No. 31.— 1885.] 



RICE CULTIVATION. 



163 



deduced from experiments on a limited scale, the tendency 

 is to exaggerated results. 



Nor must it be overlooked that there is in India a system 

 of cultivation which is decidedly superior in many respects 

 to that followed in this Island ; and I have been also assured 

 that in the Madras Presidency much more manuring is 

 done than in Ceylon, though there is still room for improve- 

 ment in this respect. 



Turning to Ceylon, the first matter to be dealt with is 

 the cost of cultivation ; and on this point I am able to give 

 very full information, the result of personal inquiry iu 

 the Matara and Batticaloa Districts. As the details of 

 cultivation differ in many respects in these Districts, 

 it is necessary to give a short outline of the practice in 

 each. 



In Matara, one or more cultivators jointly undertake the 

 tillage of a field. One at least of these men has generally 

 a proprietary interest in the land. There is no hiring of 

 coolies or money payments for any additional requirements. 

 The work is done on the co-operative or bee system, neigh- 

 bours mutually assisting each other without any special 

 remuneration beyond a good meal provided by the indi- 

 vidual whose land is being tilled. 



The cultivation of paddy has been so extended in the 

 Matara District, and the available land is so incessantly 

 under crop (two harvests being almost invariably taken from 

 the same land in the irrigated villages), that there is little 

 or no grazing ground left for cattle, and the buffaloes 

 especially have to be driven long distances* — some beyond 

 Tangalla, 15 miles away — for pasturage. 



In consequence of this difficulty and the abundant supply 

 of manual labour, cattle are very little used, and the fields are 

 almost entirely tilled with the mamotie. The soil is dug up 

 and turned three times and then sown, and this occupies a 

 man about 40 days for an area of an amunam, or 2J- 

 acres. 



As the cattle are folded or driven away, there is no 



* In Matara District in 1882 the number of buffaloes was only 

 10,162, and in the chief irrigated l J attu, the Gaogaboda, only 1,800, or 

 one to every 8 acres, In Batticaloa the number was 36,630 in 1882, 

 or about 1 to every 2 acres cultivated with paddy. 



