242 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[October i, 1890; 
elephants. It is used extensively as thatch for coolie 
lines and other baildings where to be had, and for 
this purpose and for litter for cattle is grown on some 
estates. It is grown in several portions of the West- 
ern Province on the embankments of ditches as a sort of 
fence. Cattle eat this grass when it is young, and for 
this purpose the patnas on which the natives graze 
their cattle are annually burnt, bat the milk, butter, 
and even the flesh of cattle fed on it have a peculiar 
aromatic flavor. The following remarks by General 
Martin who sent Dr. Roxburgh the grass from Bala- 
ghaut named after him is applicable to our Ceylon one, 
if the grasses are not the same species.’ “I took par- 
ticular notice of a sort of long grass which the cattle 
were voraciously fond of, which is of so strong an aro- 
matic and pungent taste, that the flesh of the animals, 
as also the milk and the butter, have a very strong 
scent of it.” I keep this separate in the meantime from 
the Citronella Grass, and what is called Lemon Grass 
in Ceylon. 
We may add that mana-grass has been very 
largely used on estates to cover nursery seed 
beds, also as bedding for cattle, and now 
a new interest attaches to the product from the 
prospect of its being utilized as “ strawboard ” 
for the manufacture of tea boxes, in regard to 
which we have a separate article in type. 
Andropogon pertusus “is an excellent fodder either 
in a green or dry state and cattle are very fond of it.” 
Again we have a notice of one of our best native 
grasses in Cynodon dactylon, of which we are told : — 
This is the famous Huryalee of the Deccan, and the 
Arugam-pillu of the Tamils in Southern India and 
Ceylon. It is the grass supposed to be the best fodder 
of the indigenous ones, and is invariably selected by 
the grass women who may be seen all over Colombo 
scraping the whole plant from the roadsides and swards, 
to the very great injury of both, as it is one of the 
best grasses for binding the roadsides, and for forming 
swards. It is quite common everywhere in Ceylon, 
from the sea-coast up to the plains of Nuwara Bliya. 
It is the Panicum Dactylon, Linn., Agrostis linearis, 
Retz. and has been described under about a dozen other 
names. It seems to be common over a great part of 
the world. It is found in Bngland, and other parts of 
Europe, India, China, Thibet, Australia, South and 
Central America, and the Cape of Good Hope, and said 
to have been introduced into Farz and Khuzistan, by 
the British Expedition of 1856-7, according to Birdwood 
p. 126. Col. Otley has written fully on the cultivation 
of this grass as a fodder for cavalry, in the Madras 
Literary Journal, but some trials made by me near 
Colombo did not bear out the Colonel’s recommenda- 
tion. It is the Durva, Sans. Doorba, Doobla, Beng. 
Doob, Ganer, Hind, and Gherika. Tel. “It is the 
Agrostis of the Greeks according to Fraas. Its flowers 
in their perfect state are among the loveliest objects 
in the vegetable world, and appear, through a lens, 
like minute rubies and emeralds in constant motion 
from the least breath of air. It is the sweetest and 
most nutritious pasture for cattle ; and its usefulness 
added to its beauty, induced the Hindus, in their earliest 
ages, to believe that it was the mansion of a bene- 
volent nymph. Even the veda celebrates it, as in the 
following text of the A’t'harvana : “ May Durva, which 
rose from the water of life, which has a hundred roots 
and a hundred stems, efface a hundred of my sins, and 
prolong my existence on earth for a hundred years.” 
Other grasses are mentioned, but we have quoted 
BufSoient to show that Ceylon possesses, besides 
the straw of paddy and other grain, an abundance 
of fodder grasses, suited for “dry” and “wet” 
cultivation; so that, with industry and care, provision 
could be made for periods of drought as well as 
normal seasons. Besides the gramineie, wild and 
cultivated, there are other fodder substances, such as 
sugarcane tops, manioc and other roots, and 
the very valuable foliage of the jak tree. Then 
in the higher mountain regions there is the small, 
dense-growing bamboo of the forests which when 
properly treated is eaten by horses. The gorse 
fuxze (the “ wbina ” of the Scotch) hourieheB 
in Nuwara Eliya ; and a Highland gentleman who 
visited Ceylon some years ago suggested that 
this apparently most unpromising of plants might 
be made a source of fodder. In the Scotch High- 
lands expanses of whins are fired as the patanas are 
here, and while the shoots which spring up are still 
tender, they are cut, carted to the farmers’ barns, and 
after being subjected to a thorough flailing, the 
bruised and juicy stuff is fed to horses and cattle. 
We mention this as a matter more of curiosity 
than of probable practical value ; but there 
can be no question that, even apart from 
the possibly successful cultivation of such fodder 
substances as clover, rye-grass, lucerne, mangolds 
and the like, there is a large choice of 
grasses and other plants, native and intro- 
duced in Ceylon, to keep cattle in good condi- 
tion (not to speak of coconut and gingelly cake 
and cotton seed), were the available resources 
only utilized with conscientious, steady industry. 
The problem is how to create and bring into 
operation these moral qualities amongst the 
natives. Government cannot do the work of 
the Christian Missionary ; and after thousands 
of years of debasement we cannot expect that 
the regeneration of the people will be other 
than a comparatively slow process. But Govern- 
ment can do a good deal by legislation, and has 
done and is doing much that is useful and good by 
industrial education and by training and scattering 
agricultural instructors over the land. But indivi- 
dual servants of Government (especially those of 
European origin) can further the march of agri- 
cultural and pastoral improvement indefinitely, by 
personal zeal and interest, by encouragement and 
moral suasion, and occasionally by benevolent 
coercion. 
Before parting with the report of 1869, there 
are a few details of interest to which we may 
advert. The idea with a large proportion of 
Europeans is that the whole population of India 
are vegetarians, or that they confine their con- 
sumption of animal products to milk, ghee and 
curds. Europeans in India, however, know that 
the masses — the millions of Hindustan — are only 
too ready to eat all the flesh they can get hold 
of, including that of swine, and without fastidi- 
ousness as to the condition of the meat. The 
Report noticed the spread of murrain in Ceylon 
by the habit of the natives digging up and 
carrying away for consumption the flesh of animals 
which had died of disease and had been buried,, 
instead of being burnt or chemically consumeds 
The lower caste Tamil coolies are special ofiendero 
in this respect and so common did this ofieno- 
become at one time in Southern India that Mis 
sionaries of the American Presbyterian Church 
(sons of Dr. Scudder, so well-known in Ceylon) 
considered it their duty to regard the digging 
up and eating of diseased and putrid bodies of 
cattle as an ecclesiastical oflence, of which if native 
Christians were proved to be guilty they were 
excluded from the Church. We are not 
aware whether our penal code or common law 
provides for the punishment of this ofleneo 
against nature and the commonwealth, but pun- 
ished it certainly ought to be. The difficulty 
of coping with the evil of cattle disease is 
shown by the statement that “ in nine cases out 
of ten it will be found perfectly useless to expect 
that any directions as to food, cleanliness or the 
administration of medicines will be properly 
carried out, except under the immediate eye of a 
person of intelligence.” Until the intelligence 
desiderated is far more prevalent than it now is 
the difficulty of coping with disease and the con- 
ditions which lead to it will remain. When there 
is BQ outbreak of true rinderpest amongst cattle 
