Edible Products. 



220 



[September, 1909. 



Last year the object aimed at was 

 tc make the demonstration farms a 

 thorough success and to gain the good- 

 will and confidence of the villagers. 

 With this end in view the department 

 supplied both bullocks and seed, and 

 care was taken to see that the agricul- 

 tural assistant did not worry the 

 visitors by requests for supplies. 



It was found necessary, however, to 

 promise the cultivators concerned that, 

 it the crop of the demonstration farms 

 proved a bumper one, they would get 

 all the produce, while if it was only a 

 medium crop, the department would re- 

 coup itself by demanding one-half of the 

 same. This condition proved most ef- 

 fective in preventing the owners of the 

 crop from allowing their cattle to graze 

 at night in the rice fields, which is a 

 common practice in Chhattisgarh, and 

 which threatened at first to interfere 

 very seriously with our work owing to 

 the injury done to the nursery beds. 



The agricultural assistant in charge 

 allowed such cultivators as expressed 

 their Avillingness to transplant small 

 areas to take spare seedlings from the 

 nursery plots of the demonstration 

 farms. Cultivators from the neighbour- 

 ing villages were encouraged to come 

 and inspect the plots transplanted by 

 the Department, and the names of those 

 who promised to transplant this year, 

 and the area to be transplanted by each 

 were recorded. Before last year's crop 

 was harvested, a rough estimate had 

 been formed of the area to be trans- 

 planted this year, and nursery beds for 

 the same were prepared during the dry 

 weather. The villages were grouped 

 into what we call demonstration cen- 

 tres, there being four or five villages in 

 each. Each centre was under the charge 

 of an agricultural assistant, and a 

 ploughman experienced in transplant- 

 ing was placed under his orders in each 

 village. In villages where the malguzar 

 complained of shortage of working cat- 

 tle, a pair of buffaloes was also sent to 

 him. It was decided to supply the seed 

 free of cost wherever necessary, for two 

 reasons :— (1) because where the cultiva- 

 tors have not been accustomed to 

 irrigate their rice, they grow early or 

 medium varieties, which do not yield so 

 well as the late variety, namely, Gurma- 

 tia, which is largely grown on the 

 Raipur farm, and which is recognized 

 as the best heavy-yielding paddy in 

 Chhattisgarh ; and (2) free seed was to 

 many an inducement to transplant, 

 more especially to those who had fared 

 badly owing to last year's scarcity. 

 The villagers as a whole share equally 

 in the work of ploughing and sowing 



the nursery plots, and each transplants 

 his own fields with the seedlings taken 

 from the nursery plots. The nursery 

 plots are thus common property. This 

 co-operation is carried still further when 

 the seedlings are ready for transplant- 

 ing, and it is no uncommon sight to see 

 almost all the village ploughs at work in 

 one field. In the case of the work being 

 unnecssarily delayed, the malguzar is 

 always appealed to by the agricultural 

 assistants in charge. In villages where 

 the malguzar and tenants were well-to- 

 do, they supplied their own seed. Of 

 the area to be transplanted, the depart- 

 ment has supplied seed for 550 acres ; 

 while the cultivators are using their 

 own seed lor nearly 1,000 acres. 



The one great difficulty experienced 

 in carrying through this rather ambi- 

 tious scheme of work has been that of 

 supplying competent agricultural assis- 

 tants to put in charge. Owing to the 

 paucity of assistants, it was found im- 

 possible to comply this year with all 

 the demands made for assistance in in- 

 troducing this new method. In the 

 absence of trained men, the department 

 has adopted a plan which promises to 

 be successful in practice. Ploughmen 

 experienced in transplanting have been 

 obtained from districts that are more 

 advanced in rice cultivation. These 

 have been sent out together with a few 

 Chamar ploughmen from the Raipur 

 Farm, some being attached to demon- 

 stration centres where they work under 

 the agricultural assistant in charge, 

 while others are employed in villages 

 where they work under the direction of 

 the malguzar, or other respectable culti- 

 vator at whose request they have been 

 sent- With the assistance of such men 

 the malguzars of certain villages are 

 transplanting from 20 to 40 acres this 

 year, and some of them are retaining the 

 services of the ploughmen at their own 

 cost. With very few exceptions these 

 malguzars are members of the District 

 Agricultural Associations, In mauy 

 cases these ploughmen have proved more 

 reliable than some of the agricultural 

 assistants who have been put in charge 

 of this work. They are at least prac- 

 tical agriculturists and belong to the 

 best farming centres, Avhieh is not true 

 of many of our assistants. As plough- 

 men they have been accustomed to hard 

 work under the rather uncongenial con- 

 ditions which characterise village life in 

 a paddy tract, and readily adapt them- 

 selves to similar conditions when trans- 

 ferred to another district. Not so the 

 Brahmin who, accustomed to the com- 

 forts of town life and the society of his 

 own caste-fellows, finds life in a humble 

 Chamar village almost unbearable, and 



