Miscellaneous. 



580 



[June 1908. 



tobacco. Some of the ryots, however, 

 usually retain half the area of their tobacco 

 land for tobacco solely, planting the balance 

 with a first crop of kambu or other 

 grain. In some cases where tobacco fol- 

 lowed Sorghum, the growth was less satis- 

 factory than when it followed kambu and 

 the parasite Phelipcea indica (malle or 

 b6du) was found to be more prevalent and 

 the quality of the leaf lower. 



Ploughing does not commence till Septem- 

 ber and is continued through the rains. It 

 is done seven or eight times and the land 

 brought into fine tilth to a depth of 4 — 5 

 inches, If the weather is favourable ; but in 

 some cases the land is ploughed too wet with 

 the result that clods are formed, which 

 might be avoided by a little less haste. No 

 other implement than the native plough is 

 used for cultivation ; and levelling and ridg- 

 ing is done with the man-vetti. 



Soon after the grain crop is cut, cattle, 

 goats and sheep are penned on the land 

 every night for a month or six weeks. 

 Though the land is manured heavily in this 

 way, the droppings of these animals are ex- 

 posed to sun and rain, till a considerable 

 area has been manured, and they are then 

 ploughed into the soil. The risk of loss from 

 this exposure might be largely avoided, if 

 the folds were made in long rectangular in- 

 stead of square pens, and if the manured por- 

 tions were ploughed up sooner. Some of the 

 richer ryots collect their cow-dung and place 

 it in heaps on the field; others use this 

 manure for fuel. Village refuse or sweepings 

 and ashes, and in some cases, the stems of 

 the previous tobacco crop are also used as 

 manure. 



The seed-beds are merely parts of the field 

 with little banks raised round the sides to 

 retain the water. No attention is given to 

 their situation as long as they are close to 

 the well. Exposure to hot sun, wind, and 

 driving rain, is not thought of. The beds 

 are usually about 5' x 5' square. The surface 

 of the bed having been worked up to a fine 

 state with the hands, the seed is scattered 

 broadcast without ashes or any other mix- 

 ture. Very little manure is used for the 

 beds, as it attracts grubs and other insects. 

 After sowing, the beds are worked back- 

 wards and forwards with the fingers to cover 

 in the seed. The beds are then watered 

 from a channel connected with the well, 

 being literally flooded to a depth of half an 

 inch or more. This necessarily cakes the 

 surface, and but a limited number of seeds 

 germinate in irregular patches ; the portion 

 opposite the inlet for water being washed 

 nearly bare, and any low-lying portions so 

 much flooded that nothing grows there. Ger- 

 mination takes place in seven or eight days, 

 but many plants grow very slowly, so that 

 the general effect is most irregular. The 

 beds are never covered or sheltered, and as 



they are watered in the early morning, the 

 hot sun by caking the soil retards the growth 

 of the seedlings and causes many to wither 

 away ; results which are invariably put down 

 to the wind, etc. The seedlings also natur- 

 ally get much damaged by being trampled 

 down whilst being weeded or extracted for 

 transplanting. 



About six to seven weeks after germin- 

 ation the seedlings begin to show three leaves, 

 but it is not till the leaves are three or four 

 inches long that they are taken out for teans- 

 planting. When the plants are ready for 

 transplanting, the beds are flooded in the 

 morning and the plants pvdled out. The 

 seedlings are kept in a house in a well-covered 

 basket and transplanted in the evening. In 

 pulling up the seedlings many of the smaller 

 plants are dragged out and destroyed.* 



Previous to transplanting, the land is 

 ploughed up, and ridges and furrows are 

 made two feet apart with the man-vetti. 

 Before planting the channels are flooded, 

 and the seedlings set out one foot apart on 

 the sides of the ridges in much the same way 

 <is paddy is planted. The soil is often so 

 sloppy that the plants fail to take root, and 

 in consequence, wither away and die. The 

 ryots are aware of the necessity for the 

 seedlings being firmly planted, but owing to 

 defective supervision their servants scamp 

 the work, f 



For three days after planting, the seedlings 

 are at first watered every morning, though 

 in some cases only on alternate days. When 

 they have taken root, water, if it is desired 

 to extend the area planted, may be withheld 



* A modification of existing practice in respect of 

 the seed-beds may be suggested. The beds should 

 be just so wide that a man can reach the middle of 

 them from the side ; and the extreme width should 

 therefore be about four feet, though two or three 

 feet is preferable, and a bed 12' x 3' should produce 

 enough plants for an acre. These beds should be 

 raised higher than the water-channels which may 

 be made all round them so as to avoid, as far as 

 possible, watering on the surface, and watering by 

 direct flow should be avoided. In preparing it, the 

 bed should be deeply dug o\er and may be manured 

 with ashes and thoroughly rotten manure. The 

 surface should then ce raked fine, and the seed 

 scattered evenly over it, having been mixed with 

 ashes or sand to facilitate this. After sowing, the 

 surface should be lightly pressed or lightly covered 

 wiih clean ashes, and watered very lightly- by 

 preference with a can and rose— tlie whole mass of 

 soil being moistened by flooding t he side channels. 



f The planting is much too close, as the plants 

 grow and cover the ground so completely that the 

 labourers cannot move freely through the crop for 

 suckering and removing grubs, or to hoe the land, 

 and earth up the plants properly. As the leaves 

 become interlaced, they also damage each other 

 when there is any wind. Probably it would be 

 much better if the rows where three feet apart, and 

 the plants possibly 18 inches apart in the lines. 



