26 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1891. 
the omall increase in the populatioa of so many dia- 
triots of the IsJwnd during the last decade. 
A bud ia sbowmg on the cincaaion bnshcs wliich 
may possibly uecessitato a si nppaf;e of peeliug opcra- 
tiom for ft time. Tho effects of last year's drought 
are now showing in the smiiU s ze of tli6 nuts beii g 
Rat'iered ; somo ere ridioulou^ily smali, and all belnw 
tho averase. This state of things will coiitinno 1 
fancy till towards 'he closp of the y^ar. 
Surely thern mu^t bo a large nrmbt-r of barren or male 
oooonnt trees in the Wim'^s i'.rd I»;andfi that miikeH Mr, 
Huggiiis aeem bo nnxiona fur i remedy ? Tbe.qe are sn 
rare id Oeylon (perhnp^ not one in 'hree or four thousand) 
tlist they are not worth cnsiner ng ; 'be s-mie may 
be said of trees th.it produce nuts wiihont kfrui-la. 
I am not snfficiet/tiy scquainu-i! with physiology to 
be able 60 < xplaiu iheae tn ak^ of nature. Mr. Hugeina 
■wishts to kuow whether such trees cannot be grafted 
with frnitfiil ones. Ia it posHible to graft ou mono- 
cotyledonous phmfs '? 
K«-!iraue, My 17'h.— Grand rain last night: 
measured 'hi' morning 5'S7 inches. The rain fell 
quietly and steadily arl night. No wind, lightning or 
thnnder. 
INDIAN AGKICULTURE IN ITS PHYSICAL 
Dr. Voelek^r 'nfin • 
To ar.y(irr<= inn 
aro'.r.rr ' on.i„ 
of much pr tl";, p 1 
and definite siudy 
ASPECTS. 
i bliphed the following paper; — 
* in agricuij ut e a tour in 
n 'lis own ■ vi: fail to be 
when th'it em! ss a special 
'f the ag'icultu!' of a distant 
part of the great Biifieh Empire, it is surrounded 
with peculiar iniereet. Already the growth of an 
export trade in agricultural produoe from India 
has exercised a con-'iderable bearing upon England 
itseif, ard the condition of that vast country 
with its teeming massifs, the greater number by 
far engaged in the pursuit of agriculture, cannot 
fail to be a maU.r of deep coiiaern. LonKed at 
purely from the poiiJt of view of an agricultural 
observer and inquir';r, I can hardly imagine any 
field so fertile in rewarding a carefi.l study as 'ndia 
offars ; and wli^n one is privileged, as I have been, 
to pursue an invf st'r'.a ion under auspices so favour- 
able &nii with advant-^ges 0 great as were afforded 
t" mytelf, he cnn sciarooly fsii to return deeply 
impressed with the geoerwl exci Uenco of the native 
agriculture of India, ai d with the truly won 
dinul administratioc of that great and important 
Empire. * * * 
The first and most natural differences that strike 
the newly-Errivad visitor are the prevailing heat and 
the ever-present sun, features playinc a most im- 
p'jftant part in determining the agriculture of India. 
As the jouriiey is ma-de from Bombay or other 
Keaport into the open country, the town is 
rapidly left, and many an hour or even a whole day 
may be parsed in the train before another town 
of any considerable size ia met with, for agriculture 
is the staple industry and occupation of the 
people. But in place of the wide and often undula- 
ting fields of England, the monotony of crop-growing 
pleasartly broken here and there by the variation 
of pasture land with its feeding herds of cattle 
and shei p,wefind in India a level plain stretching 
for many miles along our route, and split up into 
almost minute divisions, upon which not one but 
Roverwl crop.-; or patchea of crops my be seen growing. 
No hedges nor even stone walls mark the boundaries 
either of field or holding, for, in all but a few 
special districts, hedges, properly so called, will not 
grow, and in othi r parts one may traverse a thousand 
miloR without coming across a stona even the 
Bino of a pebble. 
It is not a land of large, but of very smal 
holdings, the average area belonging to a cultivating 
tenant being only about five acres. On this email 
space he and his family, and often his biothera 
or other relatives with their families as well, exist— 
living, as it were, under a communal sya'.em. Nc 
trees surround the fields or break the landscape, 
unless where a poor and barren atrolch will not 
repay cultivation, and has been left to jung'e growth 
or remains a bare parchel^pot. Along the coast 
may brj seen dotted here and there the tall 
coeoanut tree; but its region is soon left behind 
and sn oeeai-.ioual palmyra, or toddypalm, takes 
its place. It is 0!jly when the journey, it may 
be of several days' length, brings one to the mountain 
or hilly regions that tho vai-t forests are met with 
and fringe the cultiv-.tcd area; otherwise, the general 
appearance of the country is that of a vast, heated, 
an I apart from the agricultur , uninterestiog plain. 
The workers we ste on these small five-acre 
holdings ara not the day labourers, with the farmer 
Talking busily amongst them but the tenant him- 
self and his family, each taking his ajid her part, 
and more frequently than not working on rather 
than ahove the ground— a group of Ecaqtily clad 
dusky men and women, here squatting down and 
busily weeding ; here, in a similar position, cutting 
a crop with hand and sickle, and laying the hand- 
ftil- side by side until a bundle i- gradually formed ; 
there driving along tho pair or more of oxen (not 
ho gf t) that pull the ploogh which lightly runs 
t'.-r.u ;b t':= tip sui'fac; of the soil but turns no 
furrow over; there throwing with wicker basket- 
scoops the water from an edj icent pool or running 
channel on to the growing crop, or raising it from 
a well in leathern buckets drawn up by bullocks 
with a rope and pulley. In p'ace of grazing herds 
in green fields, there are ftaudering troops of thin 
half starved enttle that roam, over the barren tracks, 
picking up what they can, thou-jh hardly 3 green 
tpot seem.? to reward tiisir search, orgoa*s that 
pu'l down and plue'ii evtry green bougii or twig 
that offers itself, or buffiloes cooiing their hides 
iij muddy pools, from which if possible they will 
allow only their heads to emergp. 
As we pass on, other anges are noticed : what 
is BOW in the cold seaiiu , a tiny stream, and in 
the hot season may be dii. d up altogether, will 
in the rainy period swell into a vas swift-flowing 
torrer.t, and cover the wide bed which now lies 
exposed. Elsewhere a canal, or its numerous bran- 
ches, carried off by engineering skill from some 
great river, brings the all essentia! water that the 
crops require, and without which agriculture would 
in many parts be at a standstill for the greater 
portion of the year. Yet another feature cannot 
fail to slrike the eye: in some districts are vast 
plains coated with a snow-like crust and devoid 
of all vegetation. Theso are the well-known reh 
or usa?' tracts, the bringing of which into cultivation 
hag baffled nearly every effort, but the reclamation 
of which would, over many thousand acres, supply 
food for the wants of an ever-pressing population. 
As the days and the weeks go by we have no 
longer the changes of a fickle English climate 
with its alternation of rain and sunshine, but a 
steady continuance of a long series of days cno like 
the- other, but always hot; then, as March is 
reached, it becomes hotter and hotter, until when 
all tho country presents at length a burnt-up 
vppearanoe, there comss, about the end of Jutre or 
early in July, a tremendous change. The ra'ns 
descend in torrents, the rivers become swollen and 
flood the land, and coat the barren spots, as it by 
magio, with a green sward. 
Such are, very briefly, some of the most pro 
minent features that characterise the externa 
appearance of Indian agriculture. But this, though 
