October i, 1S9T,] 
Stippkment to the '■^Tropical Agncu/tmist." 
profit. With its abimdant crops of mangoes 
Ceylon might send almost au unlimited supply 
of the preserved fruit, but until it be proved 
that the manufacture will pay — and an attempt 
has already been made with this object in view 
— no one is likely to start the industry. 
General Fisher, E. E,, writing of water required 
for rice cultivation, says : — " The quantity used 
in the Godavery and Kistna Deltas, t'iz., ■015 c. ft. 
per second per acre, or 2 c. yards jjer hour, 
has been found, from many years' experience, 
to be ample, and immense volumes go to waste 
for which drainage works have to be pro^■ided. 
So far, then, as South India is concerned, in such 
localities everything apjiears to have been done 
which is at all necessary, so far as relates to 
the quantity of water required for such irrigation. 
A correspondent, however, states that in Italy 
the quantity given varies from '036 to '14 c. ft. 
per second per acre. The former is more than 
double the quantity usually allowed in India, 
about 4"0o c. yards per hour per acre, and the 
latter in upwards of 18'7 c. yards per hour -per 
acre ; the question then is how would it be 
practicable to secure such supplies of water in 
the dry mouths in India ? To store water for 
1,000 acres, say for 120 days' supply at the 
rate of 7'12 c. yards per hour per acre, we 
want nearly 50 million c. yards to be stored 
in order to provide for evaporation, leakage, 
&c., and for such extent of land as wo have 
in the deltas the quantity required would be 
25,000 million c. yards of water. It is quite 
plain, then, that the Government could never 
go to such an expense. If the Italians do obtain 
such quantities it must be from rivers which 
are supplied in the hot months by natural 
reservoirs from the snows melting in the hills 
or lakes. So far as my knowledge and experience 
go, I should say they use too much instead of 
too little water in India, and this is confirmed 
by the practice of the natives in using well- 
water when it is said a field requires to be 
irrigated once in 3 or 4 days ; and I have 
always found that it was quite easy in tank 
irrigation to cut off the supply largely during 
the nights. The waste which now goes by no 
one attending at all to the sluices of a taiik is 
enormous ; these are allowed to discharge day 
and night through their appertures, exactly in 
the same way whether the heads over them are 
5 feet or 20 feet. Now the velocity in the one 
case would be 215'3 inches per second, and 
430'6 inches per second in the other theoretically. 
The loss of water in tanks I believe is not 
due so much to evaporation as to this huge 
waste by mere cai-elessness and negligence. If 
the rice were cultivated in India as it is in 
South Carolina, very much less water would 
be required, and the yield be much greater. 
There is apparently no difference in the seed 
as South Carolina had this conveyed there 
originally from the Mauritius, but the Yankees 
allow of no such thing as "mamool" to keep 
them sticking in the mud." 
The Cow-tree which is found growing in the 
rocky arid plains of South America to a height 
of more than a hundred feet, and first described 
by Baron Humboldt, yields a rich nutritious 
milk. The juice is obtained from the stem by 
making incisions, and is collected by natives 
in gourds. It is used with cassava and Indian 
corn bread, and for several months in the year 
is the principal food of the natives. 
