December *, 1889.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, 
397 
THE AVEEAGE YIELD OF PADDY 
AND THE CHALLENGE- 
(To the Editor of the " Examiner.") 
24th June. 
Sir, — I have just received your valuable journal of 
the 24th intimating Mr. Green's acceptance of the 
challenge on the conditions mentioned by him. Though 
it is very late at night now, yet, true to my pro- 
mise, within three minutes of my seeing your journal, 
I pen the following lines placing all the information 
available at the disposal of the Director and of the 
Editors, lest the good Director should afterwards say 
he had been taken in by me. 
I. — with reference to the conditions, I said, " There 
are four kinds of lands in Batticaloa, viz (1) rain-fetl, 
(2) stream-fed, (3) village-tank-fed, (4) Government- 
tauk-fed fields. I will offer from 25 to 50 acres of 
each of these descriptions of lands in different parts 
of Batticaloa amounting in the aggregate to 200 acres 
of excellent, good, bad, and indifferent fields " The 
whole of the 200 acres having been included in 
calculating the average, the whole must be taken up ; 
for otherwise, 
(a) What is lo be done with the cast-off portions ? 
Mr. Elliott's Wanniahs will naturally select the cream of 
the fields and may deprive the other cultivators of 
their share of water-right &c, or the latter may do 
the same, and there will be no end of disputes every 
fortnight. 
(b) There is an important point involved in this, 
for out of these 200 acres about 12 per cent or more 
are highland portions that should never have been 
included in Mr. Elliott's Assessment. Having first 
exercised his own judgment in the matter, he now 
compels the owner to pay the tithes all the same. 
For the whole of the 200 acres, I will abide by Mr. 
Elliott's own estimate of acreage and Mr. Elliott's own 
rate of Assessment as found in the Records of Mr. 
Elliott's own Report; indeed, my demand of 750 
Bushels is based on calculations about 20 per cent 
less than Mr. Elliott's. 
(e) Should the Director feel that the cost of culti- 
vation is too heavy for him to take up the 200 acres, 
I think I can arrange with the present leaseholders 
or others to supply the ordinary capital and labour 
at the usual rates for about 50 acres or more. 
Labour, of course, is cheap and available, but the Agri- 
cultural Instructors or others must be held respon- 
sible for the work done by the labourers and give 
them their due without stint. 
(d) The average has been calculated for the whole 
of the 200 acres of different kinds of typical lands, 
not necessarily all of the same acreage, but just as 
they are found in the Government Register. I cannot 
add to or take away from any of these, just as I 
cannot alter the tax due to Government. There is 
one portion the rent alone of which is from 10 to 
13 bushels per acre ; it is the inclusion of other lands 
of inferior quality that brings down the total rent 
to 750 bushels for the 200 acres. 
(e) It is also right for me to let the Director 
understand beforehand, that there are about 25 or 
30 acres of the 200 not cultivated for a year or two, 
because Mr. Elliott's assessment has broken its back- 
bone. It is the duty of Mr. Elliott to get this typical 
portion also cultivated, and not o ly make up his 
total average, but also pay the rent and the Go'vern- 
ment Tax, which he so rigorously exacts frwm hhe 
owner now. Tliis would prove the accuracy of bis 
calculations as applied to large areas, which be has 
himself reporte ' as cultivable and as capable of yield- 
ing a certain rate. 
II. — As for my name, it will be made known in 
due course all right: for I am as much in' crested 
as others in finding out the truth of the mailer, and 
shall rejoice to see myself defeated, if my fellow- 
countrymen would be benefited thereby. 
[H. -The rent of the land is not :ij Bushels per 
acre, it is only a slip of the pen for ;>:,' Bushels 
for you will find me reiterating 750 Bushels for the 
200 acres. 
I am not going to make these two innocent gentle- 
men a cat's paw of, and use them to open up new 
lands for me. These are well-known properties that 
have been in the family for 10, 20, 40, and 80 years 
or more. As these are " typical portions," a few of 
the village-tank-fed fields may, in some seasons of 
excessive drought, go uncultivated, in which case of 
course a proportionate share of the rent will not be 
due to the land owners nor any tax to Government ; 
this portion being under Crop Commutation. But the 
native subordinates are to be guarded against resort- 
ing to the device of not cultivating these portions, 
simply to swell, the rate of yield of the rest. They 
should wait for the time when the " Vattai " is sown 
and then add the rent to make up the 750 bushels 
demanded. 
IV.— From the nature of things, it is not possible 
for me to find all the four kinds of lands near the 
town of Batticaloa. Here are the actual lands on 
which I have been calculating the averages: 
(1) Rain-fed, 64 acres, (2) Stream-fed, 56 acres. 
Within a radius of 10 miles from Mr. Elliott's Resi- 
dence. (3) Village-tank-fed, 55 acres, (4) Government- 
tank-fed, 25 acres. Within a radius of 5 miles from 
the present Agricultural Instructor's Lodging. 
Total 200 acres, rent 750 bushels @ 3| bushels per 
acre. For damage by drought and floods and flies 
and caterpillars, I am not responsible ; for, surely 
Mr. Elliott must have made allowance for all these' 
contingencies when he /assessed these lands, three- 
fourths of which are for annual commutation. This 
is the gist of the contention. For the agricultural 
capitalist is pretty sure of losing one-eleventh of his 
working capital every year unless he lays by a 
"Famine Insurance Fund," as suggested by Sir James 
Caird for even the more highly-favoured cultivators 
of India. It would perhaps be better for the Di- 
rector to consult Mr. Elliott before accepting the 
challenge as a whole. I must stick to the 200 acres, 
as I have calculated the average for the same. But 
no one would be more pleased than myself to see 
my conclusions utterly falsified by their well-directed 
experiments. Any further information on the subject 
I am ready to give. — Yours truly, A Tamil Cultivator. 
— Local " Examiner." 
VEGETABLE PRODUCTS OF BRAZIL. 
The Pharmaceutical Journal publishes a paper 
entitled " Floral Features of the. Amazon Valley," by Dr. 
H. H. Rusby, being a lecture delivered at the Massa- 
chusetts College of Pharmacy. March 6, and extracted 
from the New England Druggist, April. We quote the 
last part as follows : — 
Some of the productions of this region are of great 
importance, and I am sure that a brief consideration 
of them will not be wearisome to you. Chief among 
them is indiarubber. The possession of a fine rubber 
esrancia is like the possession of a goose which lays 
dailv a golden egg. 
The rubber forests are open to pre-emption by all 
comers, provide d they do not trespass upon the domain 
of another. A man may take up as much land as he 
can work. His claim is established by cutting a path- 
way through the forest from one tree to another, and 
portioning out the care of the trees and the collection 
of the product among his men. Each district of forty 
trees constitutes an "estrado," and each man can 
manage from two to five 'Jestrados" according to his 
industry and the proximity of the trees. Each man is 
furnished with a number of little tin cuus, holding 
about a gib, and a small picking instrument for making 
incisions in the hark of the trees. He selects a spot 
upon the tree where the sap will trickle down as he 
desires and rapi ly picks a tew holes just through the 
l ark in such a way that the sap will How fronj <>ne into 
another, and all in turn into the tin cup, which he dex- 
terously in-erts beneath some scale of bark or attaches 
by means of a little ball of mud, which he carries for 
this purpose. Twico a day lie visits his trees and col- 
