PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :---
C.O. 882/10
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH--NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
The amount voted is Rs.17,071, so that there is a balance of Rs.3500 for use on agricultural services: of this there
are the following apportionments:-
Tools, instruments à chemicals Experimental plantation
Uniforms
Travelling
Messenger
Purchase of Publications
Rs. 500
1740
150
850
180
50
The amount available for agricultural work hardly therefore
exceeds more than part of the votes for tools, travelling, publications and experimental plantation, or say Rs.2000 out of the total. Of the 1740 Rs. for the last mentioned Rs. 936 are used for reafforestation experiments, and one of the Forest Rangerwis used for ornamental work in the gardens, while one Ranger is used as Inspector of Plant Diseases.
35. The prima function of this Department of Government should be the provision of infomation which will lead to increased agricultural production, and the sole method of judging ita work is by noting that increase. It has no
other reason for its existence, but that reason is sufficient
to give it rank as one of the most important of all Departments. The recognised methods of attaining this end, which are followed in other countries but have been neglected here, may
be summarised as follows: -
Experiments with crops and manures and methods of
cultivation. Demonstrations on estates of methods of cultivation,
manuring, and new crops.
Importation of good types of livestock.
Direct instruction of adulta by interviews, lectures and
discussions.
Encouragement of school-gardens, home-gardens, and cooperative credit societies. Experiments on control of diseases, and enforcement of
legislation.
Publication of information of direct use to planters.
I am satisfied that were these functions well performed, the
local planters would be prepared to rete double the amount now allowed for this Department, and I believe that the
investment would be profitable in the highest degree. With the exception of enforcement of legislation, not one of the above activities has been attempted here.
36. During my stay in the Colony, I have endeavoured to ascertain the feeling of the planters regarding progressive work by the Department of Agriculture. Personal interviews, meetings, lectures and publications were the means used. I
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give a list (Appendix of the leaflets published. first school-garden has been laid down at the Government Victoria School, land has been obtained from planters for cooperative, manurial experiments, Heritage Estate has been opened up as an experiment station, many figures have been willingly given to me by planters, shewing their methods and yields, and the existing staff of the Department has been organised. In addition, the problems discussed in this report have been laid before the Board of Agriculture for discussion. It is too early to expect results, but there has been no doubt about the ready response of the community to the methods adopted.
37. There has been much discussion as to the kind of work that this Department should perform locally, and as to the type of officer who should be in charge. The net result of these discussions appears to be summed up in the Report of the Local Committee appointed by His Excellency in September, 1919, in accordance with the Circular Despatch of the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies (11th. June 1919), to consider the directions in which development of local industries might be furthered.
I preface further remarks by saying that I disagree entirely and completely with this report, both with the recommendations made by it and with its general outlook upon the needs of the Colony, and I consider that the report and its recommendations typify exactly the distortion which has taken place in the minds of the average local inhabitant regarding local agricultural needs.
38. In the first place the Committee deals entirely with scientific research. I interpret the original despatch of the Secretary of State as a request for proposals regarding development. In the second place I do not believe that there is a crying need for research in laboratories into soils, insects, fungi and plants. In the third place I do not see that the Colony can afford to pay for a staff of laboratory research men on the scale indicated by the Committee, nor do I believe that it is either necessary or profitable. the Report contains no word on education and instruction in
Lastly, agricultural matters of the local people, in spite of the fact that local education is extremely backward, and many of the planters, even those of European blood, are illiterate.
39. I am able in this connection to draw an exact and illuminating parallel between the work of the Department of Agriculture and that of the Department of Medicine. One is
* Not printed.
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