Junk, 1910,1 



527 



Miscellaneous. 



to be attended with great advantage." 

 In this they were mistaken. With 

 ploughs the early experience was unsatis- 

 factory. A windmill with throw pumps 

 was also tried and failed ; for in the still 

 season of the year it was almost useless. 

 A bucket pump (by Burgess and Key) 

 was, however, tried with better result, 

 and figures were published to show that 

 it lifted water at scarcely one-third the 

 cost involved in using the picotta. For 

 chaff-cutters a demand soon sprung up, 

 and one of the winnowers imported was 

 said to be much applauded. In 1866-67, a 

 steaming apparatus for preparing cattle 

 food was imported, but its later history 

 is not clear, though a story regarding it 

 is worth recording. One day one of the 

 numerous amateur authorities on agri- 

 culture who was visiting the farm, on 

 seeing it, remarked: ''Oh! I see! A 

 steam plough !" 



Until Mr. Robertson arrived, the trials 

 of implements, etc., weie not at all 

 systematic. Neither in those days nor 

 for long after was any real attempt 

 made to test indigenous implements 

 thoroughly. Soon after his arrival the 

 farm had begun to manufacture imple- 

 ments, etc., and a number of implements 

 and tools had been sold in various parts 

 of the Presidency. At the same time, a 

 special grant was made to enable the 

 Superintendent to import implements 

 and machines from abroad to meet local 

 demands. Mr. Robertson then reported 

 that " we have now facilities to experi- 

 ment with a view to determine the 

 shape and description of implements 

 best suited to the circumstances of the 

 Indian ryot, and last but not least, we 

 can prove to the Indian cultivator that 

 his local smith and carpenter can make 

 up and repair any of our most useful 

 implements." The implement to which 

 special attention was given was the 

 plough, and a form was evolved which 

 had considerable advantages, At the 

 same time, a leaning towards American 

 styles became general, and imports from 

 that country were frequent, especially 

 of chaff-cutters and maize-hullers. Of 

 these machines, as well as of a number 

 of waterlitts, including a bucket-pump 

 driven by a steam engine, trials were 

 recorded in 1870, and it was then that the 

 Double-Mhote, to which Mr. Robertson 

 became greatly devoted, was first- 

 mentioned, and the data tnen recorded 

 as to the cost of lifting water, though 

 slightly modified by him in respect of 

 the Double-Mhote, remained those of 

 reference on the subject until Mr. 

 Chatter ton's trials* of 25 years later. 



* Vide Bulletin No. 32 of the Madras Agricultural 

 Department, dated 1905-06. 



Speaking generally, it was to waterlifts 

 and especially ploughs that attention 

 was thereafter directed at Saidapeth, 

 but notwithstanding the many advant- 

 ages of ploughs of European type, they 

 have not still come into general use. In 

 later years several private firms spent 

 considerable sums in endeavours to push 

 the trade in such ploughs. There is, 

 however, one exception to this, and that 

 is the introduction from Saidapeth in 

 the late seventies, largely owing to the 

 efforts of the late Sabapathy Moodelliar, 

 of the heavy iron ploughs now so gener- 

 ally used in the Bellary and Anantapur 

 Districts for breaking up black cotton 

 soil which is infested with the grass 

 kundara nattu (Ischcemum pilosum)*. 



But it is not necessary to follow the 

 work done at Saidapeth in respect of 

 implements and machinery further, and 

 I may turn to other matters that early 

 received attention. In the first report 

 there is mention of trials of Lucerne, of 

 which the Committee was not hopeful ; 

 of guinea grass, of which it is said that 

 it "is very hardy, easily cultivated and 

 propagated, and yields frequent cut- 

 tings" — an opinion amply justified by 

 later experience ; of Chinese sugarcane, 

 with which not much success was then 

 attained ; and of English clover, with 

 which there was such success that the 

 Committee proposed to get more seed 

 and the seed of Italian rye grass also. 

 In the next year, there were trials of 

 several kinds of exotic tobacco, which 

 were said to have grown well, but of 

 which I have not been able to find any 

 further record; of "French honey- 

 suckle " and Maltese Lucerne, which 

 both apparently failed ; and of the 

 Carob bean, some trees of which I can 

 remember as still standing and bearing 

 small thin pods ten years later. The 

 year 1867-68 was notable for several 

 " unauthorised " experiments by the 

 Superintendent, amongst which were the 

 sowing of wheat and field peas and also 

 for the commencement of growing maize 

 which later became a regular crop on 

 the farm ; whilst in this year a field was 

 laid down in grass with Hariali (Cynodon 

 dactylon). During these years the chief 

 native crops grown were sorghum and 

 horse-gram (DoLichos biflorus), and with 

 these fair success was attained. In 

 1869-70 attention, so far as crops are 

 concerned, was directed to these last 

 two crops with special reference to their 



* Ploughs for the same work have only recently 

 been adopted in Dharwar. Vide Lecture by Mr. 

 H. S. Lawrence, before the Royal Suciety of Arts, 

 January 1908. Dharwar adjoins Bellary on the 

 west. 



