Junk, 1909.] 



529 



Edible Products, 



cannot separate them easily into single 

 seedlings. The average seed rate in the 

 home-farm last year was sixteen Madras 

 measures per acre or about 40 lb- of seed, 

 and it is hoped that it will be possible to 

 still further reduce this quantity to about 

 eight Madras measures per acre when 

 the coolies become more expert. This 

 characteristic of throwing out new shoots 

 is called "tillering." Most varieties 

 of paddy in the south have parti- 

 ally lost their powers of tillering, 

 but it has been observed that these 

 varieties, if they are planted.singly year 

 after year, gradually regain the power 

 to tiller. 



Seed-selection. — Seed is specially select- 

 ed every year from the local varieties 

 of paddy which prove most profitable 

 and also from the introduced varieties. 

 This is used as home-farm seed the 

 following year. Some selected seed is 

 also available for sale to ryots. If a 

 large quantity of selected seed of any 

 particular variety is required, an order 

 should be sent to the Fram Superinten- 

 dent early, e.g., if it is pishanum paddy, 

 order not later than Jauuary. If it is 

 kar crop, not later than June. The selec- 

 tion is done by picking out the best ears 

 in the field immediatly after the crop is 

 cut. These are bundled and thrashed 

 separately and the seed is carefully dried 

 in the sun and stored in large earthen- 

 ware pots. Special attention is paid to 

 picking out ears which are quite true to 

 the variety and quite free from disease. 

 Care is also taken that all the grains in 

 the ear are fully ripe. An earis rejected 

 if many of the grains have already been 

 shed from it, and also if the glume or 

 outer skin of the grain is empty. Seed 

 is not usually selected from kind, unless 

 it is a variety of paddy which is specially 

 suited for water-logged soils like Kula- 

 valai paddy. On the other hand, ears 

 are picked from a crop growing on a 

 plot which has been subjected to drought, 

 even though the ears are not quite so 

 large and good as ears of the same 

 variety growing on a plot which has 

 not been subjected to drought. One of 

 the chief points to be considered in the 

 selection of most varieties of paddy seed 

 is to try and increase the drought-resist- 

 ing power of the variety, even though 

 the yielding power is slighty decreased. 



Dry Cultivation of Paddy Lands.— 

 Except on very sandy soils the dry culti- 

 vation of wet lands has been found to 

 have a very good effect. If ploughmen 

 and bullocks can be spared from the 

 work of thrashing, carting grain and 

 stacking straw, the plots are ploughed 

 immediately the crop is taken off the 

 ground, provided the soil is not already 

 too hard. If this cannot be done, the 



67 



land which is not cultivated with kar 

 crop paddy, is ploughed whenever there 

 is an opportunity after the occasional 

 showers of rain which fall from the 

 beginning of April to the end of Septem- 

 ber. The main effects of this dry culti- 

 vation are : — 

 (a) More plant-food is rendered avail- 

 able for the succeeding crop. 

 {b) The air gets into the soil which 

 enables the roots of paddy to go 

 down deeper, thus making it less 

 subject to drought and increasing 

 the area from which the plant 

 obtains its food supply, 

 (c) Weeds are destroyed. 

 Many ryots ask "How will the cattle 

 be fed if the wet land is ploughed up 

 during the dry season"? The reply is that 

 more is lost in paddy than is gained in 

 grass, and the shortage in grass must be 

 replaced by the growth of sunnhemp 

 and other valuable fodder crops which 

 can be grown at a very small cost and 

 preserved in stacks until required. 



TRANSPLANTING OP PADDY. 

 By T. B. Fatawara, Rate- 



MAHATMAYA. 



Transplanting of paddy was for the 

 first time started at Gampolawela in 

 two different fields ; and the crop raised 

 from both of them, I am glad to be able 

 to report, has been greater than on fields 

 not so planted by 27 "50 per cent on each 

 acre, but the cost, I must say, is ' prohi- 

 bitive. 



Artificial manure containing nitrogen, 

 potash, and phosphoric acid was tried. 

 A seven acre block of padi land was 

 divided into seven lots of an acre each, 

 thus : — 



12 3 4 5 6 7 



In lot No. 1 no manure of any kind 

 was used at all; No. 2 was manured 

 with 4 cwts. of crushed bones ; No. 3 

 with 4 cwts. of crushed bones and 1J cwts. 

 of sulphate of potash ; No. 4 with 4 cwts. 

 of crushed bones and 1£ cwts. of blood- 

 meal ; No. 5 with 4 cwts. of crushed. 



