear that there has been 
considerable jirogres.s, and that is the improvement 
of cattle. 1 believe an immense deal can yet 
be done in this country in that way and without 
very much difllciilty. Even in the neighbouring 
country of India, there are breeds of cuttle which 
are far superior to ours, and without going further 
then that country, I think we can do a great deal 
by importing good stock. (Applause.) I notice the 
sun is getting low, and therefore 1 will not detain 
you with any further remarks. 1 would only say 
that 1 thank the Superintendent and the students 
of the College for their kind welcome to me today. 
I also express my syinjiathy with them in their 
work here, and my earnest hope that it will 
meet with increasing aud well-sustained success. 
(Applttu.se.) 
Mr. II. W'. (liiKUN, who was afterwards called 
upon to address tho meeting, said ho had hoped 
a little while ago that his days of speaking at 
prize-givings were over. It was always rather 
tt pain ami a trouble to find anything to say on 
these occasions when one had been at so many ns 
he had, but this school having been started by 
him and being his s])ecinl and favourite eblost 
child. ( Ajtplaiise.) while he was Director of I’ublic 
Instruction, he felt it would be ungracious not 
to say anything, lie then ex]]re.ssod his jdeusurt^ 
at learning from Mr. Cull’s s])eoch and from the 
report of the Superintendent that the work was 
really progressing. He bad a very bard time 
of it indeed when he started the school. Various 
Ooyernmont Agent-s told him that in advising the 
native cultivator he was trying to teach his 
grandmother how to suck eggs, and that his grand- 
mother knew much more than ho diil. What did 
he know about paddy cultivation:' lie replied 
that in going about the worbl he bad used his 
yes and thought he knew a little about it ; but 
S >7 
he told the Government in starting it that he 
did so at his own ri.sk, and that if it was a 
failure ho alone was to he condemned. He was 
glad to learn that it was not a failure, bnt ho 
should like to see more than had been done. 
In a country like this wo could not get on too 
fast. Like the English people at home tho Sin- 
halese and Tamils were very conservative, tho 
Sinhalese e.specially so, in regard to cultivation. 
The Governor had made a most kindly speech, 
and had shown, even more than in his 'speaking] 
a kindly deposition towards tho work of the 
School, by allowing the grant for the new itiner- 
ating agricultural instructors, and he hoped that 
that would considerably aid in the progress of the 
work here. Itinerating teachers were most useful 
here, and the work of private students on leaving 
tho School and going to their own places or the 
lands of private gentlemen and oIHcials who em- 
ployed them was also most useful ; but the more 
help that could bo got out of Government tho 
better, because all there knew that the ordinary 
native did think a great deal of men paid by 
Government. His Excellency had remarked on 
tho absurdly and lamentably low yield of paddy, 
ft was absurd and it was lamentable. He had 
also remarked on the beautiful cultivation of the 
fiebls and irrigation lands. If it wore not heresy, 
might ho say that it was beautiful on the outside] 
that everj-thing except the first step was beauti- 
fully done. It was like the hou.se built on sand 
that we read about in s certain old book. The 
house might be beautiful, but there was no foun- 
dation. The Sinhalese cultivator and the Tamil 
cultivator in some rlistricts — not in Jaffna and 
districts where wttt<‘r was scarce, but wherever 
water was plentiful,— was inclined to begin on 
the top withdnt the bottom. He forgot that how- 
ever bountiful Nature might be in giving him 
rain or tanks or irrigation, he must prepare tho 
soil for tho water. Ho began to prepare the soil 
with the water on it. He .said this method killed 
tho weeds, ami if ho .spoke tho truth he would 
also say that it saved trouble; but In* 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 tho 
one solo foundation fault of paddy cultivation 
in this country. IVherever the e.xperiments taught 
at that School had been tried honestly— they had 
not always been honestly tried— it had been found 
that where the land had been thoroughly turned 
up and prepared, they had at least double the 
croj) of their neighbours and often more than 
double. If the people woubi only work carefully 
there was no reason why we in Ceylon should 
not have the Burma yield, which was something 
like niuotyfold. The climate was all right, overy- 
(hiug was all right, but they did not prepa'ro 
the soil for the working of bountiful J’rovidence. 
He should be very glad indeed to hear that the 
dairj- farm was going on well, for it was a most 
important thing. It was very hard indi'ed to got 
good milk, and it anything could bo done to 
increase the su)iply of good milk to tho re.sidents 
hore, it would bo a great thing. Still more 
would it bo a great thing to improve tho 
breed of cattle by which theploughing was done 
Tho objection to all their now ploughs was that 
they wore too heavy for the cattle. It was 
