102 HUMUS AND THE DEFERTILIZATION 



Koomaree Of all varieties of cultivation carried on in the world, this 



is the most pernicious. It is variously known in India, 

 under the names of Koomaree, Tuckle, Ponnam, Kothkad, 

 &c., and in Burma as Toungya. 



The system on which it is practised is as follows : A tract 

 o'f virgin forest is selected, felled in November or December 

 and burnt in March or April. Paddy or millet (Eleusine Co- 

 racana) is sown when the first showers fall on the ashes of 

 the clearing the ground in some districts being scratched up 

 by a stick or small hoe. With the grain are sown the seeds 

 of cucumbers, pumpkins and Indian corn (Zea Mays). 

 When the crop has been reaped, the clearing is abandoned, 

 to be recultivated after a lapse of years, amounting from six 

 to twenty-five according to the area of forest at the disposal 

 of the aboriginal tribe who practise this method of cultiva- 

 tion. 



In Wynaad, the Coorchas, Kaders, Moopahs, Jain 

 Curumbers, Bett Curumbers, Naikas ; in Pal ghat the 

 Mulcers ; on the Anamallays the Puliars, Kaders, 

 Moodugas, &c. ; in Coimbatore the Irulars, Sholagars and 

 Kosuvas; in Kurnool, Cuddapah, &c., the Chentsuas and 

 Yenadies ; and in Burma the Karens are almost entirely 

 dependant on this system of cultivation for a living. 



The process to which the soil of a forest ' Tuckled' ia 

 subjected is this : 



The accumulated vegetable growth and humus of years 

 is burnt to ashes in February. The heavy thunder-storms 

 of April and May wash the lighter particles into streams 

 and rivers by which they are carried away to the sea and 

 lost. 



The heavy rains of the southwest monsoon complete the 

 mischief. 



At the end of from ten to fifteen years the soil is once 

 again covered with a growth of low forest nature's effort 

 to repair the mischief done. But just at this period the 

 junglewallah thinks it about time he had a second crop off 

 the same plot. So he fells and bums it once more, and 



