Magazine  of  the  School  of  Agriculture. 
21 
each  plant  in  the  line.  A line  generally  contains 
from  two  to  three  plants  abreast  close 
together. 
By  the  latter  part  of  May  or  a few  days 
after  planting  slight  showers  are  experienced 
and  the  young  plants  begin  to  come  up  with 
great  vigour,.  These  showers  are  succeeded  by 
heavy  rains  by  the  middle  of  June,  as  heavy  or 
heavier  than  we  experience  in  Ceylon,  and 
continue  till  after  the  crop  is  gathered.  Some- 
times when  the  rain  is  heavy  the  whole  field 
is  seen  under  water  for  hours  together  or  for 
a whole  day,  and  at  no  time  from  this  stage 
is  the  soil  free  from  a large  quantity  of 
moisture.  In  gathering  the  crop  the  cultivators 
do  not  wait  until  the  cobs  are  drying,  but 
pluck  them  in  a slightly  greenish  state  and 
dry  them  before  taking  off  the  seed. 
But  what  should  be  of  great  importance  to 
those  in  Ceylon  is  the  value  of  the  stalks  and 
the  leaves  of  the  plant  as  fodder.  Just  after 
the  pods  are  taken,  the  plants  are  reaped  down 
and  bundled  and  removed  for  the  purposes  of 
feeding  cattle.  The  cultivator,  if  he  himself 
does  not  use  it,  gets  a fair  price  for  the  leaves. 
Besides  these  great  advantages  from  the 
extended  cultivation  of  this  plant  in  Ceylon, 
two  other  points  of  practical  value  strike  one. 
First,  the  possibility  of  growing  Indian  corn  in 
many  of  our  Ceylon  paddy-fields  either  alter- 
nately with  paddy  or,  much  better,  during  the 
season  the  fields  are  generally  without  a crop, 
which  extends  from  five  to  eight  months.  It 
may  be  said,  and  it  is  partly  true,  that  both 
paddy  and  Indian  corn  being  crops  of  the  same 
family,  would  soon  exhaust  the  soil,  but  this 
exhaustion  would  be  remedied  by  manuring, 
and  it  is  by  no  means  the  most  enlightened 
system  to  leave  a land  uncultivated,  when  there 
is  a possibility  of  growing  a crop,  for  fear  of 
exhausting  the  soil.  When  the  crop  cultivated 
is  not  a permanent  one,  the  object  of  the  land- 
owner  should  be  to  get  as  much  out  of  the 
land  as  it  is  possible  without  keeping  it  idle 
and  return  to  it  in  the  form  of  manure  the 
ingredients  removed  from  the  soil.  How 
pleasant  to  the  eye  would  be  the  sight  of 
thousands  of  acres  of  waving  corn-fields  in 
places  where  meadow-like  spaces  are  seen  now 
for  a greater  part  of  the  year.  If  the  goyiyas 
could  be  made  to  go  in  for  Indian  corn  culti- 
vation as  a subsidiary  product  in  their  fields, 
they  would  perhaps  be  less  liable  to  the  blame 
which  is  often  cast  upon  them  of  being  lazy 
and  idle  during  a great  part  of  the  year. 
.The  fodder  which  this  plant  would  yield  will 
go  not  only  to  improve  our  cattle  and  make 
them  less  liable  to  disease,  but  to  increase  their 
numbers  materially. 
The  goyiyas  would  not  take  to  anything 
from  the  mere  preaching  of  it.  1 am  fully 
aware  of  that,  and  if  pressure  is  made  to  be 
brought  upon  them,  they  will  do  it  in  such 
a way  as  to  make  it  a failure,  but  if  they 
are  to  be  made  to  take  it  up  they  will  re- 
quire practical  proof,  and  if  a few  persons 
undertake  experiments  in  growing  Indian  corn 
in  rotation  with  paddy  and  find  the  system  a 
success,  I have  no  doubt  the  goyiyas  will  take 
to  it  in  earnest. 
Bombay.  W.  A.  D,  S, 
ZOOLOGICAL  NOTES  FOB  AGRICULTURAL 
STUDENTS. 
Sub-kingdom  III.  Bchinodermata  (Gr.  Echi- 
nos,  a hedgehog,  derma,  skin.)  so  called  from 
the  prickly  nature  of  the  skin  in  most  members. 
General  Characters.— Simple  marine  organ- 
isms ; the  body  of  the  adult  more  or  less 
radiate,  that  of  the  young  bilateral ; an  ali- 
mentary canal,  which  never  communicates  with 
the  body  cavity.  A water-vascular  system — a 
peculiar  system  of  canals  distributed  through 
the  body  and  usually  communicating  with  the 
exterior,  often  employed  in  locomotion.  Ner- 
vous systems  radiate,  composed  of  an  sesopha- 
geal  ring  and  radiating  branches.  Sexes  generally 
distinct,  rarely  united. 
In  this  sub-kingdom  are  included  the  well- 
known  sea-urchins  ( echinoidea ),  star-fish  (qs- 
teroidea),  brittle-stars  and  sand-stars  ( ophi - 
uroidea),  feather-stars  ( crinoidea ),  and  the  Holo- 
thuroidea,  commonly  known  as  “ sea-cucumbers,” 
“ trepangs,”  or  “ beclies-de-mer.”  These  last- 
mentioned  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  West- 
ern coast  of  the  Northern  Province  of  Ceylon, 
in  from  2 feet  to  7 or  8 fathoms  of  water, 
and  the  trade  in  the  slugs  is  chiefly  in  the 
hands  of  the  Chinese,  who  after  fishing  and 
“ curing  ” the  beches-de-mer,  ship  them  to  China, 
where  they  are  greatly  esteemed  as  an  article  of 
diet. 
Sub-kingdom.  IV.  Annulwa  (Lat.  annulus, 
a ring.) 
General  Characters. — Body  more  or  less  elon- 
gated, bilaterally  symmetrical,  commonly  divided 
into  similar  segments  which  may  be  definite 
or  indefinite ; limbs  when  present  in  pairs ; 
a nervous  system  is  present,  and  consists  of 
one  or  two  ganglia  in  the  fore  part  of  the 
body,  or  of  a ventrally  placed  double  gangli- 
ated  chain.  (Ganglion,  Gr.  a knot ; a mass  of 
nervous  matter  containing  nerve  cells,  and 
giving  origin  to  nerve  fibres.  ) 
Division  I.  Scolecida.  This  division  includes 
the  tape- worms  (Tceniada),  in  which  the  body 
of  the  adult  is  elongated  and  composed  of 
flattened  joints,  the  anterior  extremity  (head) 
covered  with  booklets,  or  suckers,  or  both 
combined.  There  is  no  mouth  or  alimentary 
canal,  and  the  young  pass  through  a metamor- 
phosis. The  muture  animal  is  hermaphrodite. 
In  their  mature  condition  the  Tseniada  are 
always  found  inhabiting  the  alimentary  canal 
of  some  warm-blooded  vertebrate  animal ; and 
they  are  distinguished  by  their  great  length, 
being  composed  of  a number  of  flattened 
joints  or  articulations.  The  true  animal  is 
found  in  the  so-culled  “ head,”  while  the  joints 
are  simply  hermaphrodite  generative  segments 
which  the  head  throws  off  by  a process 
of  gemmation  or  budding.  The  head  is  a minute 
rounded  body  which  is  furnished  with  the 
hooklets  und  suckers  before  mentioned,  where- 
by the  animal  maintains  its  hold  on  the  mu- 
cous membrane  of  t he  intestines  of  its  host. 
No  digestive  organs  and  mouth  are  present,  and 
nutrition  of  the  animal  is  effected  by  imbibition. 
The  head,  however,  contains  no  reproductive 
organs,  and  these  are  developed  in  the  joints  or 
segments.  Each  segment  when  mature  contains 
both  male  and  female  organs,  and  is  therefore 
