October i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
281 
IMPROVED PADDY CULTIVATION. 
We call attention to the report furnished 
on page 288 by the Assistant Agent of 
Matara, as to a considerable extent corro- 
borative of what Mr. Elliott wrote on the 
subject of Paddy cultivation from the experi- 
ments instituted by him. Of course, Matara (with 
Batticaloa and Madampe districts) has always been 
regarded as about the riohest rice-growing division 
of the island ; but Mr. Baumgartner's experiment 
shows how great is the scope for improvement 
even among the farmers under the premier Assistant 
Agency. Here are three typical cases brought be- 
fore us in which the usual return of crop has 
been increased uO, 60, and 100 per oent without 
the aid of manure or special means of any kind, 
save the due attention to oareful work which first- 
olass farming ought always to ensure. In the first 
case, the competitor in place oi 0 fold, his usual 
average, got 20-fold, or a crop of 40 bushels 
per acre. In the second initance, the two 
bushels sown became 46$ bushels in crop or 
23-fold instead of the average of 15 ; and in the 
third case the return in place of being 10-, was 15- 
fold. We congratulate the Assistant Agent on the 
beginning he has made in competitive trials which 
canuot fail to become increasingly popular, year 
by year. As in the case of the M itara Agricultural 
Show, though Mr. Baumgartner may find working 
independently of the headmen discouraging at first, 
yet it is certain to issue in results of a very satis- 
factory and lasting character. A certain degree 
of improvement may be expected to follow 
each succeeding attempt ; and we trust to see the 
Paddy-growing Competition established as an annual 
institution not only in Matara, but in all other 
rice-growing districts, as another, and not the least 
potent, means of stirring the people to pay more 
attention to their farms and the best mode of rice 
cultivation. 
AN ENGLISH RUBY COMPANY FOR 
BURMA :— WHY NOT A LONDON GEM 
COMPANY FOR CEYLON ? 
NO. VII.— THE UPPER BURMA RUBY 
REGULATIONS, 1887. 
Shortly after the deposition of King Theebaw 
from the throne of Mandalay, followed by the 
annexation of Upper Burma by England, the 
Government began to take into consideration the 
rules and conditions under which the local trade 
in the world -famed rubies of Burma should be 
regulated. Their deliberations resulted in the 
promulgation of the Upper Burma Ruby Regulation, 
1887, with the rules published by the Chief Com- 
missioner of Burma, a measure which, though 
brief and concise in its form, requires as much 
study and attention to enable the reader to grasp 
its provisions as any of the old legal forms 
of r. hundred years ago. Its provisions are more- 
over of a very stringent character, and in some 
points of so arbitrary a nature, that the local 
authorities at Mandalay were forced to admit a 
few months aco that they did not believe they could 
be enforced in their entirety. The first effect of 
the publication of this Ruby Regulation was almost 
a paralysis of the trade in gems, at any rate in 
Upper Burma, and to a great extent also in Ran- 
goon. It added also emphasis to the generally 
prevalent friction between the rulers and the ruled, 
which unfortunately seems year by year to be 
intensifying rather than diminishing throughout 
the newly-annexed territory. The Ruby Regula- 
tions however are chiefly of interest to us as bearing 
upon Streeter's concession in Burma. Of this 
concession no mention whatever is made in the 
publication itself, or any provision made for any 
Company or Companies apart from licenses granted 
to individuals ; and unless some special act has 
been sinoe passed in favor of Mr. Streeter's Com- 
pany, it will be seen that the last shadow to a 
claim for monopoly in ruby mining, put forward 
on behalf of that Company, entirely vanishes from 
the scene. It will be remembered that the 
London Correspondent of the Observer justified Mr. 
Streeter's assertion of monopoly on the ground 
that the Company alone were entitled to the 
exclusive right of using explosives, and machinery 
without which nothiug could be done of any im- 
portance in gemming operations. Bearing this 
in mind wa turn to the Ruby Regulation, and the 
first thing that bears upon the subject is the 
announcement that the regulation extends to the 
whole of Upper Burma, except the Shan States, 
but " nothing therein shall be construed to take 
away or derogate from any right established to 
the satisfaction of the looal Government." The 
latter part of this is delightfully vague ; 
" any right established to the satisfaction of the 
local Government " opens a very wide field indeed in 
opposition to monopoly. Again it is on these very 
Shan hills, whioh are expressly exempted from the 
scope of this regulation, that the thousands of 
square miles of ruby-bearing country are situated 
and on which there is practically an unlimited field 
for gemming operations. Turning to preliminary 
definitions, we find " precious stone " means ruby, 
sapphire, or spinel, and includes any other stone 
which the local Government may declare to be a pre- 
cious stone. "Stone " tract means a tract which the 
local Government has declared to be a local area in 
which precious stones are found. "Native," used with 
reference to stone tract, means a person who was born, 
and during the five years immediately preceding 
the commencement of this regulation has habitually 
resided in the stone tract. The phraseology of 
these regulations is in many instances peouliar, 
with an utter absence of ordinary legal terms. 
Section 3 provides that " exoept as permitted 
by rules under this regulation, no one shall — if he 
is not a native of a stone tract, reside therein ; 
dig for or raise any precious stone in a stone 
tract ; cut or dress any precious stone, possess any 
precious stone in a stone tract or, for the purposes 
of trade, in any place beyond the limits of a stone 
tract ; buy or sell, or be otherwise a party to the 
transfer of any precious stone, or transport any pre- 
cious stone. 
Section 4, however, provides that the local Gov- 
ernment may make rules consistent with this re- 
gulation to permit on Buch payments, if any, as it 
thinks fit and to regulate all or any of the above- 
mentioned prohibitions as well as (sec. 5) granting 
licenses "to do anything permitted by the rules 
to be done." Let us now turn to the " rules 
under the Upper Burma Ruby Regulation," a notifi- 
cation from the Revenue Department, and follow 
up this part of the subject first. See. 3. A 
person who is not a native of a stone tract may 
reside therein with the written permission of the 
Deputy Commissioner, subject to such condition as 
the Chief Commissioner may prescribe. 
Section 4. Stones may be dug for or raised in 
pursuance of a license either (sec. 5) ordinary or 
extraordinary. An ordinary license shall be a license 
to dig for or raise precious stones by the native 
methods, and shall not authorize the use of any 
explosive substance or machinery and (sec. 6) 
may be granted to any native of a stone traot or 
with tho previous sanction of the Commissioner, 
