Miscellaneous Notes. 



[august, 



the time at no other centre, and so far it has spread only to an adjoining 

 park, where a yearling bullock was discovered to be affected on July 

 26th. The circumstances of these outbreaks were such as to justify 

 the slaughter, with compensation, of all the animals which had been 

 exposed to the risk of infection, and there is good reason to believe 

 that the outbreak has been brought under control by the action taken, 

 no other centres of disease having come to light. The Board have 

 therefore been able gradually to modify the restrictions, except in the 

 immediate vicinity of the infected places, where the movement of 

 animals is still prohibited. Up to the 10th of August the efforts made 

 to trace the origin of the outbreak had not been successful. 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



Agricultural Implements for Burma. — The Indian Trade Journal 

 (May 26th, 1910) contains an article by Mr. A. McKerral, M.A., B.Sc, 

 Deputy Director of Agriculture, Burma, in 

 Demand for Agricul- which it is po j nt ed out that the principal diffi- 

 tural Machinery culties in the of the introduction of 



A nvo?i n 



European implements into Burma are that 

 they are too heavy, too complicated, and too costly. 



In Burma there are two main agricultural tracts : (1) Lower Burma, 

 where practically the only crop is rice, grown under natural rainfall; 

 and (2) Upper Burma, or the dry zone, as it is called, where millets, 

 ground nut, sesamum, cotton and legumes are grown. For the first 

 tract the most obvious introductions in the way of machinery are light 

 reaping machines, capable of working in small fields of a quarter or 

 half an acre and of being removed from one field to another. If a 

 really serviceable machine of this sort can be got at a cost of not 

 more than Rs. 200 there is no doubt it will sell. Next in order j 

 come threshing machines for hand or bullock power. They ought to j 

 have a "drum" which would effectually remove and separate the j 

 grains of paddy, and should be light, on wheels if possible, and capable j 

 of being moved from one field to another. The present type of i 

 winnowers makes transit difficult, although it does quite good work 

 with paddy when it is placed in position. Something capable of being 

 dragged on wheels from one field to another is required, and this 

 would necessitate a broader and lower type. In the event of threshers 

 not being used and threshing done by cattle in the usual way, a 1 

 winnower is required which will remove rapidly the long straw from 

 the grain and remove the small lumps of soil which come from the 

 threshing floor. This latter difficulty has been found to be very great 

 in Upper Burma, as, from the nature of the soil, fragments of it of 

 about the same diameter as the grain pass through with the grain, 

 being too heavy to be blown out with the chaff. 



In the Upper Burma tract there is little hope of introduction of 

 any but the very cheapest and simplest implements, as the people 

 are small holders and generally poor. The crying need at present is J 

 to induce cultivators of cotton, maize, peas, &c, to adopt the drill 

 system of cultivation. It is suggested that manufacturers should study 

 the Indian seed drill, and endeavour to improve it by some very simple j 



