May i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
It is curious too that rice (from Batticaloa) can 
be supplied to coolies at a lower price than in 
Haputale, and rates for transport of crop, now 
moderate enough, will soon be further reduced 
on the completion of the cart-road. B. 
THE CULTIVATION OF PADDY (RICE). 
EXHAUSTION OF SOILS — MEANS OF IMPROVING — MANURING 
— TILLAGE— SEED PADDY — ITS SELECTION — ADVANTAGES. 
28th March 1889. 
There are many simple means to improve materially 
the produce of the chief article of food in this 
country. It is no easy task to remove the long 
inflated prejudices of a people, but still it is not im- 
possible. Much has been said about improved tillage, 
transplanting &c, and now their benefits are proved 
beyond question, aud if they are brought before the 
cultivators and generally adopted they would in time 
improve the health and wealth . of the cultivators 
bringing most of the starving to share in plenty. 
There are some who think that it is not wise to 
change the present native forms of cultivation be- 
cause they have adopted those from long experience 
according to the requirements and nature of the 
country. There is nothing to change in the ordinary 
methods of cultivation if they have proved successful. 
Has it been so? is the question which comes before 
us. The fact is plainly seen daily that though the 
present methods are adopted from long practice, they 
cannot fight with the lands of nature. Any goyia 
would tell that his field is not producing as it did 
long ago. The reasons for its not being so are, first 
the exhaustion of the soil by the continuous growth 
of the same crop, with hardly any manure or proper 
form of tillage, and secondly the degeneration of the 
seeds used. 
Manure, if judiciously applied, can prevent the ex- 
haustion of soils, but for the goyias to adopt a judi- 
cious system of manuring is out of the question until 
they are versed in the principles of agriculture. But 
still there are means and forms of manuring, by 
which the exhaustion of soils could be prevented to a 
certain extent within the means of the poorest 
cultivator. Cattle droppings, chaff, straw, leaf refuse, 
ashes &c. are easily obtained and if applied with a 
mixture of bones at least would form a good manures. 
Another most important branch which the cul- 
tivators should have recourse to for preventing 
the exhaustion of their fields is a proper system 
of breaking up the soils and bringing its hidden 
treasures to the surface. To work up the soil 
well, we require better implements and by the use 
of such we have seen the produce of paddy fields 
doubled and trebled in many cases. Closely connected 
with improved implements comes the question of 
cattle which requires serious attention. Under the 
head degeneration of seed opens a large question 
on which very little attention has been paid in Ceylon. 
Ceylon cultivators should pay more regard to the 
selection of seed in the cultivation of paddy than they 
do at present. In European countries a great deal of 
attention is paid to this subject and hence they have 
improved their seed grains to a great extent. I have 
read in the Continental letter of agrioulture in one 
of your issues that they have passed an Act in France 
to guide the sellers of seed, so that a good seed might 
be obtained. The chief point to be observed in im- 
proving seed grains is to make the plants grow well and 
obtain only good seed for replanting, and when this 
principle is continued an excellent seed might be 
obtained in time. To make the plants grow healthier 
for obtaining a supply of good seed the following are 
essential, viz : — The proper preparation of the seed-bed 
and the imttiug in the seed at the proper season 
with a due supply of fertilizing matter. But if the 
seeds are allowed to grow of their own accord it would 
tend to spoil the kind by degoueration. Good seeds 
always grow better and yiold heavy crops. It is the 
duty of every cultivator when he finds a good charac- 
teristic seed to improve and preserve it from degono 
rating. Several experiments lately carried on in 
England to test the value of good seeds have shown its 
advantages. Though it was not with paddy, we can 
infer the same for our grain too. Professor Tanner 
cites the following :— 
"Two crops wt re grown upon similar land under like 
circumstances as regards climate, &c. ; in the one 
case good and suitable seed was used, and in the 
other case the selection and improvement of the seed 
had been neglected. The results^were : — 1012 lb of grain 
from good seed 371 lb only from the other. This 
shows that the selection of good seeds increased the 
produce by three times." 
'There are no doubts about our being able to increase 
the yield of paddy by selection of good seed, and so this 
branch of the cultivation should not be neglected. 
W. A. D. S. 
[Our correspondent has laid down excellent 
general principles which few of our readers will 
dispute. Good tilling implements, good tillage, 
judicious manuring, good selected seed properly 
treated, a good supply of cattle, would vastly im- 
prove the crops of paddy and the condition of the 
goyiyas. But what is wanted is that the goyiyas 
should be induced (induced meaning the compulsion 
which native headmen can apply) to adopt improved 
methods of improved culture. But how, for instance, 
can good seed be selected by people so improvident 
that most of them have to borrow (at 50 per cent 1) 
such seed as the lender may find it convenient to 
give? And how can plenty of good cattle be pro- 
vided by people too lazy to prevent the grass which 
grows on fallow paddy fields and the neighbouring 
uplands from being overwhelmed by weeds and 
such shrubs as lantana, which flourish on the doc- 
trine of the survival of the fittest? What is wanted 
is that the Agricultural Instructors scattered about 
the country should make all possible efforts to 
induce the native cultivators to carry into practice 
the great principles of husbandry which the In- 
structors have learned so aptly and whioh they can 
repeat so clearly. See the article we quote below 
from the Indian Agriculturist. — Ed.] 
FOOD-GRAINS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 
The report of a late interview with Sir J. B. Lawes 
in respect to the results of his experiments in agricul- 
tural science which, in conjunction with Dr. J. H. 
Gilbert, he is known to have been carrying on for 
nearly half a century at Kothamstead, a little town in 
Hertfordshire, has brought to public notice some facts 
which cannot be too widely made known among 
agriculturists and the classes whose material prosperity 
is closely bound up with the successful prosecution of 
agriculture. These facts are of special value to India, 
where the tillage of the earth is the staple industry 
of the overwhelming majority of the population and the 
annual produce of the crops is the gauge of the pros- 
perity or otherwise of the country. But it is in the 
food-crops that agricultural enterprise is centred in all 
parts of the world. Any new knowledge of the condi- 
tions, under which their cultivation can be improved 
aud extended, should therefore, be^, disseminated as 
widely as possible. ; and the knowledge derived from 
Sir John Lawes' experiments at Rotnamstead. may 
without any hesitation, be accepted.in most cases, as re- 
presenting the certainty of a mathematical demonstra- 
tion. Among other information, which Sir Johu L iwes 
communicated at this interview, the following remarks 
of special value. "Five years ago" he is reported to 
have said "we left the upper end of this wheat-field 
uncropped ; allowing ihe corn to fall when ripe. In 
three years there whs scarcely a siugle ear of corn 
left; those which I could find were short in the stalk 
and with perhaps a single grain. Now there is not 
one. This shows that food products are almost en- 
tirely artificial ; aud that in a few years the land 
would be a perfect wilderness, if uncultivated. But 
I myself was surprised at the rapidity with which 
the wheat disappeared." Sir John Lawes continued ; 
"The weeds Were stronger and killed out the urtiiu ial 
grain. Woods are hardy and it is really 'the survi- 
