Oct. 1906.] 325 Miscellaneous. 



and watered heavily by irrigation only after the seed has sprouted and is well up. 

 This is the system practised largely in Texas, and it is not altogether unknown in 

 Ceylon, as in the Jaffna Peninsula the land is often ploughed dry and sown and the 

 crop is grown under rainfall alone. 



It is during the dry weather of the S. W. Monsoon that the writer believes 

 the method of furrow irrigation could be adopted, possibly in the paddy fields 

 themselves, for the production of those crops which are now usually grown in 

 chenas, of which, so far as he can discover, all would be much better raised under 

 properly regulated irrigation than on high lands under an uncertain rainfall. Quite 

 recently he saw an excellent chena crop sown on land which had been cleared for 

 aswedumization, and which would have perished owing to lack of rainfall, saved by 

 irrigation, and the only reason the owners were able to give for not regularly 

 growing such crops in this manner was that they preferred to grow paddy on the 

 land by irrigation after the rains had practically ceased. 



With the saving of water which would follow in the N. E. Monsoon by dry 

 ploughing and proper utilization of rainfall, and the further saving due to furrow 

 irrigation in the S. W., it should be an easy matter to double the area of crops 

 grown while the change in the nature of the crops, if the same land was cultivated 

 twice yearly, should be of advantage to the land. 



In support of the contention that furrow irrigation can be used in Ceylon, 

 the writer would point to the extreme dryness of certain months of the year 

 in certain parts of the Northern, North-Central, North- Western, Uva and 

 Southern Provinces. Thus the average rainfall of June, July and August 

 lias been at Mannar P33", Anuradhapura 4*28", Puttalam 3'07" all for 34 years, at 

 Alutnuwara it has been 2'68 for 6 years, and at Tissa, S. P., 2"87 for 31 years, and many 

 other examples can be found. The losses by evaporation are not so well known, but 

 Mr. Parker made it 68", at Giant's Tank, the writer found a loss of 58 inches had 

 occurred at Horabora in 1904, and he has been informed the loss was 72 inches last 

 year at Kalawewa. 



Under these circumstances he cannot but think that furrow irrigation and 

 cultivation of the land thereafter is possible, and that the question of the method of 

 irrigation used in Ceylon with the proper time for sowing paddy is one worthy of 

 more attention than it has received. 



Agricultural Banks for Ceylon.— Ill, 



By E. S. W. Senathi-Raja. 

 Funds.— The great success of the Scotch Banks, as we have seen, depended 

 on their issue of bank notes. Several schemes were started in France, inspired 

 by the remarkable success of the Scotch banks, to issue paper money, but they 

 ended in disastrous failures. It was soon perceived, however, that the success of 

 the Scotch banks was chiefly due to prudence of administration and to the suit- 

 ability of the system to the conditions of Scotland and the national characteristics 

 of its people. The issue of bank notes, it was found, was a convenience and an 

 economy rather than a source of funds. Hence the issue of bank notes has not 

 been received with favour on the European continent, and only a few land banks 

 have the right to issue paper money. In France there is none entitled to do that. 

 The rarity of this privilege shows that it is not generally feasible. There is, however, 

 another great and unfailing source of funds in all the continental land banks, 

 and that is the interest bearing mortgage-debentures (Pfandorief, obligation 

 fonciere). In its original form, when it was brought into use in the 18th Century, 

 the debenture was merely a bond for an amount from four to twenty pounds, 



