No. 31. — 1885.] RICE CULTIVATION. 



161 



observation of the effects of irrigation, where that has been 

 provided on a satisfactory basis. 



Since the question has been so prominently revived, I 

 have taken considerable trouble to further investigate the 

 subject ; and I have been able to collect a very large and 

 varied mass of data as to the yield of paddy, as well as to 

 the actual outlay necessary to bring a crop to maturity, 

 in the irrigated lands of the Matara and Batticaloa 

 Districts. 



The results proved so far more favourable to Ceylon than 

 I had ventured to anticipate, that when invited by the 

 Committee of this Society to contribute a Paper, I readily 

 accepted the opportunity for making my researches public, 

 in the hope of being able to remove doubts which might 

 exist as to the possibility of growing paddy in Ceylon at a 

 cheaper rate than it can be imported from India. 



In discussing this question, it is convenient first to review 

 shortly the information available, especially as regards the 

 superior fertility of rice land in India. I have been unable 

 to meet with any reliable returns of the yield of grain in 

 North India, but I recently saw it stated in the newspapers 

 that the average crop in Burmah was 42 bushels per acre, 

 and that 1,500 pounds weight of paddy had been harvested 

 from an acre of land in Bengal. The latter is equal to 30 

 English bushels by measurement, or a return of 12-fold 

 according to the ordinary Ceylon rate of sowing. Much 

 reliance cannot be placed on such casual notices as indi- 

 cating the regular returns from an extended area; "but 

 fortunately I have had access to the transactions of the 

 Eevenue Settlement of parts of the Madras Presidency, in 

 which very elaborate statistics are given of the yield of 

 various soils in the irrigated and rich districts, served by the 

 works on the Godavery and Cavery rivers. 



In these publications I find it recorded that in the 

 Godavery delta, soil of good quality will produce, under 

 irrigation, about two pooties of 800 seers of paddy per acre, 

 and the next sort about one and a-half pooty. For the 

 inferior soil about one pooty per acre may be assumed. As 

 the pooty of paddy weighs 1,200 to 1,400 pounds, this yield is 

 equivalent to 50, 40, and 26 bushels per acre. 



In South Arcot, in the doab of the Coleroon and Vellar, 



