September i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
191 
obtained a return of 30-fold on a sowing of 3* bushels, 
or over 100 bushels an acre ; and that 25-fold or 87 
bushels is the usual return cultivating in the ordinary 
native way. 
In Matara, before krigatiou was introduced, m 
favourable localties a return of 30-fold or 75 bushels 
an acre was admittedly obtained; and Mr. Dawson, in 
his reports as Grain Commissioner, speaks of a simi- 
lar return being secured in t iro villages near Hikka- 
duwa. These returns are exceptional, it is admitted, 
under existing circumstances ; but they are mentioned 
to show what can be, and is being, secured in Ceylon 
without the stimulus of improved cultivation or reg- 
ular irrigation. 
A result equal to 25 or 30 fold is recognized 
as exceptionally good in Ceylon rice culture, so that it 
is of much importance we should be informed ( of 
all the circumstances leading to» a return of 108- 
fold, in order that we may be able to judge if similar 
results can be obtained on a large scale and over 
widely separated areas of rice land in Ceylon. 
Mr. Elliott deems a full supply of irrigating water 
of great importance. But we have long held that 
the great fault of rice culture in Ceylon is the 
waste of water which converts the soil into soft mud 
and the cereal into a purely aquatic plant. If 
only good cattle were available, we believe an 
enormous improvement might be effected by sub- 
stituting dry ploughing and harrowing for the pres- 
ent wretched system of merely stirring the saturated 
mud. But while we thus advocate dry ploughing and 
even pretty deep ploughing where there is a certainty 
that a fertile soil rests on a sweet subsoil, yet 
we vividly recognize the danger and damage which 
might result from recklessly turning up to the 
surface a sour subsoil earth. There is a logical 
connection between the weakly animals and men, 
the soil converted into mud and the implements 
by which the mud is stirred, and we fear we 
cannot hope for improved ploughs and ploughing 
amongst the natives and yields in proportion, at 
least to any great extent, until the careful cultiv- 
ation of good native or introduced grasses and 
a better knowledge of cattle breeding and treatment, 
render superior draft animals available. In our 
columns today, will be found a letter from a corre- 
spondent who has paid a good deal of attention 
to the subject of native ploughs, and he quotes 
tho opinion of Professor Wallace that as matters 
stand at present, the breed of cattle being so in- 
ferior, more is to be expected from improvements 
of the simple native plough than from its super- 
cession by iron ploughs after European patterns. 
But neither Professor Wallace, correspondent nor 
editor professes to be infallible, and by this time 
Mr. Green must have obtained experience which 
ought to give his matured opinions great value. We 
are simply startled and led to stand in doubt by 
the bare, unexplained (certainly imperfectly ex- 
plained) results of an experiment which raised 
tho yield of rice from 8-fold to 108-fold and we and 
our readers should like to have fuller details and 
explanations of processes which, if they can be 
continued with the same results, will revolutionize 
rice culture in Ceylon. 
COFFEE GROWN BY MEANS OF 
IRRIGATION. 
The following interesting communication has 
reached us from Southern India: — 
Ootacamund, 17th Aug. 
Btn, — I have just read your '/'. .1. for Juno, and 
find on pago BBC a para with rcti-roncc to coffee 
grown ai " Seegobr and Musnagoody." I don't know 
who is ri" ponsilih' for Lh<- information given to the 
Sih/iri Expren that wo had lost 20 per cent of our 
loaaom, but I can assure you this is not tho fact. 
There are only four estates down hero (3,000 feet) 
two of which I am in charge of, and we all have 
good crops especially the ones I am managing and 
which are under heavy "irrigation" and have been 
for the last 20 years 1 1 
You say you " doubt the success of coffee when 
it has to be irrigated;" well, sir, all I can say is 
that those two estates have given an average crop 
of 10 cwt per acre for 17 years. And the crops of 
1884-85-86-87 reached 17 cwt per acre ! ! 
For the last 5 years the crop has been 12 cwt 
per acre, so this does not look as if coffee would 
not do under irrigation. This system of cultivation 
requires heavy manuring or otherwise it would be 
" fatal." I, like my brother planters, get my share 
of "leaf disease" (this year rather bad) but the 
trees seem to shake it off and go on bearing in a 
wonderful way. "Leaf" affects my young coffee 
most, but I doubt not that when this gets its 
" manure" it will go ahead at 
10 CWT PER ACRE. 
We are not, of course, responsible for the state- 
ment which appeared in the Nilgiri Express. Our 
scepticism as to coffee flourishing in a climate 
where it required artificial irrigation was, 
founded on, we admit, limited experience in Ceylon. 
Here the only important experiment of the kind was 
made in the hot, dry valley of Dumbara, by the late 
Mr. R. B. Tytler. In the palmy days of coffee the 
difference in value of crop to him and his partner, Mr. 
Elliott, was calculated at £10,000. Mr. Tytler, there- 
fore, felt himself justified in spending £20,000 in ex- 
cavating a long canal from the Mahaweliganga, 
to work a turbine and raise the surplus water by 
means of a very powerful set o£ pumps, to the top 
of a knoll over 400 feet above the level of the water 
works. The water sent up to this elevation was to 
be distributed by a system of pipes. But wash took 
place from the tremendous pressure, the irrigation 
water was found to be but a poor substitute for rain 
showers, and in short the expensive experiment was 
largely a failure. We suppose that the estates managed 
by our correspondents are situated on comparatively 
flat, or gently sloping country, "under a tank " or 
a series of tanks, as is the case with irrigated rice 
lields ? The experiment, has been so successful, 
manure added to irrigation water enabling the coffee 
bushes to combat leaf-disease and yield exceptionally 
large crops, that we should be very glad and our 
readers would be much interested, were full details 
furnished of the history of those estates. The 
climate must, of course, be dry for at least a large 
portion of the year. But we should like to know 
about " the lay of tho land " and the sources of the 
irrigation water ? Is it taken from a river, direct 
to the land, by means of an anicut, a larger canal 
and a series of smaller distributing channels ? Or is 
thero a natural lake ? or an artificial tank supplied 
from captured or diverted streams? Can the whole 
surface of the estates receive a supply of water at 
once, or are fields, irrigated in succession ? Is the 
irrigating water supplied exclusively to the roots of 
the trees, or is attempt made to produce a spray 
in imitation of rain, so as to wet the leaves? 
We arc led to suppose that the estates are 
well situated for supplies of cattle manure ? 
But we assume the use also of artificial fertil- 
izers*, bones, broken or ground or in the form 
of super-phosphate, castor poonac, A c. ? 
Here in Ceylon, leaf-disease has been so viru- 
lent, often so absolutely fatal, that after a time tho 
struggle to fight leaf-disease with manure was 
abandoned. But in some of tho drier parts of 
such districts as Matalc and Uva, a combination 
of irrigation water and manure might at least bo 
tried and might load to important results. But 
before wo can recommend any experiment iu Ceylon, 
