114 



[February, 1909. 



necessary for each farm:— 



One "forest devil" or stump extractor, 

 three ploughs for high land, three 

 ploughs for paddy land, two sets of 

 harrows, one roller, six hay forks, one 

 paddy-field leveller, one hay knife, 

 one paddy-threshing machine, six long- 

 handled shovels, three scythes, two 

 double ^ bullock carts, one "planet 

 junior " single cultivator and three pairs 

 heavy draft bulls. 



THE QUESTION OP PADDY CULTIVATION 



— how to grow more paddy than is now 

 done — should be brought home to the 

 villager. It is a question that appeals to 

 most people when the greatly increased 

 cost of rice has to be considered. It is 

 a question that the planters would like 

 to see solved, as it touches them sorely 

 when they have to retail rice to coolies at 

 less than cost. In fact, it is a national 

 question and worthy of the attention 

 of Government. We have the land, and 

 it only requires proper cultivation to 

 bring about the necessary results. The 

 Government is yearly spending large 

 sums of money on irrigation works. Of 

 what use are irrigation schemes if the 

 greatest question of all— that of teaching 

 the people to make the laud productive — 

 is left untouched? The paddy land of 

 the farm should be entirely fenced in 

 and judiciously subdivided so as to en- 

 able cattle to be run on the stubble 

 without interfering with other cultivat- 

 ed portions. The plough must be light, 

 but able to turn soil to at least a depth 

 of four inches. It must have two handles 

 and one pole. It is absolutely impos- 

 sible to do good work, i.e., cutting and 

 turning over every inch of the soil with 

 straight furrows at an even depth with 

 even the English-made ploughs sold in 

 Colombo with one handle and a pole, 

 as the pole makes the plough far too 

 sensitive to every movement by the 

 cattle, and with one handle it is im- 

 possible to steer it. The ploughs should 

 have the usual beam as used for horses, 

 to which should be hooked on a chain 

 to take the place of the pole, and to the 

 end of the chain the yoke. In these 

 matters I am not theorising but speak 

 from personal experience. The ordi- 

 nary native plough is, of course, out 

 of question as it does not plough but 

 scratches the surface. The first process 

 of preparing land for paddy is to repair 

 the bunds and clean out the channels, 

 for which work I would introduce the 

 long-handled shovel mentioned in my list 

 of implements to take the place of the 

 Ceylon mamotie. The shovel does the 

 work sooner and better, and is a far 

 handier tool to use. The fields should 

 then be inundated and the water allow- 

 ed to stand a sufficient length of time 



to kill the weeds. After this the water 

 should be turned into other fields, and 

 when the land is sufficiently dry, plough- 

 ing should commence. The ploughman 

 should turn up the soil to a depth of 

 about four inches. If necessary it might 

 be cross ploughed. The land should next 

 be levelled and the seeds sown. I am 

 not a believer in the transplanting 

 process, advocated by many, but it is 

 entirely a question of " will it pay ? " 

 If it does, certainly do so. But I believe, 

 if the two-handed system of sowing is 

 adopted, as is done in sowing-' wheat in 

 other countries, transplanting will not 

 be necessary. This and other matters 

 the experimental farms should very 

 soon solve beyond question. Once the 

 seed is sown and until harvest time 

 judicious irrigation where possible is 

 about all that is necessary. In the 

 matter of harvesting scythes can be 

 very well used. A man can do four 

 times as much work with a scythe as 

 can be done by the small sickle now 

 used, except on land where water is 

 lying and it would not be judicious to 

 wet the heads. The introduction of 

 hay forks, and a threshing machine 

 will, with the greatest deal of economy, 

 and in the shortest time, have the paddy 

 in bags ready for market. It is out of 

 the question for every man who culti- 

 vates paddy to own a threshing 

 machine. But, as is done in other coun- 

 tries, once these machines are found 

 to pay, travelling machines will do the 

 work at a small charge. There are other 

 matters which will have to be attended 

 to as they turn up— judicious manuring, 

 bare fallowing, and, if possible, the 

 growing of other crops, forage, etc. 



DRY GRAIN CULTIVATION. 



For this and other work to be detailed 

 later, one hundred acres should be felled 

 and burnt off after securing sufficient 

 timber for building and fencing purposes. 

 The land should be fenced and sub- 

 divided into paddocks of twenty acres. 

 All the stumps should be extracted. 

 This is a most difficult and expensive 

 operation. It can, however, be done 

 cheaply and expeditiously and quicker 

 with the "forest devil" mentioned in my 

 list of implements. The subdivision of 

 land is necessary for running cattle on 

 the stubble or feeding off green fallow 

 crops, etc. The villager usually cultivates 

 some dry grain on chena lands. The land 

 is lightly hoed and the seed scattered. 

 The result naturally is very poor. He 

 also has a belief that the land can only 

 be cultivated for about three seasons, 

 after which he allows it to grow back 

 into jungle, What he has to be taught 

 is that dry grain can be grown, and 

 grown with excellent results on the same 



