No. 31.— 1885.] 



RICE CULTIVATION. 



169 



secured in two villages near Hikkacluwa. These returns 

 are exceptional, it is admitted, under existing circumstances ; 

 but they are mentioned to show what can be, and is being, 

 secured in Ceylon without the stimulus of improved culti- 

 vation or regular irrigation. 



It cannot be too emphatically insisted that the primary 

 consideration in regard to paddy cultivation is a regular 

 water-supply. In its absence the best lands give but an 

 indifferent return, and where it is present the poorest lands 

 give, I believe, a remunerative crop. In the irrigated 

 districts of Matara it is now freely admitted that a crop of 

 30 bushels to the acre is regularly secured frequently twice a 

 year, and in Batticaloa there is ample evidence that the return 

 varies from 30 to 60 bushels per acre, with a most slovenly 

 and imperfect style of cultivation, in which very little is 

 done by man and a great deal by Nature. 



I see it stated in the report of the Irrigation Committee 

 of 1867 that the return in Ceylon was at one time 17J-fold, 

 according to an inscription in the Polonnaruwa tablet. 

 This, I presume, refers to lands irrigated by the tanks 

 erected by the Sinhalese Kiugs, and I have every reason to 

 believe fairly represents the return now-a-days iu the irri- 

 gated districts in the south and east of the Island. I need 

 not here refer to the evidence on which this opinion is 

 based, as I am content to rest my calculations as to rice 

 cultivation on more moderate returns. 



We will first take the case of a gross crop of 25 bushels 

 of paddy to the acre, which would be spoken of as a return 

 of 10-fold in the Sinhalese districts, and of 7-fold in 

 South Batticaloa, where the acre is considered as equal to 

 3|- bushels' sowing extent. 



Dealing first with Batticaloa, we must, from the gross 

 return, deduct the outlay in grain for seed, ploughing, &c, 

 already detailed, and the Government tithe. These first 

 charges amount to 10 bushels per acre for munmari, and 

 leave a nett outturn of 15 bushels as the return for the 38 

 days' labour bestowed by the cultivator in the sowing and 

 gathering of the munmari crop, or about 2 J- days' labour 

 for the bushel of paddy. 



This is an outside estimate of the most expensive culti- 

 vation I know of in Ceylon, and one, I believe, never 



