April 2, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
663 
seemed very remarkable why there should be so much 
difficulty on the part of the Indian Government in 
allowing its subjects to go there, for even now he 
believed it would be very difficult for planters to im- 
port anything like the numbers they would like. He 
should like to see free emigration permitle 1. There 
was sufficient protection for life and property in the 
Malay States, which wore under British protection, and 
he could not underhand why there should not be 
perfect freedom for the people of India to go there 
if it were found that they could better themselves, 
and live more comfortably, and add to the wealth of 
England, by fostering tho cultivation of those provinces, 
which were iu fact English though they were called 
native States. This was the point to which Sir Frederick 
Weld's Government at the Straits Settlements had 
given a deal of consideration, and ho thought every one 
who considered it fairly would agree that everything 
ought to be done to induce the Indian Government 
to look at it in the proper light. The lindsuch as 
Indian settlers would occupy was very fertile, and it 
was no uncommon thing to see paddy produced two 
huudredand two hundred and fifty told, with a minimum 
of cultivation on lauds some of which were irrigated 
and some cultivated entirely by the rainfall, which was 
very heavy. The only cultivation he had ever seen 
the present occupiers of the soil use was cutting down 
the weeds iu the beginning of the rains. The most 
approved system was to drive a herd of buffaloes over 
it to drive the weeds in. There were some salts, but 
they could not be much in excess, as he had seen the 
finest sugarcane growing where the soil was quite white 
with efflorescence, which he thought was caused by 
oarlonate of soda. It was found that if plenty of water 
were put on the land, it washed the silt away or 
convertod it into manure. The Government was most 
anxious to favour Indian labourers coming into the State, 
and had offered to give them land on almost any terms, 
if they could only get thorn to come and settle down 
as permanent cultivators; of if they would not do that, 
they were willing for them to oome there, and 
return to their own homes, to which they always carried 
back considerable wealth after having lived iu comfort 
audjhappiuess all the time they were there. — Pioneer. 
RICE AND COCONUT CULTIVATION. 
Siyank Korale, Ceylon, 17th Feb. 1888. 
The January number of tho Tropical Agricul- 
turist is rather freely interspersed with communi- 
cations on a variety of subjects from the Agri- 
cultural Instructor stationed at Bandaragiima, in 
the Uayigam Korale. If it will not be considered 
impertinent for me to offer advice, I will advise him 
to absorb all the information he is able to affurd 
the public into one communication, confining each 
subject within the limits of a paragraph) s imethjsg 
alter the mannerol the writer ou A/riculture from Paris. 
His couiinuni'iation on the benefits arising from 
pulverising soil is very interest ini/. Would that he 
were able to impress his views on the gnhjeot u11 
the rice growers in hi* immediate neighbourhood. 
He seems to bo afflicted with a lareo quautity of 
poonac for which he can find no use in pu.i.ly culti- 
vation. Mr. Hughes has recommended h mixture of 
castor-cake, bones and fish for our paddy fl-lds. Coco- 
nut poonac certainly is a very poor substitute tor castor- 
cake, *8 uualyNos have pr ived that the latter has 
over twenty tunes as much nitrogen as the forawr ; 
but, it cau be use. I in lnrxer quantities, and the 
benefits of so much mon- organic matter in the soil 
cannot but act beneficially. If I may bo permitted to 
oflu r an unprofessional opinion, I think thai a go. ' 
mixture for paddy will be bones, p >on*o bmJ a h< t 
thiii not in supersession of Mr. Hu«b mixture, bu 
us ..II the ingredients for the mixture will be more 
easily available ei u 'ho villages, i in- inquiry AS to 
wh tin r lime so nil i.o mixed with poonao must 
bu answered in the negative, m nine is suit! to 
dissipate the ammonia from all manurei rout h in „• 
it. liulut the iiiu' time, 1 think that IjlUi i m 
beneficially be „.i l.-d to a piddy field utter tho 
first ploughing, t<> help in the deoampoaitioa 
of the vast nmoiiut of vegetable mattsr that abounds 
iu the fields in tho form of stubble and weeds. 
This more especially if water, the decomposing 
agency now in use, is not to be turned on them. 
The communicatiou on the benefits of irrigation is 
not. very easily uudirstood. What authority is there 
for the statement that " irrig itiou is little attended 
to," or that the wealthy anu intelligent cultivators 
have abandoned the practice ? Tho general complaiut 
hitm rto has been that water is wasted in over- 
irrigation. I do not believe that many people will 
subscribe to the dictum that irrigation will give large 
crops "without impoverishing tho soil." The promise 
that if occasion requires the benefits of irrigation 
" with other concomitant advantages shall be more 
particularly enumerate,!," must be redeemed, for 
the occasion for it has arisen in the scepticism ou 
the subject, despite Mr. Itodrigo's belief in it. 
Avery interesting communication ou "Paddy Cultiva- 
tion anu Manuring," appears from (ho pen of " W. A. D. 
S." the.Agricuituial Instructor stationed at Minuwan- 
goua.AVnat amused me was the foot-note to his com- 
munication by " an experienced European agricul- 
turist in the lowoountry," to whom it was referred 
to solve some of the knotty problems propounded 
in it. " W. A. D. S." wid, I am sure, not fail to 
be grateful for the appreciative tip on the back 
administered to him in the remark: "It is quite a 
new thing for a native to have attained even so 
much theory as to write about nitrates and phos- 
phates," probably in ignorance of the fact that 
this particular native has a right to dilate on nitrates 
and phosphates by virtue of a special training on 
the tueory and practice of agriculture. The fears 
that bulky manures, such as cattle manure, will so 
raise the level of the fields as to render them unfit 
for paddy cultivation, are, I think ungrounded, as 
the average native has not command over sufficient 
cattle-mauuro to raise the level of his fields to any 
appreciable extent. Indeed, I doubt whether he 
produces sufficient to scatter very finely over his 
whole neld. Agricultural experiments conducted by 
eminent scientists disprove his assertion that the 
effects oi cattle mauuro are so evanescent as not to 
be discerned after a tew mouths. If the effects of 
eattie-mauure be so short-lived, why give it the 
premier place as a manure for paddy, and accord 
the second place to bones r 1 
I luuru for the very first time from the letter 
of your Hapitigam Korale correspondent, that smoke 
batus have Ueeu seriously recommended by a coconut 
planter, since deceased, fur increasing the growth 
and orops oi coconut trees. What idea he had of the 
tuuetious of leaves or of the composition of smoke, 
is not stated. Uoiuoustion of any vegetable subs'auco 
beis tree carbonic acid gas and nitrogen, but are 
they visible to the eye in the torm of smoke, aud 
do tue leaves uusoro carbonic acid as fast as iu is 
g, u. rated by burning ? Carbonic acid and nitrogen 
piuy very impuriaut parts iu the building up 
a i growtu of trees; but cau either add to a lruii crop '/ 
Tnis is not a subject tor us, who merely retail the 
experiences and experiments of scijntis's, to attempt to 
soive or throw ugbc upon, but it is eminently a subject 
tor agricultural e jbuiisis, that i*, if they consider it 
sufficiently serious to deserve cousideratiou. 
.Uauj people seem to labour under the delu- 
sion that cattle dung is something elso than the 
roiu.^e oi iLe food eateu by cuttle afttr the valuable 
portions of it have beeH abstracted fur the sustenance 
i.t the uuim^:. The valuo of cuttle manure is solely 
uepeudeut on '.ho q uuty of thu foo I given to the 
animal, and is bo macj appreciated as nff jr ling plaut- 
foud in a reality avuiluolu form. So witu ashes 
wuieh a:e the reaidiu of j.-giuio matter miu is tho 
carbonic . sid aud nitrugdn which tne me ha.H<tia«ipat<»t. 
1 am afraid that Ux. Byjridara hope, at the anuuil 
j moetlUg o» the H irrekolly I ' impanTJ th it the " uiuoh- 
vexed question" of fibre retuso will lie set at rest by 
Mr. Curry's discovery that it CAU be used aa fuel in 
dry weather, will not bo realiol, tor the very ashoi will 
rise up as a spectre to haunt huu. rsir jL Bi' fitWAll 
and I'rotessor liilbert are said to have carried ou 01- 
ptuiucuts iu tlusducctiou, uud the rciulu of thoir 
