118 



[August, 19i2. 



1489 and serving 44,000 acres (as against 

 coction of Tasoo (Butea Jrondosa) flowers 

 with the addition of a little lime. Both 

 are found commonly in the jungles here. 

 Other colours are used but they are 

 aniline dyes. The weavers say that the 

 vegetable colours do not decrease the 

 strength of the fibre and the dyes are 

 fast. The Tussore silk cocoons, which 

 are small in size and poor in quality, are 

 reared by the Kolees on Chininghee 

 (Lagerstrcemia parviflora) and Muddhee 

 (Ficus racemosa) trees which grow in 

 large numbers in adjoining hills. 



Ahmed Mirza, m.d. B,Sc. 



PADDY CULTIVATION. 



By E. Elliott. 

 THE NORTH-CENTRAL PROVINCE. 



Nlwera Kalawiya. 



In Nuwera Kalawiya the principal 

 division, the extent of land included 

 in Tumour's commutation in 1831-2, 

 was 517b" amunams, and he anti- 

 cipated half would be cultivated in each 

 year and yield a crop of 140,000 bushels 

 the Government share of which would 

 yield £368 with paddy at 5d. per parah 

 (=6'66d per bus.) The usual amount of 

 seed sown per acre in this district is 

 reported (S.P. VI. of 1908) to be 2\ to 

 2| bus. so that the above number of 

 amunams is equivalent to about 12,000 

 acres ; and there must have been a con- 

 siderable proportion of this regularly 

 cultivated in the thirties, for though 

 provision was made for exemption in 

 case of failure, the commutation collec- 

 tion was in excess of Tumour's estimate. 



In 1866, the Irrigation Committee was 

 informed that the crop in Nuwera 

 Kelawiya varied from 3000 bus. to 68,000 

 bus. but that the total area of paddy 

 land was 173,683 bus. sowing extent, say 

 70,000 acres. This of course included a 

 very large amount of long abandoned 

 land, and the extent actually cultivated 

 in the sixties was approximately between 



4000 and 45,000 acres and the production 

 90,100,000 bushels, which had increased 

 to 7,000 and 17,600 by 1872-6. 



In Tamankaduwa 

 the average crop 1830-3 was estimated 

 at 8000 bushels, and in the sixties it had 

 risen to 23,000 bushels and continued at 

 about this figure till 1890, 



THE FOREGOING ESTIMATES FOR 

 BOTH DISTRICTS 



are based on sums received for the 

 Government share ; for though the 

 Province was constituted in 1871, the 

 usual agricultural estimates were not 

 published in the Blue Book till 1876, when 

 the area sown for the entire Province 

 was reported to have been 23,000 acres 

 and the crop 257,000 bushels, the climatic 

 conditions having been favourable (rain- 

 tall 92, S. W. V.H. and N.E. G.) The next 

 ten years were occupied in the work of 

 restoration, and production rose to an 

 average of 470,000 bushels in 1888-92, the 

 last crops liable to tax. This period in- 

 cluded two very large cultivations in 1891 

 and 1892 reported to average 40,000 acres, 

 producing over a million bushels of 

 paddy. Of the correctness of these figures 

 there seems no doubt as Mr. levers 

 states they are the headmen's estimates 

 which he was inclined to think rather 

 low, and explains that this superabun- 

 dance was due to exceedingly favourable 

 climate conditions and the additional 

 capacity for storage of the rainfall by 

 the extensive restoration of tanks, great 

 and small. There was another record 

 crop in 1899, of 1'2 million bushels of 

 paddy off 25,000 acres, raising the aver- 

 age of the period (1898-1902) to 628,000 

 bus.; while for 1903-7,the average is 39,000 

 acres and 670,000 bus. though the rainfall 

 has been limited and adversely affected 

 cultivation in other parts. 



Irrigation Storage. 

 In this connection it is important to 

 emphasize that none of the streams in 

 the Province rise in the wet zone of the 

 island and that consequently these very 

 favourable results have been attained 

 by providing for the effective storage of 

 a limited rainfall averaging only 54 

 inches, especially by the restoration of 

 the old village tanks, reported to number 



