MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 541 



with a scanty and badly distributed rainfall and served 

 in most cases only by the north-east monsoon. 



The Cingalese villager appears to have an inherent 

 belief that the chief requirement of cultivated crops is 

 a copious supply of water. In paddy cultivation it is 

 generally admitted that he uses much more water than is 

 necessary. In favoured districts he is free to act upon 

 this belief with the facilities which a liberal rainfall, a 

 convenient spring or stream or a shallow well affords 

 him. In the drier parts he depends upon tank channels 

 for the water supply. When his lot is cast in places 

 where such facilities are absent he strictly limits his 

 cultivation to the rainy season. He has little knowledge 

 or experience of how to conserve soil-moisture by 

 means of tillage as the Tamils of Southern India and 

 Northern Ceylon do. Happily this condition of things 

 is slowly undergoing a change through the teachings 

 of the Agricultural Society's Instructors, and the 

 example set in school gardens. On the Agricultural 

 Department's new Dry Zone Experiment Station a 

 series of demonstrations in the growing of annual crops 

 on dry farming lines will form part of the programme 

 of work, and should serve as a useful object lesson. 



There is a notion prevalent that it will be possible to 

 apply the principles of dry farming to paddy, but this 

 is not to be encouraged for obvious reasons, though it 

 may be possible to grow certain races of hill-paddy, 

 which are generally raised without irrigation, by this 

 means. But there are many other crops suitable for 

 the purpose. Among cereals we. have maize, sorghum 

 and the smaller millets (Setaria, Paspalum, Panicum, 

 etc.); among legumes, species of Dolichos, Phaseolus, 

 Cajanus, Vigna. Arachis, etc.; among oil plants, Sesa- 

 mum, Guizotia, Ricinus, etc.; among fibres, Crotalaria, 

 Hibiscus, Sansevieria, etc. There are besides such 

 important products as tobacco and cotton, and a long 

 list of " curry-stuffs," e.g., chillies, coriander, cumin, 

 etc., which are imported into the island in enormous 

 quantities, all of which are suitable for dry cultivation. 



It is not unlikely that with a railway connection 

 between India and Ceylon the cultivators of the Deccan 



