March 1907.] 



109 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



AGRICULTURAL METHODS IN MADRAS. 



That agricultural enquiry should precede efforts at agricultural improve- 

 ment is a sound maxim. By agricultural enquiry, knowledge is obtained of not 

 only where defect lies in the ryots 1 agricultural practices, which is half way to 

 remedy, but also ot the numerous good points in their practices which have won the 

 admiration of famous European agricultural experts, and which, being still 

 confined to but sm ill parts of the country by no other cause than custom, should, 

 by every moans, be diffused as widely as possible at an early date. The excellence 

 of the agricultural system in some, as compared with other, parts of the country 

 may, in many cases, be accounted for by differences of soil, climate, etc., over which 

 man has little control. For instance, the ryots of the Godavari delta, which for the 

 most part enjuys better natural drainage, are on that account able to grow 

 sugarcane, plantains, coconuts, etc., unlike their brethren of the Kistna delta. But 

 soil and climate have nothing to do with some questions. Thus, why should not the 

 Coimbatore ryot, with the aid of one pair of bullocks sow by the gorru, or bamboo 

 seed-drill, at least three and a half acres of land in a day with, say, cholam, using 

 not more than five Madras measures for that area, and cover in the seed with the 

 guntika with another pair of bullocks, instead of doing what he does now, 

 that is broadcasting about twenty Madras measures over the same area and 

 employing six pairs of bullocks for covering in the seed in a day. Similarly, 

 the threshing stone roller which has proved very economical and is in general use 

 in the Deccan districts except Bellary (viz., Kurnool, Anautapur and Cuddapah) 

 might be introduced in all parts of the country, independently of the conditions 

 of soil and climate. It is worth while to note how such implements, tools, and 

 methods happened to come into use in the particular parts of the country to which 

 they are yet confined ; what opportunities the people of other parts have had for 

 knowing those things, and what influences have prevented the material extension 

 of their use. 



The Reddis, Naidus, etc., known in the Tamil country by the generic name 

 vadugars (literally Northerners) are the descendants of people who migrated into 

 the Southern districts from the Telugu country centuries ago. The ancestral immi- 

 grants appear to have been warriors. Consequently, when they settled into 

 peaceful occupations on the advent of peace to the country, like the Ironsides of 

 Cromwell, they had forgotten all about the arts in their original home. There is a 

 tradition among the Reddis of Perambalore that their ancestors came from the 

 neighbourhood of the Malikarjuna Paruatum or the famous Srisailam Hill in the 

 Naidikotur taluk. Nobody in Perambalur, I observed, knew the whereabouts 

 of the hill. The economical implements and tocls used in the Nandikotkur 

 taluk, in the neighbourhood of the hill, are well adapted for use in the black 

 cotton soil which prevails in the Perambalur taluk. And yet the only implement 

 which at all betokens the immgrations of the ancestors of the Perambalur Reddis 

 from the country of the gorru is the korru parambu, or a sort of wooden rake 

 which, strange to say, is still known by the name gorru in Samvatsaragudem and 

 other villages in the neighbourhood of Nidadavolu, where the system of dry culti- 

 vation is rather of a primitive type, and which is commonly used in the ceded 

 districts under the names pandluanii, etc. 



Another circumstance which indicates the immigration above referred to 

 is the fact of the Reddis, Naidus, etc., occupying the major portion of the black 

 cotton soil of the Tamil country. As will be shown by further instances, there is a 



