Scientific Agriculture. 



462 



[November, 1908. 



maintain the fertility of their lands as 

 no oil seeds are grown except a very 

 small quantity of gingelly for domestic 

 consumption. No cake-manures are 

 available. Neither is there any pungam 

 or neem. The coconut cake is either 

 exported or used as cattle food. There 

 are no sheep and very few goats. 

 " Penning " is, therefore, out of the 

 question. Some fish manure can be 

 obtained, but this is mainly used for 

 tobacco. 



The sheet anchor of the South Canara 

 ryot is his leaf manure. As a rule, the 

 exclusive use of 100 yards of the slope 

 of the hill lying above his land is per- 

 mitted to the ryot free of all charge. A 

 wall and ditch are put round this, and 

 the jungle is strictly protected by the 

 royt. He does not, as a rule, cut the 

 green branches from the trees in this 

 land, but contents himself with sweep- 

 ing up the fallen leaves. Beyond this lieis 

 the open hill-side and the plateau on the 

 top. Outside reserved forests, anyone 

 can cut and remove green leaves and 

 twigs from trees growing in this area. 

 With the heavy rainfall and equable 

 moist, warm climate the growth of all 

 vegetation is extremely rapid, but the 

 incessant industry of the royts keeps 

 all growth down to a low coppice about 

 18" high. In the more thickly populated 

 parts, the continuous severe cutting of 

 green leaves and twigs has killed out 

 all growth. In some villages the royts 

 combine to reserve a portion of the 

 waste land in the same way as indivi- 

 duals protect the 100 yards of land im- 

 mediately adjacent to their own. No 

 green leaves are then cut, the dead leaves 

 alone being swept up. More commonly 

 the ryots of each village content them- 

 selves with keeping the jungle-growth 

 on the waste lands within the boundary 

 of their village for their exclusive use. 

 Different methods are in vogue to 

 secure this object. Sometimes it is de- 

 clared to be dedicated to some local god 

 or demon, and an annual ceremony per- 

 formed to impress the minds of out- 

 siders. The efficacy of such methods, 

 however, is not what it was. The 

 writer once asked the people of a village 

 how they managed to keep the jungle- 

 growth on the waste lands of the village 

 so good as it was. " We make a bun- 

 dobust," they said, "to prevent the 

 people of the other villages cutting it." 



" I suppose that means that, if the 

 people of other villages come to cut your 

 leaves, you collect your tenants and give 

 them a good hiding." 



The deprecating smile which followed 

 showed that this had hit the mark. 

 Throughout the year the spare time 



of the ryot and his family is fully 

 employed in cutting green leaves from 

 this unreserved land. The leaves are 

 tied into a bundle as large as can be 

 carried and taken home. The heavy 

 rainfall makes it absolutely necessary 

 to provide some shelter for his cattle, and 

 the South Canara ryot has evolved for 

 himself a simple and effective form of 

 loose-box which makes the best possible 

 use of the leaf-manure. A pit is dug to a 

 depth of about 4 feet. The other dimen- 

 sions depend on how many cattle he has. 

 A light thatched roof is built over this 

 and the sides are fenced in with railings. 

 At night the cattle are driven in from 

 the hill where they have been grazing all 

 day, and as a rule tied separately to 

 posts, grass or straw being sometimes 

 placed in front of each. The cattle are 

 kept in the shed till about 8 a.m. 

 the next morning. The floor is strewn 

 with a covering of leaves renewed every 

 day. Where leaves are scarce, the 

 paddy stubble is pulled up by hand and 

 used as litter. The pit will be full in 

 about a month. The leaf -manure which 

 has absorbed the solid and liquid excreta 

 of the cattle is then removed, and either 

 put in a heap or pit, or taken straight 

 to the field where it is to be used 

 and stacked in a corner, it* there is a 

 growing crop already on the ground. If 

 the ground is bare, it is placed in heaps 

 over the field till it can be ploughed in. 

 All the green leaves and leaf-manure 

 from the cattle sheds have to be carried 

 in head loads, the use of carts being 

 impracticable owing to the hilly nature 

 of the country. 



It will be seen at once that this system 

 utilizes to the full both the liquid and 

 solid excreta of the cattle, and produces 

 a very rich fertilizer. At the same time 

 the leaves and sticks improve the 

 physical condition of the soil. The 

 system is possible, because the wood is 

 almost always available for fuel, supple- 

 mented by the leaves of the coconut 

 and palmyra palm. One would, how- 

 ever, like to get at the impartial opinion 

 of the cattle on the subject. Their 

 sleeping place is neither clean nor sweet 

 smelling. . 



Where the labour is available, the 

 crop is always transplanted. In some 

 cases the seed is steeped in water for 

 a day or two, and then mixed with 

 well-rotted leaf-manure and ashes in 

 the proportion of one basket of seed 

 to ten of manure, and either dropped 

 in small handfuls all over the surface 

 of the puddled field or sown behin d 

 the plough, in the same way as castor, 

 etc., are usually sown in other parts. 

 The latter system can, of course, only 

 be practised when the land is ploughed 



