October i, i8go.] 
THE TROPICAL AQRieULTURliT. 239 
— a— a— M— — a— 
with matters so deeply afieoting their interests as 
the breeding and tending o£ cattle, measures for 
the prevention of disease and for its limitation 
and cure, when it has appeared. All that is 
wanted, we repeat, is that the powers vested in the 
people should be intelligently used by them for their 
own good. Government will, of course, see to it that 
while the Forest officers are demarcating reserve 
forests and repressing wasteful ohenaing, a sufficient 
area of ground is left in connection with villages for 
purposes of common pasture. On such commons 
those interested ought to be compelled to bestow 
labour in clearing the ground of jungle and weeds, 
so giving the nutritious grasses fair play in the 
struggle for existence of various forms of vegeta- 
tion. This measure alone will in most cases suffice, in 
ordinary seasons, to secure good pasturage on high 
lands, while water grass can be cultivated on 
portions of swampy land to which village labour 
ought to be applied for drainage purposes. The 
breaking up of oabook (laterite) by means of 
mamoties, or the application of a small quantity 
of good oabook as a top dressing to sandy or inferior 
soil, has an excellent effect. The late Dr. Thwaites 
of the Peradeniya Gardens, in the paper to which 
we have already referred as contained in the appen- 
dix to the report of 1869, stated : — 
Taking into consideration the secondary interest, as 
compared with his paddy fields, which the native culti- 
vator appears to take in his cattle, — these being allowed 
to roam about, to pick up food where they can find it — 
on paddy fields when the crop is off, on the sides of 
roads, and on scrubby ohena lands, — without any at- 
tempt, BO far as I have observed, to keep them in 
fenoed-iu pastures, or to improve the pastures by free- 
ing them from weeds,— 1 hardly see what better step, as 
a preliminary one, can be resorted to, than to endeavour 
to induce the villagers to increase the extent of their 
pasturage by converting into grass laud large areas of 
chena, which are now covered with lantaua and other 
comparatively useless vegetation. The park-like por- 
tion of the Peradeniya garden has been formed by 
merely keeping oleareu ground free from weeds, allow- 
ing any grass plants that shewed themselves to remain. 
After a tew weedings the latter became so numerous by 
spontaneous growth (no seeds being artificially sown) 
that a fine grass-sward, on which cattle thrive well, is 
produced. The subsequent weedings which are neces- 
sary to keep it clean, are effected with a very trifling 
expenditure of labour. If arrangements could be orga- 
nised for a similar process of clearing and weeding 
certain portions of the waste lands throughout the 
Island by village communities, who might be allowed 
to pasture their cattle, on certain ooudicions, upon such 
cleared land, an important addition would be made to 
the wealth of the Island, and, it may certainly be added 
to the be auty of its scenery. 
Were systematic cattle rearing a more prominent 
part of the industrial occupations of the native popula- 
tion, more attention would doubtless be directed to the 
providing food for their cattle during the dry season, 
and in sufficient amount to meet any exceptionally long 
rainless period that might occur. Paddy straw appears 
to be a capital fodder, and to bo extensively nsed as 
snob. It 18 probable that some oi ttio -o ^rser grasses 
of the Island, which on account of th^ir uai.-hness in a 
fresh state are then unpalatable to cattle, migh if dried 
into hay and then chopped or pounded, be found capa- 
ble of furnishing nutritious fodder for cattle. Clearing 
away the small vegetation from the banks of 
rivers and streams, and planting them with Manritius 
grass would be a most useful proceeding in very many 
parts of the Island. 
As a tropical country, Ceylon is highly favoured in 
the amount of its grass laud, an i in the quality of many 
of its ii.digenouH grasses. A superior description of 
pasture might no doubt bo produced by sowing upon 
cleared laud seeds of the moat nutrilioua species of 
grass collected for the p^^po,^e. It would also be de- 
sirable to proonre if possible, seeds of esteemed tropical 
grasses which we do not already possess, to be used for 
a similar purpose. 
It must be borne in mind that for different zones o^ 
elevation different species of grass would, respectively 
be found to be best adapted ; and the same would apply 
to differences of climate as respects excessive dryness or 
superabundant moisture. Investigation and exiieriments 
therefore, if thought desirable to be made in this di- 
rection, would have to be carried on in various localities 
in the Island, and with different kinds of grasses. 
On the cleared pasture grounds of these gardens 
(without the addition of any other food) with Sinhalese 
and Coast varieties of cattle thrive exceedingly well, 
bringing forth strong and healthy calves, and yielding 
milk and butter of good quality. Very little attention 
is required to prevent ill effects arising to young 
calves from the bites of leeches. It is true that sheep 
cannot easily be pastured where leeches abound, owing 
to the ieeoh-bites becoming fly-blown, and in this way 
incurable sores are frequently produced; but this 
particular obstacle to the breeding of sheep would 
hardly obtain in the drier parts of the Island. 
Here we have the necessary measures for securing 
good pasturage and forage indicated. The one thing 
wanting is that the natives should voluntarily or under 
benevolent compulsion, bestow labour on the prepara- 
tion and conservation of pasturage for their cattle in- 
stead of allowing the wretched animals to wander 
through jungles and swamps or fallow paddy-fields, 
picking up a scanty and precarious subsistence. 
It is gross exaggeration to describe the soil of 
Ceylon as “ poor in the extreme.” It varies, of 
course ; but everywhere, if weeded and kept free 
of useless or noisome vegetation, it is capable, under 
the influence of our tropic sun and our tropic rains, 
of yielding very fair pasturage. The recommenda- 
tions in the report of 1869 as regards food for cattle 
were as follows - 
Believing that the cattle of this country suffer 
greatly from the want of good and sufficient grazing 
during seasons of drought, and from exposture in their 
search for food in the rainy months, we would suggest 
the desirability of inducing village cattle owners to 
husband their paddy straw under shelter, to serve as 
fodder for their animals during the inclement seasons 
of each monsoon, as tnere can be no doubt that their 
herds would be muefi benefited by atall-feeding during 
snub periods. 
Mauritius grass dried and stored against seasons 
of prolonged drought or excessive rain, would form 
an admirable adjunct to paddy straw for purposes of 
stall-feeding, and we strongly urge its introduction into 
the rural districts of the country. It is a grass easily 
acclimatised, requiring no cultivation and of rajiid 
growth, and it would be well suited for ravines in 
the hili districts and for swampy ground in the low 
country. The slight trouble involved in protecting it 
by fence or ditch from destruction by wild cattle 
would be amply compensated for in the valuable supply 
of exce lent dry fodder it would aft'ord, whilst the 
manure that would be accumulated in the cattle 
stalls at such times, could be employed in aiding 
the fertility of adjacent paddy lauds, a matter to 
which native cultivators have nitfierto paid far too 
little attention. 
We believe that the “ Prairie Grass” of Australia 
is also well suited to the climate of this country, and 
might bo extensively iutroducod in pastoral districts 
with great advantage. It is a very Uardy perennial,* 
grows to a great height if left uncut, and wfien grazed 
over makes a fine compact and enduring sward, cajiable 
of withstanding the effects of severe droughts. The 
grass is now being successfully grown on. the Company's 
Farm at Peradeniya. 
‘ PiiAisiE Grass.” — T his most valuable plant has 
become well and favorably known ; it is a very hardy 
variety, stands drought as well as it not better than any 
other grasses, can be kept constantly under the scythe, 
and is well relished by all kinds of stock. It is most 
valuable to squatters, who by sowing a few bushels 
broadcast over their runs well secure a most permanent 
grass. The quantity required per acre is about two or 
three onaiivlB.—Meldourne Qircular, 1869. 
