Edible Products. 



24 



[January, 1910. 



was only about eight years ago that the 

 operations were begun for introducing 

 improvements in the cultivation of 

 paddy for which this farm has become 

 famous by reason of the success attained. 

 The lines upon which improvements 

 have been introduced may be briefly 

 reviewed here. First as to ploughing, 

 the ordinary wooden plough has been 

 almost superseded by an iron plough 

 made on the same principle as the local 

 wooden plough. These iron ploughs are 

 used both for ploughing dry, and in 

 puddle, and it is surprising with what 

 ease the small farm cattle seem to pull 

 them and the ploughmen (when at least 

 they have become accustomed to them) 

 prefer them to the old wooden plough, 

 because three ploughings with this iron 

 plough produce quite as good a tilth as 

 five with the wooden one. The action 

 of this improved plough is to cut the 

 soil iuto slices or furrows and turn the 

 furrows over face downwards, thus 

 burying the weeds for the sake of which 

 it is necessary tc plough so often with 

 the wooden plough. These iron ploughs 

 are made by the village blacksmith from 

 old shipsplates bought from Raja- 

 palayam in the Srivillputtur Taluk. 

 The total cost, without draught and 

 yoke poles, is about Rs, 6, and anyone 

 who wishes to purchase one may order 

 the same from the Farm Superintendent. 

 As regards manuring it is well known 

 that paddy is a crop which exhausts 

 the soil, and (if the irrigation water is 

 not heavily laden with silt) manure of 

 some kind must be put on every year if 

 good crops are to be obtained. Experi- 

 ments carried out from year to year 

 at Sivagiri show that the best and 

 cheapest manure for paddy is that 

 obtained from the dung, urine, and 

 litter of animals which has been 

 properly, whilst rotting, commonly 

 known as farmyard manure. On this 

 Home Farm all the manure which can be 

 conveniently collected both on the Farm 

 and in the village is gathered up every 

 day and put into pits and well mixed 

 up with litter and refuse and left until 

 it is sufficiently rotten. Whilst rotting, 

 it is occasionally moistened with water 

 or urine to make it rot more quickly 

 and in order to prevent its becoming too 

 heated. To protect it from the scorch- 

 ing sun, it is kept covered with a layer 

 of tank silt or soil. Because of the 

 immense quantities of cowdung used for 

 fuel and also because the farm livestock 

 of this country are so poorly fed, the 

 amount of farmyard manure available is 

 by no means sufficient to maintain the 

 fertility of the paddy lands up to an 

 average standard. It is, therefore, 

 absolutely necessary to devise cheap and 



convenient methods of obtaining other 

 kinds of manures besides farmyard 

 manure, and this branch of investigation 

 has received a great deal of attention at 

 Sivagiri and with great success. Of all 

 the supplementary manures used, the 

 most successful in producing results 

 have been leguminous plants. Kolingi 

 and sann-hemp have been used for green 

 manuring in the Home Farm. Another 

 excellent manure available in large 

 quantities at Sivagiri is " tank silt." It 

 is applied alone to saline lands on the 

 Home Farm which have been greatly 

 improved thereby. It is also mixed 

 with the farmyard manure. This silt is 

 dug up from the tank bed and thrown 

 down the outer side cf the tank bund at 

 a cost of one anna per cubic yard. The 

 most important factor in the successful 

 cultivation of wet paddy is the pos- 

 session of a sufficient supply of irriga- 

 tion water from the time of transplant- 

 ing up to the time when ripening is well 

 advanced. It has long been considered 

 by some, however, that the quantity of 

 water said to be necessary to grow a 

 crop of paddy, according to the variety 

 of the paddy and its environment, is far 

 too large. It 'was with the object of 

 trying to prove the truth of this that 

 experiments have been carried out for 

 the last 3 or 4 years at Sivagiri. The 

 results of the experiments go to show 

 that a grievous waste of water does 

 occur when paddy is irrigated according 

 to the customary method at Sivagiri. 

 Quite as good crops have been obtained 

 in many cases with 30 inches of 

 irrigation water as with 60 inches, 

 provided the former amount is used 

 judiciously. In the case of a five- months 

 crop of paddy transplanted one month 

 after sowing in nursery, it is customary 

 to keep the plots deep in water after 

 the transplanted plants have picked 

 themselves up, in order that weeds may 

 be smothered. It is well known that 

 paddy can have too much water known 

 as " neer-shavi " (waterchoked crop). If 

 the wet land was ploughed in the dry 

 season or even a month or so before the 

 time for puddling, as nursery beds are, 

 the weeds would already be killed and 

 would not require drowning with water, 

 and much of the water which runs to 

 waste at this time would be saved up in 

 the tank or canal. Even when the 

 weeds are killed, it is customary to still 

 keep the plots deep in water, and it is 

 only a short supply running from the 

 sluice gates which forces a reduced level 

 in the plots ; the result is that, if the 

 supply of water fails, paddy grown 

 under these conditions almost im- 

 mediately succumbs to drought, but it 

 is found that paddy irrigated and then 



