September, 1911.] 



223 



Edible Products. 



and which might therefore be expected 

 to be fairly uniform as regards soil com- 

 position. Here five plots were marked 

 out, each 20 feet square, or rather less 

 than a hundredth of an acre, and on 

 these paddy seedlings were transplanted 

 singly at different distances. Paddy was 

 also transplanted close up to the edge of 

 each plot all round — an important pre- 

 caution for two reasons : first, because 

 only in this way can the plots be regard- 

 ed as fair samples of a larger area ; and 

 secondly, because birds and other 

 enemies which always attack an experi- 

 mental plot under the impression that 

 some special delicacy must be growing 

 there are in this way more or less 

 circumvented. The remainder of the 

 field was transplanted, according to 

 what appears to be the local practice, 

 in bunches of six to ten plants about G 

 inches apart. 



The plots with their yields were as 

 follows : — 



Percentage 



Number of Yield in of Increase 



Distance. 



Plants 



Bushels 



over 





per Acre. 



per Acre. 



General 





Field. 



Bunches 6x6 





32 





4x4 



392,040 



37 



15 + X 



6x6 



174,240 



60 



87 



8x8 



98,010 



60 



87 



10x10 



62,726 



52 



62 



12x12 



43,560 



18 



—44? 



Now, although our degree of precision 

 in the case of a single experiment is ouly 

 20 per cent., we have here a certain 

 amount of definite information. The 

 transplanting of single plants at dis- 

 tances of 8 by 8 or even of 10 by 10 inches 

 gives us something like double the crop 

 yielded when transplanting is in bunches 

 at 6 by 6. On the whole, therefore, the 

 experiment supports the view that 9 by 

 9 inches is about the best distance 

 between the plants under the circum- 

 stances of this particular crop. Unfor- 

 tunately the plots planted 6 by 6, 8 by 8, 

 and 10 by 10 were the only ones which 

 could be regarded as giving a definite 

 result, for about a quarter of the crop of 

 the 4-by-4 plot was destroyed by pig or 

 some other large animal, whilst the 12- 

 by-12 plot was very sickly for some un- 

 explained reason, which had nothing to 

 do with the distance between the plants, 

 but was orovisionally put down to 

 sourness of the soil. 



With regard to the question of profit, 

 transplanting 8 by 8 ought not to cost 

 more than Rs. 4 per acre altogether, 

 whilst the increased crop over bunch 

 transplantation — 28 bushels at Re. T50— 

 is worth Rs, 42. The amount of seed 

 required by the former method is 

 perhaps a tenth of that required by the 

 latter, 



At my recommendation Mr. Harbord 

 has carried out a similar experiment at 

 Maha Iluppallama, and he has kindly 

 furnished me with a summary of his 

 result. The figures represent the 

 average of the yields from two sets of 

 plots, each plot being one-hundredth of 

 an acre in extent:— 



Distance Bushels 



apart. per acre. 



2x2 ... ... 45 



4x4 ... ... 50 



6x6 ... ... 50'5 



8x8 ... ... 49 



10 x 10 ... ... 48 



12 x 12 ... ... 39 



Here, again, we find that the distance 

 of transplanting may be varied from 

 4 inches up to 1C inches with little effect 

 upon the yield of grain, the recorded 

 difference being insignificant compared 

 with the probable error of the experi- 

 ment. As transplanting 4 by 4 repre- 

 sents more than six times the labour 

 and seed required to transplant at 10 by 

 10, the choice of a suitable distance 

 should present no difficulty to the prac- 

 tical agriculturist. 



3. Manuring for Paddy. 



Although further experiments are 

 required in order to decide what is 

 exactly the most economical distance for 

 transplanting paddy, there can be no 

 doubt from the result of the experi- 

 ments described above, as well as from 

 many others carried out in different 

 parts of India, that transplanting repre- 

 sents a paying proposition. In the 

 Secretary's report for last year I find 

 the complaint that the manuring of 

 paddy " on scientific lines " makes slow 

 progress, and cultivators are recom- 

 mended to try a particular mixture pres- 

 cribed by Mr. Kelway Bamber. This 

 mixture has been on trial at the Experi- 

 ment Station at Peradeniya during the 

 two past seasons, with the following 

 result : — 



Yield per Acre. 



Paddy. Straw. 

 Bushels. lb. 



1910, Manured ... 27 ... 1,450 



1910, Unmanured 18 . . 1,616 



1911, Manured . . 32 ... 2,223 

 1911, Unmanured 25 ... 1,665 



This works out an average increase of 

 8 bushels per acre for the two years, 

 value Rs. 12 per acre. The increase is 

 37 per cent, of the unmanured crop, 

 which as the result of two experiments 

 we may regard as correct to within 15 

 per cent. So far so good, but what about 

 the profits on the transaction ? 



