THE iMAOAZlME 
Tf)G U 
OF 
COLOMBO 
(^ULTURG, 
Added as a Supplement monthly to the '' TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
The following pages include the contents of the Magazine of the School of 
Agriculture for March : — 
Vol. v.] 
MARCH, 1894. 
[No. 9. 
SYSTEMS OF CULTIVATION. 
|0 MAINTAIiV the fertility of land 
is the ultimate object of every 
practical agriculturist. In a sense 
every measuie that the intelligent 
cultivator adoPts in his agricultural practice is 
calculated not to exhaust his soil, but, to 
maintain the fertility of the land. For instance,- 
the ordinary process of " working the soil " 
by whatever means, aims at making the soil 
fertile, in the real sense of the term, namely, 
capable of ' bearing fruit '—of producing crops. 
There may, however, be said to be a number 
of so-called "systems of cultivation," adopted 
to varying conditions and circumstances, and 
intended to maintain the fertility of the land 
under cultivation. 
Not long ago Jethro Tull, the father of modern 
husbandry, believed in the possibility of growing 
the same crop ou the same land year after 
year without manure, provided deep and thorough 
cultivation was practised. On virgin soil it may 
be possible to continue to grow the same crop 
year after year, or to cultivate a perennial plant 
without the addition of manure to the soil, but no 
intelligent cultivator e.xpects land treated ac- 
cording to this system, to yield a remunerative 
return for any length of time. Tull, however, did 
great service to the cause of agriculture. He 
was thu inventor of the drill, and the result of 
his three great principles, drilling, redaction of 
seed and absence of weeds helped to bring about 
a complete reformation in the agriculture of 
his time : and by his attempt to cultivate 
without manure, lie at any rate showed the agri- 
culturist that thorough working and pulverization 
of the soil roudei a much smiillor application of j 
tertilizera neceisary. It was of Tull that Dr. i 
Johnson remarked: " His deeds, his triumphs were 
of the peaceful kind, with which the world in 
general is little enamoured ; but their results were 
momentous to his native laud." His drill is 
said to have saved to the world in seeds alone the 
food of millions. 
Our correspondent W. A. D. S. in his last instal- 
ment of notes which appeared in the January 
number of the Magazine, describes the method 
adopted by the Indian cultivation, and shows that 
the principles of Tull, viz., drilling, saving of 
seed, and absence of weeds have been recognised 
by the ryot. The question of weeds has been a 
vexed one amongst us, that is in connection 
with the cultivation of perennials. In the case of 
annual or biennial herbs and shrubs, however, 
there is no doubt but that every means which 
secures freedom from weeds to the growing crop 
should be availed of. Another system where the 
use of manure is theoretically tabooed is that 
known as Smith's Lois Weedon system. This 
would seem to be a modification of Jethro Tull's 
idea. According to it three i-ows of seed are sown 
at suitable distance apart, and a breadth of land 
equal to that occupied by the seed is left unsown 
between each set of rows. The fallow of this year 
is in crop next year, and the crop of tliis year in 
fallow the next, and so on. With deep and 
thorough frequent tillage this has been proved to 
be a successful system. 
In his book on India, Professor Wallace men- 
tions that Mr. Ozanne, of the Bombay Agricultural 
Department, had a series of most useful experi- 
ments going ou at the time of his (the professor's 
visit) and says : — " I was particularly struck 
with his iw'.s Weedon plots growing wheat year 
after year on the same area, though not exactly 
in the identical part of the soil. The crop was 
sown in groups of three rows, twelve inches apart, 
Willi intervening spaces of fallow land. Tlie laud 
which is under crop the first year is fallow 
next year, aud vice versa. The advantages are 
that tiu' crop has the benefit of the whole air 
space, while the land has u rest every alternate 
year. I believe it is possible that tliis system 
may have a great future in India," 
