590 
" quality" quoted has always stuck in my memory, 
and I do not think it will be denied that the facto- 
ries designated have a low average. If such Pekoe 
Souohong eells in London at 6Jd, and this, as you, 
sir, figure it out, is equivalent to 30 oents looally, I 
cannot understand tvhy it should only realize 22- 
24 looally, except that at the Colombo sales there 
is no fair and healthy competition. But as I 
remarked before, neither " A Buyer's" laboured ex- 
planation nor my growls can throw much more light 
on the subject. There is, however, after til, not 
much mystery about it ; and if I were a buyer I 
should not need to ask WHY ? 
RICE CULTIVATION. 
Jao. 2Qd. 
Deae Sib, — There seems to be a deal of luisapppre- 
faenaion regarding the system of dry ploughing and 
about the yield of paddy and other graios generally. 
When crops are spoken as ' so raauy fold,' it always 
bears a relation to the quantity of seed used iu 
eowing. As regards paddy in ordinary cultivation, 1 
to 3 bushels are sowu per acre. The quantity used 
•Iways depends on the nature of the land, the season 
and the variety of paddy. la rioh and fertile lands 
only a small quantity of seed paddy is used, the 
case is especially so if the season is favourable. On 
the other hand when the land is unferlile and the 
season is unfavourable a larger quantity of grain is 
used for sowing. It has to bo borne in mind that 
whatever the quantity of seed be, which is sfattered 
over the land, only a certain proportion of plants do 
oome up. An acre of paddy field can never under 
any circumstances hold a number of plants over the 
number of grains of paddy from say a quarter 
bushel of seed. If an acre of land is sown with 
one bushel or three bushels, the plants which sui v ve 
cannot count over the number above mentioned. That 
would be the highest possible number, but in the 
majority of oases it is very much less. The rest of the 
seed grain is simply wasted. 
Unless any sowing machine or a seed drill be used 
and until the proper selection of seeds is earned cut, 
the necessity of sowing a larger quantity of grain 
than is actually required must continuo to exiBt. 
Out of the grain thrown on a well prepared rich 
land a great number comes up, while when the lanJ 
is unfertile and the S':aBon is unfavourable ouly a 
smaller number germinates. That is the reason why 
a large quantity of seed grain is eoaltered on inferior 
Boils. The above I believe is the cause of much mis- 
nnderstanding as regards the yield of pal'iy in different 
areas. W hen mentioned by folds, the quantity always 
depends on the amount of seed paddy used. So the 
adoption of a yield per acre for calculation purposes 
would be much better, as things stand ju^t now. 
But it is deplorable that there is such a waste of 
■eod paddy, and it was I believe one for Mr. Green's 
first plans in the improvement of rice cultivation 
to advocate the use of seed sparingly. Even as n.atters 
exist the quantity of seed grain could be vary materially 
reduced, and it selection of seed is praciistd, a 
greater saving could bo made, but if seed drills and 
sowing machines are introduced the quimtity would ba 
still more reduced, whilst tlia transplanting sjstem 
wherever it could bo adopted would bring the waste 
to a miuunum. 
The above applies with the same force to burrakkan 
and other grains. The finer the grain;! are there wou'd 
be a latg'er number of seed, measure for measure: for 
instance a measure of kurrikkan would oontiiu over 
1.5 limes the number of Koed contained in a measure 
of ' a raor.tba' paddy,' whilst a mea'-ure of sm dl grainr-d 
* 2 months' paddy,' would coutniu about tw'c^' ^ 
Bumb'r. Hence encli ol these varielios wunld produoo 
a vorying number of plants in fpite of Ihe quf.ntity 
b'.'ing the Harne. T)i'; land has almost nothing to do 
with teed", I'ut to ^npport the plants. This explains 
why a much SDiidlor (|uanLity of fine grain ia used 
in sowing a given cxteut of laud. 
Your correspondent " Native Cultivator " does not 
seem to favour dry or deep ploughing, and he naturally 
sticks to the much easier process of stirring up the 
mud when the land is thoroughly eoakcd. Some of his 
arguments against the adoption of the improved sys- 
tem have been put forward more than one? in your 
columns. I remember ibat some years ago ainost 
the same arguments were brought forward, 
and Prof. Wallace's authority was cited in 
support. But fo far as I am aware the Professor 
never wrote or spoke a:a'n8t the advisability of dry 
and deeper ploughing. It is eaid that dry plough- 
ing would throw up lumps of clay which it would te 
difficult to pulverize. Lumps of earth would be turned 
up by the share of an improved plough no doubt on 
some lands, but if those lumps are not allowed to be 
baked in the sun, there cannot be any difficulty iu 
pulverizing the same. In such lands the clods should 
be pulverized just after the ploughing and then 
exposed. 
The great drawback iu our native system is that 
whilst it prepares a suitable seed-bed, it do38 not 
expose the soil to the actio i of (he sun and the at- 
mospheric agencies, which action alone could mike a 
soil fertile. The weeds buriid by the native plough 
might decay but they very seldom form a suitable 
manure ; on the other hand the action of the water 
makes them to dtciy and stagnate and generate 
objectionable organic acida, whilst in the case of 
dry ploughing the weeds and rnbbiah disintegrate and 
form a matjure without fiencraling anything objec- 
tionahle, Your correspondent again says in one place, 
" that the native plough digs deeper than the im- 
proved plough. ' It might in some instances, when the 
land is soaked, stir up the mud deeper. But such 
deep stirring is quite useless and sometimes objection- 
able, when the land is not expose! to the acton of 
the aun. What the improved plough doen, so far as 
I have seen, is that it does not dui deep, but exposes 
a larger quantity of soil, thereby increasing the 
quantity of plant-food. 
As your correspondent mentions, the villagers also 
have a system of dry cultivation which they generally 
adopt whenever they fail to obtain the water necessary 
for soaking the fields. This is known as leJcuIan 
sowing. 
When lands are dry sown according to the native 
system they at first give very goods crops, but in 
some cases when the dry systr n is continued, as your 
correspondent observes the land yield poorer and poorer 
crops. But in other instances, such as mentioned by- 
Mr. Elliot they continue to yield good crops. This is 
very easily explained ; in the first place it should be 
mentioned that in the native system of dry cultivation 
not more than two to three inches of the soil is stirred. 
At first the land yields a bumper crojo as the soil is 
exposed and a large qiiautity of plantfood is liberated; 
when the cultivation is continued if it be an average 
and the fertile constituents are gradually wasted, for 
the same material (the upper two inches) is used over 
and over again and hence the poor crops. If the land 
is unusually rich in dormant plant constituents the 
fertility is maintained for a longer time. 
This is not the case where the improved plough is 
used, it turns up more soil, four to six inches or 
more, and hence there is not only more feeding growth 
for the plants but a larger store of plant food to fall 
back upon ; besides the depth of ploughing could be 
varied at different seasons. 
Under any system, be it the ordinary wet cultivation, 
dry cultivation or the improved system, the land is 
found to get poorer year by year unless manure be 
added to it or unless it be fed by a silt-bearing 
stream. But one thing is clear; that is that a land 
worked according to the improved system would retain 
its fertility much longer than it would otherwise. 
In this connection I may mention that the paddy soils 
of Ceylon have never been subjected to any series of 
chemical analyses, and it would be in the interest of 
the improvement of jiaddy cultivation if a series of 
samples of paddy soils be obtained from the dif- 
ferent districts and subjected to a careful analysis. — 
Yours truly. 
W. A, D. S. 
