July i, 18S4.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



27 



on these works from 1874 to 1880 was 597,053 uipees. 



There is also a local ordinance which provides for 

 the revival of ancient customs in regard to irrigation, 

 under which owners of paddy laud can be compelled 

 to join together for the maintenance of the common 

 works on which the cultivation of their lands depends, 

 and they aie fined by a village council for failure to 

 perform their allotted shares of work. 



It therefore appears to me quite equitable that the 

 natives, who especially benefit by irrigation works, 

 should, on payment of fair wages.be forced to labour 

 fur a short period per annum, either at their con- 

 struction or maintenance ; and I can cite several in- 

 stances where, for want of this compulsion, and in 

 consequence of the refusal of the Sinhalese villagers 

 to work upon the tanks especially undertaken for their 

 benefit, it was, in 1873, most dillieult to complete the 

 works. As a rule, the irrigation works inths Eastern 

 Province were made by the Tamils, inhabiting the 

 Northern Province. 



Great distress having frequently occurred from the 

 failure of crops in different parts of the Colony, several 

 ordinances of the Ceylon Legislature respecting irrig- 

 ation, have at various times been passed, and the 

 following are the general principles on which the anci- 

 ent tanks are now being restored, or on which new 

 irrigation works are undertaken. 



To extend the paddy cultivation, an Ordinance, dated 

 December 31st, 1867, contains, among others, the fal- 

 lowing provisions respecting "the construction, re- 

 pair, and improvement of irrigation works " : — 



(a) If, at a meeting, called for that purpose, a 

 majority of the cultivators determined that Govern- 

 ment aid was necessary for undertaking any irrig- 

 ation work, plans and estimates were then prepared, 

 and if a Board, consisting of the Government Agent of 

 the Province, {I) the Surveyor-General, and the Director 

 of Public Works, reported that it wa3 advisable to 

 carry out such works, the Governor was empowered 

 to order them to be rrndertaken. 



(«) A schedule,- containing the details of the acreage 

 benefitted and the names of the proprietors, was pre- 

 pared ; the estimated cost of the work, when executed, 

 was to be divided, pro rata, by this acreage, and to 

 be repaid to Government by ten equal yearly instal- 

 ments, ensured by t ompulBory powers of recovery, the 

 charge, meanwhile, having precedence over all mort- 

 gages and encumbrances whatever. 



The loss to Government incurred by this system is 

 the following : — 



(a) The interest on cost of works during the ten 

 years in which the expenditure was being repaid ; 



(6) The cost of maintenance of the works during that 

 period ; 



(c) The liability of the works, or the risk of any 

 over expenditure on them beyond the amount of the 

 estimated cost, which alone could be recovered from 

 the cultivators. 



The advantage to Government of this system, be- 

 yond the benefits of increased food and the consequent 

 general prosperity of the people, advantages very great 

 in themselves, is the increased tax received on the larger 

 yield of paddy. 



The Committee of the Legislative Council, Ceylon, 

 thus allude to these advantages in their report, dated 

 September 18, 1867 (Sessional Paper iv. of 1867, page 

 8) : " 1 he Committee have dwelt at some length upon 

 the depression of agricultural interests, caused by the 

 uncertainty of water supply. They believe that the 

 removal of this uncertainly would act as a great stimulus 

 to native industry, one result of which would be an 

 increasing demand for the Crown lands. The proceeds 



t A Government Agent in Ceylon is the chief official 

 in each Province, whose duties are similar to those of a 

 " Collector " inlndia. 



of the sale of these lands would go towards the re- 

 covery of the outlay upon irrigation works, whilst the 

 tithe upon their produce would form a permanent 

 addition to the annual revenue of the Colony. Having 

 in view the factB already detailed, the Committee be- 

 lieve that the repair and restoration of irrigation works, 

 and the consequent extension of .eultivation, would 

 materially improve the condition of many native com- 

 munities. No longer compelled to find unwholesome 

 substitutes for rice, the people would be able at all 

 times to command asufficient supply of nutritious food, 

 their health would become improved, their physique 

 raised, and they might be fairly expected to show an 

 amount of energy and enterprize which is impossible in 

 their present coudition. 



"The Committee are unwilling to believe that the 

 benefits of improved meaus of irrigation will be eon- 

 fined to providing daily meaus of wholesome food to 

 those who are now unable to command them ; they 

 look with confidence to the time when the irrigation 

 works of this island may, by judicious outlay, render 

 the inhabitants less dependentthan at present on foreign 

 supplies of food. The imports of rice from India 

 necessitates an annual payment for that grain of up- 

 wards of a million sterling, {u) a portion of which amount 

 might be retained in the country. It may fairly be 

 anticipated that the retention and circulation, within 

 the island, of money now paid away for imported rice, 

 would not only tend to enrich the people, but would 

 increase the general revenues of the country, by enabling 

 the local producers of rice to become large consumers 

 of other taxable articles." 



The customs of the Sinhalese and the cultivation 

 in Ceylon are of a very primitive character ; property 

 ie equally divided among ,the heirs, and it is not 

 uncommon to hear of amau po-sessing the 20th share 

 of a small paddy field, of th:.t proportion of a few 

 coconut trees. 



Paddy is always cultivated on land laid out as level 

 as possible in pieces, but, at the same time, in terraces, 

 so that the water may flow from the high pieces down 

 to those on the next level, and so on to the low st 

 portions ; in flat fields these pieces of land are large, 

 with a ri>e of a few inches in each piece, but in 

 steep fields the pieces are smaller, with a rise of from 

 one to two feet. 



When the fields are well saturated with water, buf. 

 faloes are turned in to trample them, after which 

 the land is ploughed by buffaloes, and then sown by 

 hand. 



No machinery is used in Sinhalese agriculture, the 

 seed is "cast upon the waters," paddy is reaped and 

 winnowed by hand, and tin. shed, as of old, by the 

 " ox that treadeth out the corn." 



Paddy fields are generally private property, but 

 there are also fields which belong in common to cer- 

 tain villages, where the villagers share in the yield 

 according to their labour, from the man, who owning 

 the buffaloes, receives his share for their labour, 

 down to the dkoby, who washes the clothes of the 

 villagers ! I 



The ordinary tax on paddy lands is one-tenth of 

 the jield, and the value of a bushel of paddy may 

 be taken at one rupee. The crop upon unirrigated 

 lands depends chiefly upon the weather ; in dry seasons 

 there is frequently no crop, and in wet seasons the crop 

 depends not only on the amount of rain, but on the times 

 at which it falls ; whereas with irrigation the crop is not 

 only certain, but much greater ; it may safely be taken 

 in Ceylon has always doubled and frequently trebled. 



An Ordinance of the Legislature, dated January 

 15th, 1873, gives the cultivators the option of con- 

 verting the repayment by ten annual instalments 

 into a charge in perpetuity, fixed at the rate of one rupee 



u The value of rice imported of late years has been about 

 wo millions pounds sterling. 



