November, 1908,] 



463 



Scientific Agriculture. 



and sown in the dry. This is, there- 

 fore, only done for the first crop and 

 with unsteeped seed. Other manures 

 applied to the paddy fields are wood 

 ashes, which are carted to long dis- 

 tances from the large towns, and " burnt 

 ecu lb," a compost of leaves and other 

 rubbish mixed with soil and burnt. 

 Where the ryot has not sufficient cattle 

 to pass all his leaves through the pen. 

 he applies them direct to the fields 

 For this purpose green leaves are 

 preferred, Before leaving the subject 

 of leaf-manure, one more practice must 

 be described. Coconut trees which are 

 grown in gardens are usually heavily 

 manured with cattle dung, etc. The 

 trees which are scattered along the 

 bunds of the fields as a rule receive 

 only the following treatment. A deep 

 circular pit about a yard deep is dug 

 all round the trunk, and this is filled 

 with the leaves and boughs of the 

 Nux vomica tree, which is extremely 

 common here. These are then covered 

 up with soil- It is believed that this 

 not only acts as a stimulant to the 

 tree, but protects it from boring insects. 



Apart from manures, the chief means 

 by which the fertlity of wet lands is 

 maintained, is by growing leguminous 

 crops after paddy. In the case of the 

 lower-lying one-crop lands, these are 

 sown in September-October, and in 

 the case of two crops in January- 

 February, where the soil is sufficiently 

 retentive of moisture. Horse-gram (Doli- 

 choa biflorus) is usually broad-casted in 

 the standing paddy shortly before the 

 paddy is cut. For green and black 

 gram (Phaseolus mungo), the best 

 cultivators plough up the stubble, apply 

 ashes, and secure a fine tilth before 

 sowing the pulse crop. The whole plant 

 is removed when the grain is ripe, 

 but so well is the beneficial effect on 

 the soil of the leguminous rotation 

 understood, that in some places ryots 

 who cannot sow the pulse crop them- 

 selves will permit others the free use 

 of their fields for this purpose. It is 

 hoped to introduce ground-nut on the 

 sandy soils, as an alternative to these 

 pulses. Though some irrigation would 

 be necessary, it would be more profit- 

 able, and at the same time the cake 

 would afford another source of manure. 

 " Green manuring in the sense of grow- 

 ing a leguminous crop on the ground 

 to be ploughed in at the time of 

 transplantation is quite unknown here. 

 As leaf-manure becomes scarce, with 

 the destruction of the juugle, it will 

 be one of the chief problems of the 

 Agricultural Department to see if it 

 can be replaced to some extent by green- 

 manuring. — Agricultural Journal of 

 India. Vol. III. Part III., July, 1908, 



A FEW POINTS REGARDING 

 CONSERVATION OF SOIL 

 MOISTURE. 



By D. Milne, m.a., b.sc, 

 Economic Botanist, Punjab. 



In India where there are large tracts 

 of country where crops are often limited 

 in growth by the supply of wat«r avail- 

 able in the soil, any improvement in the 

 conservation of the soil moisture would 

 be a boon worth striving for. 



One has only to travel a short distance 

 at present to see, in the great expanse of 

 bare land and poor crops, the sad havoc 

 wrought by drought. 



To avoid these utter failures of crops 

 by means of careful cultural operations 

 the farmer can often do little, but there 

 are cases where the alert farmer might, 

 by skilful farming, reap a very much 

 better crop than his backward and 

 careless brother. 



Some farmers have told me that on 

 their land, at present totally barren, 

 U they cou d only have got their wheat 

 to braird, i.e., germinate and spring 

 above ground, the crop would have 

 come to something. AVhether or not 

 any good can be done in such extreme 

 cases is hard to say, but certainly there 

 are lands where a study of the conser- 

 vation of moisture might be well repaid. 



k It is not my purpose in the present 

 note to go very scientifically into the 

 above subject, but rather to point out 

 or remind the tillers of the soil, of a few 

 facts, and to quicken, if possible, the 

 interest of those whose business or 

 hobby it is to properly investigate the 

 matter. 



First, then, it is a well-known fact 

 that a soil on which plants are growing 

 loses much more water by evaporation 

 than does a bare soil. 



Some plants with a root system rami- 

 fying through a fairly large area, to 

 various depths in the soil, and possess- 

 ing also a considerable extent of leaf 

 surface for the dry winds to play over, 

 may evaporate a very large quantity 

 of water, indeed, in twenty-four hours. 



I have no Indian figures at hand, but 

 for Europe we find several. 



In Pfeffer's Physiology, Vol. I, pages 

 250 to 251, we find recorded:— " Hales 

 found that a sunflower having a total 

 area of leaf surface of about 9 sq. m, 

 (10$ sq. yards) lost 85 kilogrammes (1 

 pint) of water during a single dry day." 



