liKAVBS FOB MANURE. 163 



much the more difficult to suppress, although it is utterly indefen- 

 sible and is always followed by the gravest consequences. 



The only system of using tree-loppings for manure, of which any 

 serious defence has ever been attempted, is that called 7'ab in the 

 Konkan districts of Bombay and beta on the Malabar coast and in 

 Mysore. It prevails especially in districts where the wet cultiva- 

 tion of rice is practised and the seedlings are transplanted from a 

 nursery, and consists in preparing the seed-beds by burning layers 

 of cowdung or brushwood with subordinate layers of leaves, grass, 

 rice straw, and earth, in other words, in using a kind of surkhi ash 

 for manuring the seed-beds. For this system it is contended that 

 it is the only one which gives good and certain results in the 

 peculiar circumstances in which those districts are placed. These 

 circumstances are (1) the absence of heavy showers before June, 

 when it is necessary to raise the seedlings if they are to be really 

 strong at the time of transplanting ; (2) the very heavy early 

 rainfall ; (3) the heavy continuousness of the early rains ; (4) the 

 early closure of the rains ; (5) the absence of rain from the North- 

 East Monsoon ; and (6) the absence of facilities for water-storage. 

 Owing, it is said, to these peculiar conditions, seed cannot be sown 

 until the rains have set in, and the seedlings have to be forced, so 

 as to enable the crop to mature within the short period during 

 which the rain continues. Professor Wallace of Edinburgh has . 

 lent his powerful name in support of this system, but by merely 

 re-echoing the opinions he heard in Bombay. There is really no 

 reason why the rice cannot be forced by other means. A very 

 simple expedient, which would help very much to shorten the time 

 the crop would require to be on the ground, would be to force 

 germination before the seed was sown. 



In Southern India sugarcane fields are also often rahbed on 

 account of the large quantity of manure required by this class of 

 crop. A system of rab was once largely practised in parts of Cen- 

 tral Europe and supported by arguments just as specious as those 

 now employed in India ; but these arguments could not stand 

 before the march of science, and what was once considered a neces- 

 sity has now received unqualified condemnation on every side. 



Even if we assume, for the sake of argument, that the burning 

 of leaves on the surface of seed-beds is necessary, it is impossible 

 to understand why dead fallen leaves should not fully serve the 

 purpose. Whether we burn the leaves taken off green or collected 

 only after they have been shed naturally, the ash constituents left 

 behind, after the burning, are practically the same. But, on the 

 other hand, for the forest itself, the removal of green leaves means 



