January, 1912.] 



21 



EDIBLE PRODUCTS. 



PADDY CULTIVATION IN CEYLON 

 DURING THE XIXTH CENTURY. 



By E. Elliott. 



(Continued,) 



As, however, the practical results of 

 this policy did not affect native agricul- 

 ture tor a few years, an account of the 

 further progress up to 1871, which hap- 

 pily continued, properly falls within the 

 purview of the period under consider- 

 ation, and will now be noted. 



During the interval 1862-71 the Crops 

 were as follows : — 



Minimum 4 '9 M.B.P.* off 514,000, acres. 

 Maximum 71 „ „ 522,000 „ 

 Average 6-(J „ ,, 494, 5U0 „ 



The maximum was in 1863 with a rain- 

 fall of only 43 inches, t and the minimum 

 in 1870, when, though the aggregate fall 

 was moderate (85jfenches), the N. E. 

 monsoon was exceedingly heavy. 



To avoid the error already deprecated 

 in others of drawing conclusions from 

 the figures of single years, and dividing 

 the interval 1862-71 into two quinquen- 

 nial periods, I find that the production 



Between 1862-6 averaged 5' 8 M.B.P, and 

 1867-71 „ 6-3 „ 



I regret I have not been able to obtain 

 complete figures of the Rainfall for 

 several years between 1867 and 1871, but 

 there are scattered indications that it 

 was not as favourable to cultivation as 

 during the previous or subsequent quin- 

 quennial periods. From an old copy of 

 the " AnnaJs of Indian Administration " 

 in my possession, I find that the most 

 unfavourable year in Madras was 1866-7, 

 when the price of paddy in that Presi- 

 dency rose to Rs. 242 from Rs. 158 per 

 garce (160 bushels) in 1863-4. This, of 

 course, led to very high prices in Ceylon, 

 such as Rs. 2 to 3 per bushel for paddy 

 in the Western Province, while rice was 

 so scarce and dear that, as recorded in 

 Ferguson's Table of Events, " there were 

 food riots at Colombo and emeutes in 

 Galle and Kandy." Again, " Speculum " 

 points out that in the Western Province 

 the area cultivated with paddy had 

 fallen to 116,325 acres in 1865 as against 



* M. B. P. stands for millions of bushels of 

 Paddy. 



t N.B. — When rainfall is given, it is that of the 

 Agricultural year of the twelvemonth ending 

 30th April of the year quoted for reasons already 

 stated in the Chapter on Weather. 



194,514 in 1863, and writes of 1865 and 1866 

 as "years of drought and a period qt 

 scarcity." 



On these grounds he ridicules and 

 impugns the correctness of the paddy 

 crops for those years given in the Blue 

 Book returns (of 6 - 5 and 6*8. M.B.P. res- 

 pectively). But as this writer was a 

 merchant residing in Colombo and inter- 

 ested in the management of estates 

 consuming imported rice, he evidently 

 overlooked the fact that the official 

 figures included the production of the 

 whole island, and that the climatic condi- 

 tions in parts other than around Colombo 

 were more favourable than those within 

 his personal observation. Thus I find 

 a record of a rainfall of 104 inches in 

 1865 at Peradeniya, (Kandy,) while other 

 figures disclose thau there were fair 

 crops in tne Southern Province, and that 

 Ba&ticaloa was coming to the tront with 

 increasing crops which permitted of the 

 export coastwise of 94,000 bushels (in 

 1866) to Jaffna, and which had reached 

 over a million bushels in 1869, another 

 year when the Western Province was 

 short both in acreage and production, 



Notwithstanding the advance in the 

 East and a good crop in the Central Pro- 

 vince, the real shortage occurred in the 

 year 1869, when the acreage fell to 422,000 

 and the grain crop for the whole island 

 to 5^ M. B. P. This was the minimum of 

 the second period (1867-71) under notice, 

 but it was immediately followed by the 

 record crop of 7-1. M. B. P. off 522,000 

 acres. The details of these figures dis- 

 close an instructive feature, viz,, that in 

 the Western Province (inclusive of Saba- 

 ragamuwa and Kegalle) the area cultiv- 

 ated was only a little over 117,000 acres, 

 or very nearly as low as in 1865, and the 

 crop was also deficient, especially in the 

 Colombo district. But a reference to 

 the Rainfall returns show that though 

 it aggregated only 85 inches, the S, W. 

 monsoon was light (which doubtless 

 limited sowing in the Colombo district), 

 but the N. E, was very heavy, whicn 

 damaged by Hood the growing crops in 

 the same district, but proved most 

 favourable in the other parts ot the 

 island, especially in the North- Western 

 Province, where the cultivation jumped 

 Horn 36,000 acres (in 1869) to just 90,000, 

 and the crop was P2 M. B, P. In the 

 Eastern Province there was also a record 

 cultivation of 64,000 acres and a crop of 

 lir M. B. P. 



In 1871 the rainfall was 118, and though 

 the area cultivated increased by 66,000 

 acres (making a total of 588,000), the crop 



