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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885, 



From the InJian reports I find that in the Godavery 

 district where agricultural services are remunerated in 

 graiu, the expenses of cultivation are very nearly the 

 same, and are given in the Revenue reports as 3J 

 pooties of grain for 1 pooty extent, equivalent to 100 

 English bushels for 8 acres or 12J bushels the acre- 

 In other parts of the Madras Presidency the rate is 

 very much the same. 



Perhaps it is as well I should explain that I have through 

 out dealt with the case of a proprietor working his own 

 land with his own capital, hiring at ready money prices 

 any additional aid he requires in men or cattle, so as 

 to avoid liability for the exorbitant rate of interest charged 

 for deferred payment, which, in Batticaloa, is never less 

 than 50 per cent. 



All the information which I have collected (though obtain- 

 ed direct from practical working agriculturists) has been 

 afforded under the impression it was sought with a 

 view of increasing their liabilities to Government. "We 

 may consequently, I think, safely conclude that the figures 

 given are very outside estimates, rarely worked up to, 

 and include charges not always incurred. For instance, 

 1 have made no deduction for the spare time on the 

 cultivator's hands between sowing and reaping, which a 

 European employer of labour would doubtless find some 

 way of turaing to account. Indeed many natives do, 

 to my own knowledge, utilize it for other purposes, 

 as already explained, as the only call on them during this 

 interval is that of watching by night, which is done altern- 

 ately or by arrangement, so as to admit of at least half 

 the men being absent at a time, and frequently by the 

 substitution of mere children. 



Again, as regards harvest operations, I found, when 

 going round, that in many instances these are done by 

 the regular field servants, sometimes aided by their female 

 relatives and children (who get no additional renumer- 

 ation), and no extra aid is called in, unless the crop is 

 really a heavy 'me and comes in with a rush ; but I have 

 allowed the full charge in all cases. 



I will now pass on to consider the quantity oj padily 

 that can he t/roini on an acre of laud. But I must 

 first point out that the yield in Oeylon is generally 

 spoken of by "fold," and ordinarily without reference to 

 the amount of seed sown, or the mode of sowing 

 adopted. In India the seed is, I believe, invariably sown 

 in small beds and the plants transferred when about 

 a month old to the prepared land, in which they are 

 to be matured. Under this system 50 to 60 lb. weight 

 of paddy, or about an English bushel by measurement 

 sufiices to sow an acre of land. 



In Oeylon (except perhaps in Jaffna on a small scale) 

 this system is not followed; the seed is sown broad- 

 cast, and in the Batticaloa district for the Munmari 

 without being previously germinated as usual in the 

 Sinhalese districts. This leads, I believe, to great waste, as 

 much as 3J bushels to the acre being, it is alleged, sown in 

 some land in Batticaloa and nowhere less than two ; while 

 in the Sinhalese districts it takes six bushels to sow 

 an amunam extent, or about 2| bushels to the acre. 

 A return therefore which might" he termed one of 30- 

 fold in India would be equivalent to one of 12 in most 

 parts of Oeylon, and in some parts to only 7i-fold. In ex- 

 amining the figures for Ceylon, therefoie, it will be well 

 for piu-poses of comparison to reduce the returns 

 secured to the number of bushels of paddy per acre. 



In Mannar, Baldteus speaks of a return of a hundred- 

 fold, and Mr. De Hoedt, late Head Olerk of the District 

 Kachcheri, and a land owner and practical cultivator, 

 assures me that in a favorable season (in the absence 

 of proper irrigation) he has ordinarily obtained a return 

 of 30-fold on a sowing of 3.V bushels or over 

 100 bushels an acre ; and that 2-5 fold or 87 bushels is 

 the usual [return, cultivating in the ordinary native way. 



In Matara before irrigation was introduced in favour- 

 able localities a return of 30-fold, or 75 bushels an 

 acre, was admittedly obtained ; and Mr. Dawson in his 

 report! as Grain Oommis^ioner speaks of a similar return 

 being secured in two villages near Hikkaduwa. The.se 

 returns are exceptional, it is admitted, under exist- 

 ing circumstances ; but they are mentioned) to show 

 what can be, and is being, secured in Ceylon without 

 the stimulus of improved cultivation or regular irrigation. 



It cannot be too emphatically insisted that the primary 

 consideration in regard to paddy cultivation is a regular 

 water supply. In its absence the best lands give but an 

 indifferent return, and where it is present the poorest 

 lands give, I believe, a renumerative crop. In the irrigated 

 districts of Matara it is now freely admitted a crop of 30 

 bushels to the acre is regularly secured frequently 

 twice a year, and in Batticaloa there is ample evidence 

 the return varies from 30 to GO bushels per acre, with a most 

 slovenly and imperfect style of cultivation, in which 

 very little is doue by man and a great deal by nature. 



I see it stated in the report of the Irrigation Com- 

 mittee of ISB7 that the return in Ceylon was at one 

 time IZg-fold according to an inscription in the Polon- 

 naruwa tablet. This, I presume, refers to lands irrigated 

 by the tanks erected by the Sinhalese Kings, and I 

 have every reason to . believe. . fairly . represents the 

 return nowadays in the irrigated districts in the South 

 and East of the Island. I need not here refer to the 

 evidence on which this opinion is based, as I am content 

 to rest my calculations as to rice cultivation on more 

 moderate returns. 



We will first take the case of a gross crop of 25 

 bushels of paddy to the acre, which would be spoken 

 of as a return of ten-fold in the Sinhalese districts and 

 of seven-fold in South Batticaloa, where the acre is 

 considered as equal to 3j bushels sowing extent. 



Dealing first with Batticaloa, we must from the eross 

 return deduct the outlay iu grain for seed, ploughing 

 &c., already detailed, and the Government tithe. These 

 first charges amount to 10 bushels per acre for 

 Munmari, aud leave a nett outturn of 13 bushels as the 

 return for the 38 days' labour bestowed by the cultiv- 

 ator iu the sowiug and gathering of the Munmari ciop, 

 or about 2J days' labour for the bushel of paddy. 



This is an outside estimate of the most expeusive 

 cultivation I know of in Oeylon, and one, I believe, 

 never touched. In Kalavelama lauds iu which a 

 quicker growing paddy is cultivated after the usual 

 deductions, the cost falls to IJ day's labor to the 

 bushel ; aud if a return of 30 bushels to the acre is 

 secured, the proportion is still further reduced to 1 day's 

 labor; while a return of 37 bushels would stcaro a bushel 

 of paddy for J of a day's labor. 



In Matara the proportion is as follows: — 



For a 25-bushels crop 1| day per bushel. 

 30 „ li 



37 „ 1^ 



As I have ah-eady stated, the expenses of cultivation 

 have erred on the side of liberality, while the return 

 has been taken at a moderate rate ; I feel consequently, 

 after a very careful consideratinn of the whole subject, 

 I am by no means overstating the case iu venturing to 

 afiirm broadly, that iu a fair land, properly irrigated, on 

 an average, a dai/^:< labuitr produces a bushel of paddy. 



As I have taken a low rate of yield, I have made no 

 special deductions for unfavourable years, attacks of in- 

 sects, &c. Flood aud drought are the two great enemies 

 of paddy cultivation. The former is not hurtful unless 

 the plants are submerged for an excessive period, fluctu- 

 ating according to age aud variety, and can be guarded 

 against by selection of land and timely sowiug. On the 

 other hand these floods do good by the fertilizing matter 

 dei^osited on the lands, and in every district I have fvund 

 the best lauds are those liable to be inundated at fre- 

 quent intervals. When irrigation is proWded, it is possible 

 to choose the proj^er time to put in the seed; the 

 cultivation is practically iudependent of the weather to 

 a great extent, and the danger of drought reduced to a 

 minimum. Caterpillars and flies (or more properly 

 speaking a description of bug) are the next most 

 important enemies of the paddy plant. Caterpillars can 

 generally be got rid of with a good supply of water, and 

 the damage by fliej? is I believe limited in extent. I 

 recently saw some fields, about which there were loud 

 complaints, and which were said to have suffered more 

 than had ever been experienced in that locality. Enquiry 

 showed the yielil had been reduced by about two-fold in 

 fields which ordinarily return 7- to 0-fold. In Madras an 

 allowance of 15 per cent on the full crop of a favorable year 

 is considered sullicient to cover all adverse coutiogeucies, 



