iii 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, i88^. 



ormer periods was seventeeu-and-a-half-fold, according to 

 the Inscription on the Polonuaruwa Tablet, quoted in a 

 preceding page, where the tenth is stated to be one amunam 

 and tliree peias. According to the information thus col- 

 lected it would appear that the yield per acre instead of 

 being as usually supposed thirty bushels, is not more than 

 half that quantity. 



The evidence on which this report was based was 

 of the moat varied and even contradictory character, 

 and here Mr. IJania Nathan read several extracts showing 

 how native cultivators gave such returns as 24, 3lj and 

 9 bushels as the crop of paddy per acre. His own opinion 

 on the subject was that the average yield tor the 

 island was between 20 and 25 bushels, and that 

 2 rather than 2J bushels per acre was the proper 

 sowing allowance, making the return, in his 

 opinion, oue of 10- to 124-fold. Aa regards 

 the C03t of production, he thought Mr. Elliott had 

 left out certain charges, such as the wear and tear of 

 implements and tools which he would put at R2 an acre, 

 and interest R3, bringing the total up to E18 per 

 acre against a return of 20 to 25 bushels of paddy 

 valued at Rl each, leaving a margin of from R2 to 

 R7 per acre. This he would compare with the return 

 from coconuts which was, at least, R37i per acre, 

 or from cinnamon even— or, perhaps, tea. (Applause.) 

 Mr. J. Fekgitson said that all who had studied 

 this question were accustomed to take their start from 

 the Keport of Sir Hercules Robinson's Commission 

 already quoted, in which, after making enquiries and 

 receiving evidence from all parts of the island, it 

 was stated that the average yield of paddy in Ceylon 

 was nearer 15 than 20 bushels per acre, the range be- 

 ing 4- to 8 fold against 20- to 50-fold for other 

 favourite Eastern rice-growing regions. Mr. Elliott 

 had undoubtedly brought together much valuable in- 

 formation respecting the yield and cost of rice in 

 India, but he could not help thinking that as re- 

 gards the rich alluvial lands of the ijangetio valley 

 anil of Burma especially, the returns were under-rated. ) 

 He had seen an official statement that the average for the 

 ricefields of Burma was 40-fold, which would m>an 

 40 bushels per acre according to their way of sowing, | 

 and Mr. Hallett, the co-traveller of Mr. Colquhoun, 

 had stated in i-espect of the Shan country, north- 

 east of Burma, that the people told him in one 

 large district that they got back 250 times what they ' 

 put in of paddy. The latest Administration Report on 

 Biitlsh Burma stated that there were 4 million acres 

 under paddy, and that 100,000 acres were added to 

 the cultivation yearly, the annual exports of rice hav- 

 ing risen to a value of £6,000,000 sterling. The estim- 

 ate for all India was UO million acres under rice. 

 Looking at the matter broadly, therefore, he 

 did not think anyone could say that Ceylon 

 could be put in comparison aa a rice.grow. 

 ing country with Burma or Bengal. But Mr. 

 Elliott had confined his paper to certain favoured 

 districts, and he (Mr. F.) did not think anyone had 

 ever disputfd the advantage of irrigation works and 

 rice cultivation in Matara and Batticaloa. At the 

 Royal Colonial Institute he had carefully guarded him- 

 self by saying that where the land was suitable for 

 rice-growing in Ceylon, and irrigation could be pro- 

 fitably .applied for a resident population ready to take 

 advantage of it, the unofficial public had uniformly 

 supported the Government in such expenditure. He 

 had then the Matara and Batticaloa diatiiuts specially 

 in view. Further he could add to Mr. Elliott's 

 instances of very heavy ciops in exceptional cases in 

 Ceylon, from the authority of the intelligent Kachcheri 

 Mudaliyar of the North-Western Province (Mr. S. 

 Jayetileke), who had told him that on the banks of 

 the Maha and Deduru eyas after Hoods with favourable 

 weather, there are lields which give a return of 100 

 bushels per iiore, and others 40 and 50 bushels. Bat 

 such oases were entirely cxceptioual, and although ho 



believed Mr. Elliott's paper to be a generally correct 

 and most valuable account of grain cultivation in 

 the Matara and Batticaloa districts, yet it was very 

 difficult to reconcile it in some parts with other official 

 statements. For instance, it was his (the speaker's) 

 duty — a painful one rather — to study very closely 

 year by year the Government Bluebooks and Adminis- 

 tration Reports. Now while in the case of Matara 

 the grain statistics showed good progress and the 

 rate of yield was very steady at an average of 

 16 to 17 bushels per acre; in the favourite Batticaloa 

 district the case was very ditferent. The maximum 

 of over a million bushels of crop was reached 

 in 1870 with an average yield of 24 bushels per acre, 

 that rate had gon« down in 1S77 to 17 bushels ; in 

 1883 to 12 ; and last year the Bluebook figures posit- 

 ively only showed a return of 6 bushels per acre. (A 

 laugh.) So again with the total production of the island : 

 our maximum seemed to have been reached In 1880, 

 since then there had been a heavy falling-off in the 

 local crops. Now they all knew the disrepute at- 

 taching to Bluebook returns so far as Agriculture was 

 concerned, but if there was one district more than 

 another from which they ought to have correct re- 

 ports, it was surely Batticaloa with its steady in- 

 dustry and supervised irrigation. However, passing 

 over that and taking Mr. Elliott's own average of a 

 return of 25 bushels per acre, produced at a cost of 37i 

 cents per bushel, leaving a profit of 75 cents, or(leavingout 

 carriage) let them say 50 cents per bushel, what was 

 the nelt result? Only RI2'50 per acre ; while as Mr. 

 Rama Nathan had mentioned coconut (or he might 

 add areca-palm) cultivation gave the natives a nett re- 

 turn not under K37i P^"" acre. Again, Mr. Elliott had 

 almost provoked a comparison with tea, which he (the 

 speaker) thought the Government ought to encourage 

 the Sinhalese villagers to cultivate around their huts 

 and in their gurdens after the fashion of the Chinese. 

 A bushel of paddy, according to Mr. Elliott, and a 

 lb. of lei could be produced for nearly the same cost 

 in CVyldU — the one being worth 75 to lOJ cents, the 

 other nay 50 to 60 cents on the .'<pot. But then even with 

 native cultivation and management, the cropping of 

 tea might safely be taken at 300 lb. an acre and with 

 a pr. fit of 20 cents a lb. that would be equal to R60 

 per acre a-ainst the R12-50 for rice, so leav- 

 ing a wide margin in favour of tea. Confin- 

 ing attention, however, to the old products 

 and looking at the country as a whole, in what 

 direction did the people display most enterprise ? In 

 Burma, without, be believed, any special stimulus 

 from Government or irrigation works, there were 

 about 100.000 acres added yearly to tlie rice-cultiv- 

 ated area. In Ceylon, 20 to 30 years ago, to tako 

 one instance, there was probably not a single coconut 

 pitch bft.ieju Negombo along the Mahaoya towards 

 Polgahawela — now it was almost a continuous expanse 

 of that palm and there were unbroken fields of as 

 many as 5,000 acres. He was not aware that the Ceylon 

 Government had done anything to stimulate this in- 

 dustry, by even a single report on the subj ct, save that 

 the land was surveyed and put. up for sale ; but look at 

 the result. Our exports now of coconut oil are 

 between 4 and 5 times what they were 30 years ago ; 

 of coir stufl's we send 3 times aa much away ; copperah 

 4 times ; nuts, poonao, &.c., in proportion — and all this 

 from what may be said to be a purely native industry. 

 (Hear, hear.) Here then, at least for the Western and 

 South-western districts, wo have the most profitable in- 

 vestment for native enterpri-e. But he would not for a 

 moment iiUege that there were not other di-^lricts, and 

 notably Matara and B.itticaloa, where rice is best fitted 

 for native occupation and where the Cioverunient might 

 well do all they o.in to extend its culture, seeing the 

 margin of profit is wide enough to satisfy the cultivator 

 after paying for his rent and water supply. Oue thing 



