512 



NATURE 



\Oct II, 1877 



fortieth, and the sixtieth days after sowing, from eight to 

 ten inches of water beinjj used each time, and the water 

 is allowed to remain on the land until it has evaporated. 

 This system, though more or less modified according to the 

 climate and the supply of water, is fairly representative of 

 rice-cultivation in the lowlands of Cc)lon. Th'- official 

 estimate of the produce is about thirty bushels per acre. 

 It is probable that exactly the same s\stem existed in the 

 very earliest times, and that the Singhalese engineers 

 were able to rrgulat. the flow of water through the tank 

 sluices just as they wished. It certainly seems unreason- 

 able to suppose that the men who could design such a 

 vast irrigation system with no better means of levelling 

 than that of leading water by actual experiment from one 

 point to another, should fail in minor matters such as 

 sluice-gates. Yet the writer believes that nothmg is 

 known as to the manner in which the flow of water was 

 regulated. It is true that m some of the sluices a square 

 masonry well is found leadmg upwards from the sluice 

 soon after it has entered the emb nikment from the tank, 

 but there is nothing left to show how it was used. Captain 

 Sim, R.E., some years ago suggested that it was intended 

 to break the force of the water rushing in flood-time to- 

 wards the sluice and reduce the velocity of the water in 

 the sluice to that due to the pressure in the well only. I 

 am however inclined to think that a frame of wood some- 

 what in the shape of a box strongly braced together was 

 fitted into the well so that it could rise and fall readily 

 under the influence of the water in the tank, and that by 

 placing weights on the top the frame might be forced 

 down so as to cut off either partially or wholly the water 

 issuing through the sluice. Wherever rocky foundations 

 could be found for a dam or a leilge of rocks for a spill- 

 water, the native engineers, as if distrusting artificial 

 constructions, woifld be sure to utilise them. In some 

 cases, where it was possible to include masses of rock in 

 the embankment, the sluices themselves would be cut out 

 of the solid gneiss and the work thereby rendered as 

 indestructible as the rock itself. 



It will no doubt be somewhat surprising to persons who 

 are only acquainted with the system of rotation of crops in 

 vogue in Europe, that these rice-lands can be made to pro- 

 duce year by year for hundreds of years consecutively, one 

 or two crops of grain annually without the land becoming 

 exhausted or requiring to be continually renovated by 

 manure. The explanation, however, seems to be that 

 sufficient vegetable matter is carried down from the hills 

 partly in solution and partly in suspension in water to 

 supply all the waste produced by the continuous cropping. 

 Those who have visited the richest alluvial valleys of 

 California and Australia wdl no doubt have been struck by 

 the fact that the most fer;ile soil is always found where the 

 alluvium has been deposited in extremely fine particles and 

 in water practically at rest, conditions which obtain in the 

 paddy fields of Ceylon, and must have obtained formerly 

 on the Hunter River in New South Wales, and in the 

 valleys opening on the Bay of San Francisco. 



I cannot better conclude this paper than with an ex- 

 tract from a minute by Sir Henry Ward, after a tour of 

 inspection in 1859 : — 



" The village of Samantorre is a very fine one, and 

 stands on the borders of the richest plain in Ceylon, con- 

 taining, as it does, nearly 15,000 acres of paddy. Mr. 

 Birch and Mr. Gumming informed me that the scene of 

 joy and excitement exhibited by the whole population 

 when the water first came down Irom the Ericammam, in 

 July, 1858, and saved a magnificent crop from destruc- 

 tion by drought, was one of the most striking things ever 

 witnessed. Hundreds of people had collected at Saman- 

 torre as soon as they knew that the sluices were to be 

 opened ; and when the water was actually seen ad- 

 vancing down the bed of the dried-up river, the shouts, 

 the firing of guns, the screams of the women, the darting 

 off of messengers bearing the news in every direction, 



made a deep impression on all who saw it. They felt 

 that a great work had been done, a great benefit conferred. 

 But 1 feel also that under British rule this benefit ought 

 to have been conferred thirty years ago upon a people so 

 capable of appreciating it. Indeed, knowing what I now 

 know of the history of the Eastern Province, 1 hold that 

 what the Government is doing in 1859 is simply the pay- 

 ment of a debt incurred by our rash interference with a 

 people of whose habits and wants we knew nothing. 

 This error is now in part repaired. 44 000 acres ol land 

 arc already under paddy cultivation, and I see reason to 

 believe that the amount will be not less than 60000 

 acres in 1861, when the irrigation works have obtained 

 their full development. But this will require constant 

 attention on the part of the Government and of its local 

 representative. The maintenance of the system must 

 never be lost sight of, and should unforeseen demands for 

 assistance aiise they must be met liberally and promptly." 

 The words of so successful a governor have not been 

 forgotten. The present governor, Sir William Gregory, 

 has devoted all his energies to the carrying out of what 

 was so well begun. The survey and engineering staff of 

 the colony has been considerably increased, and the 

 restoration of nearly the whole of the ancient irrigation 

 works, besides the creation of new ones, may now be 

 considered to be only a question of time. 



R. Abbay 



NOTES 



The Times devoted a leading article last Thursday to Mr. 

 Forster's remarkable speech at Bradford, in which he attempted 

 to indicate the latest ideal of what elementary schools and univer- 

 sities ought to be. The Tinii-s" summary of the points of Mr. 

 Forster's address is very satisfactory. "Mr. Forster's notion of 

 a public elementary school is very unlike that which has been 

 commonly entertained. The school is to be for the benefit of all 

 classes. All subjects are to be taught at it, with no other limita- 

 tion than such as maybe )m[.osed by the wants or capacity of 

 the scholars. The secondary school is to supplement the teach- 

 ing of the primary school, and to do for b )ys of a more advanced 

 age the same sort of work which the primary school has done for 

 them up to the age of thirteen or fourteen. That science should 

 be introduced as a regular part of the school course is, in Mr. 

 Forster's opinion, most desirable. History and geography he 

 considers, indeed, as of even greater importance than science, 

 bu he places the claims of science above those of grammar, and 

 seemingly above those of the study of language in any form. He 

 is very hopeful that the older universities will consent to model 

 themselves on the plan he suggests, and to grant degrees for 

 science without insisting on Greek and Latin in addition to it. 

 If they will not do this, or if they are very long about it, he will 

 look to younger bodies, untrammelled with literary traditions, to 

 take their place in this matter. What Oxford and Cambridge 

 may refuse, Manchester and Leeds will make no difficulty in 

 granting, and a combined university for the North of England is 

 to be set up accordingly and invested with the necessary powers." 

 The Ti>i:es does not seem to know very well its own mind on the 

 subject referred to by Mr. Forster. It clings to the old ways, 

 and virtually confesses that the new ways are as indispensable as 

 the old, that some knowledge of science is now indispensable to 

 all. Mr. Forster declares we hive no right to erect Board 

 Schools and compel children to attend them, only to give them 

 a smattering of the three R's. The purpose of these schools — 

 which he, with many others, thinks ought to be open to all 

 classes, and afford an elementary education which would be con- 

 sidered adequate by any class — is to fit the children who attend 

 them to make a fair start in life, and in this scientific age, as 

 the Times virtually admits, no one can be said to have a fair start 

 if he be ignorant of at least some of the rtSults of science. Mr. 



