THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dlcismbkr i, i883. 
LOWCOUNTBY NATIVE PRODUCTS: 
COCONUTS AND COTTON. 
DKOUUHT — TRANSPLANTING — ADVANTAGES OF A DROUGHT 
— COCONUT CULTIVATION — CRITICS AND CRITICISMS — 
COTTON. 
(From a Native Correspondent.) 
7th November 1898. 
The drought which lasted for nearly months 
this year did its full share of damage on coconut and 
paddy crops, many a poor goyiya lost his entire 
crops owing to it, and they will be in a sad plight 
for the seed-paddy which they require for the next 
season's cultivation. So they will have to resort to 
the seed-paddy lenders who take 100 °/ 0 on their 
capital, which is a hard drain on the poor cultivator. 
This practice prevails to a great extent in the rural 
villages, and it will be for their good to bring some 
measures to check it.- There is one thing which, if 
generally adopted, will free the cultivators of the 
necessity of borrowing. It is the system of trans- 
planting. It requires only eight seers of paddy per 
acre, while the method of broadcast sowing requires 
ten times the amount or two and a half bushels of 
paddy. It has also been already demonstrated be- 
yond doubt that the transplanting system yields 
very much better than broadcast sowing. Any ex- 
perienced goyiya would admit this. Now what is 
the drawback for their not adopting this, and what 
will they say if questioned ; they would always say 
it requires more labour; and it is perfectly true. 
But without considering the ultimate benefits, if 
we were only to take to account the saving of seed- 
paddy, it will at once be proved otherwise. If the 
labour for transplanting be paid for and hired 
labourers engaged, an acre of paddy land could be 
planted easily by 2 men and 12 women which costs 
in money only two rupees. But the seed-paddy 
saved through this method will be worth at the 
rate of one rupee per bushel, two rupees and 25 cents, 
The above will show that it is not at all a bit more 
inconvenient to transplanting than to sow broadcast, 
and the system if brought before the goyiyas should 
but eventually be accepted by them. This is worth 
while being considered, especially where seed-paddy 
is lent by Government to distressed goyiyas. They 
should only be given the amount necessary for 
transplanting, and if they themselves are unable to 
transplant their paddy, it could be very well done 
by spending a part of the savings which will 
amount to R.2 - 25 per acre. Not only will the cultiva- 
tors get better crops from their lands, but; even the 
most conservative of them will learn to adopt the 
system which they themselves would see to be 
greatly beneficial. And the Government which lends 
the required capital will, instead of spending the 
whole, have a small saving, and also at the 
same time will force upon the cultivators a system 
which will increase their yields without any incon- 
venience either to the Government or the cultivators. 
It is worth while considering whether a drought 
is an unmixed evil. I for my part will not think 
so. It is true it plays great havoc on our crops, 
but at the same time it brings with its train some 
advantages to the cultivator also. On account of a 
drought the sun-heat in its course of evaporating the 
moisture from the soil, draws it from great depths. 
The more the drought is severe the deeper does the 
action go in the soil. And the water in its course 
upwards to the surface brings with it a deal of 
fertilizing matter from the undersoil, where there 
is no probability of the roots ever reaching them. 
Such matter when brought to the surface in solution 
with water is left on the upper soil, where the 
water is evaporated, and this gain is sometimes 
remarkable where they have rich subsoils. By the 
above process many an unfertile soil is made to pro- 
duce good crops. And it is not unfrequent to have 
good crops the season following the one of abnor- 
mally dry weather. Thus wc see one of the benefits 
on account of a drought. It also makos a cultivator 
to leave his land in fallow though unwillingly and 
unintentionally. This may be taken as one of the 
reasons why most of out Ceylon paddy lauds do not 
get exhausted, by almost continuous cultivation of 
one crop, sometimes without any sort of manuring. 
The land is laid under fallow, and a good deal of 
fertilizing matter is added to it through occasional 
droughts in the course of three or four years, and 
it becomes a blessing in disguise. Ceylon cultivators 
have never understood or have recourse* to any 
fallowing or rotation to restore the fertility of their 
soils. But in other countries even in ancient times 
they had a method of leaving land in fallow. For 
instance, it is said that in Egypt they were required 
to fallow all their lands once in seven years, and 
among old Saxon cultivators they had what they 
called an ' arable mark ' and left one-third of their 
lands always in fallow. But here we have no such 
fallow or arable mark, and occasional droughts which 
occur at intervals and which force the cultivators 
to leave their lands without crops serve as a system 
of fallow. 
In regard to the cultivation of coconuts there 
were some theories expounded in a Sinhalese p i per 
a few weeks ago. I shall mention some of them 
here rather for the amusement of your readers. 
The writer says that it is very destructive for the 
trees to plough or dig any coconut land or either 
to trench round trees for manuring. With respect 
to this he criticises the pamphlet published lately 
on the subject in Sinhalese, and says that in such 
and such pages of the pamphlet the author gives 
the most destructive process for coconut lands, and 
which is followed foolishly by many intelligent 
cultivators to the destruction of their valuable trees, 
and he goes on advising the planters to get their 
lands scraped or hoed without disturbing the soil, 
and then heap the rubbish round the trees, and 
he goes so far as to give a diagram for the instruc- 
tion of his readers. What will your well-informed 
and practical correspondents on the subject think 
of the above '? The only thing for regret is that the 
giving of prominence for such letters in the papers 
without at least referring them to some one who 
could form an opinion about them. 
While speaking about critics and criticisms let 
me give you some of my experiences about them. 
For instance, in connection with the pamphlet on 
coconut cultivation lately published, some parties 
went so far as to condemn it entirely only taking 
into account parts of sentences, and would say that 
some of the information were sound in theory but 
not in practice, &c. And there was another thing 
which such critics had resort to, that of mistrans- 
lating parts of it representing them to be parts of 
the original, thereby trying to deceive those who 
could not have read the book for themselvs. Cri- 
ticisms well expressed are always for the mutual 
good of both the parties, but the intention of such 
ones as I mentioned before are obvious. . 
I would mention a word about the new product 
for the lowcounty of Ceylon which is attracting 
attention at present, I mean cotton. Experiments 
are initiated in different parts of the Island ; and 
they, I am sure, will yield us valuable information. 
But those experimentalists should be careful to 
give the kind of seed they used, as some kinds of 
seed are not at all fit for our climate or soils. For 
instance, the Tiunevelly seed. In Tinnevelly cotton 
is grown in black peaty soils.f and the soils are 
also very deep. So the plant use to send its roots 
far into the soil and get its nutrition. Another 
point is, it does not prefer excessive moisture or 
excessive heat. Both these are not present in that 
district. Because there is no scope for excessive 
moisture as the rainfall of that district is compara- 
tively very little, and also as the peaty soils have 
a remarkable property of absorbing moisture, &c, from 
the atmosphere the crops do not suffer from excessive 
heat. Such climate we cannot expect in most 
districts of Ceylon, as during monsoon weather we 
* This is surely too sweeping. Between Colombo 
and the hills, large tracts of paddy land may be seen 
for years devoted to pasturage, which when rested 
and enriched with the droppings of cattle, See,', are 
at intervals cultivated. — Ed. 
t We never before heard the blaok cotton soils of 
India described as peaty.— Ed. 
