June r, i8y8.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
consumption of rice. Such import should have been 
checked and by this time lessened. Here 
is the comparison between two quinquenial 
periods before and after abolition : — 
BUSHELS OF RICE IMPORTED AND ENTERED 
FOR HOME CONSUMPTION. 
1888 . . 6,630,094 
1889 . . 6,591,157 
1890 . . 6,350,036 
1891 . . 7,051,432' 
1892 . 7,282,411 
1893 . . 7,447,376 
1894 . . 7,556,505 
1895 . . 8,722,737 
1896 . . 7,594,413 
1897 . . 7,354,690 
Total 33,905,130 Total 38,675,721 
The falling-off in imports during 1896 and 1897 
is generally attributed to tlie Indian Famine 
and continuous dearness of rice; but it 
will be interesting to know from the District 
Reports wliether the Keveime Officers can discover 
that extended local cultivation and increased crops 
influenced the local market to any extent ? The 
Rlue Book grain-crop returns were never deemed 
very trustworthy even in the days when the 
collection of “ rents ” should have given the 
officials some check on their headmen’s tiguies. 
Now that the check is gone, we suppose there is 
less reason to rely on them? But it is fair to 
mention that they show an increase for 
1894-6 (the returns for 1897 are not yet pub- 
lished) as to “pftchl.Vj” though not as to “line grain,” 
If, however, headmen are interested in giving 
big returns, now that there is no rent to pay, 
the figures for each division will have to be carefully 
scrutinised. It will be specially interesting to learn, 
after the Provincial and District Officers give their 
special attention to the subject, if in their opinion, 
cultivation has been extended, or improved, or 
whether the improved figures in the Blue Book, if 
morethan mere gue.ss-work,aie due to betterseasors 
and crop.s. Most of the Civil Servants concerned, 
would, we feel sure, endeavour to make a full 
and fair Report on so important a subject and 
few State Papers for a long time back 
ought to be of more value and interest both 
to the Government and the general public. 
No doubt the permanent officials of the Colonial 
Office who probably had little to do with the “Rent 
abolition ” (if we except the late Mi. Fairfield) 
have fully realised by this time, the great blow 
it delivered at the Irrigation Policy of Governors 
Gregory and Gordon, both of whom as well as 
Sir Hercules Robinson, Sir James Longden and 
Sir Arthur Birch cordially supported the 
Protests we published in London in 1892 
against the threatened Paddy Rents policy 
of Lord Knutsford and Sir Arthur Havelock. But it 
does not seem that the Colonial Office has profited 
by that lesson if Mr. Chamberlain is now acting 
on Office advice in the fatal course- of appro- 
priating large slices of our general revenue 
to payment of Railway Extension Northwards. Mr. 
Chamberlain in one breath bemoans the fact that 
little or nothing has been done in Restoration of 
Tanks of recent years. In the next, he takes away 
lire very sinews of war Avhich would enable so 
admirable an Irrigation adviser as Mr. Henry 
Parker, to show a good record. If the Rl, 500,000 
(or is it to be R3,000,000 ?) to be taken from General 
Revenue for a non-productive Railway were de- 
voted to irrigation works judiciously selected by 
Mr. Parker, there would be hope of sources 
of traffic arising within a reasonable date 
where few or none now exist. It is the ex- 
pectation of .some people that the Railway of 
itself is to renovate the wilderness of unoccupied 
country. Was ever a madder idea? We have 
of Railways in America and Australia 
following pioneers (after a good many years often); 
but n vcr of preceding them. In Ceylon hitherto, 
the opening of no single forest or waste dis- 
trict has been due to the Railway ; roads have 
done much (and the North is beautifully roaded) 
and the Railway has come to qarry away heavy 
traffic. Mr.- Chamherlaiu is putting the cart 
before th.e horse. He ought to have appropriated 
the available revenue for tank restoration to come 
first and borrowed for the Railway to foMow, and 
then he would have some reason :o anticipate trafiic. 
It is said of cour.se that a locomotive line w'ill aid 
the work of Irrigation engineers and tank-makers ; 
but surely the very cheapest form, a 2^-feet 
tramway would suffice for this and for all the 
traffic of the North-t'eutral, Northern and East- 
ern regions for fifty if not a hundred years to 
come, seeing that a 2-feet locomotive line in 
Tasmania is equal to 100,000 tons jier annum. 
When will 100,009 tons be carried on an Anu- 
radhapura-Ja.tt'na line, even if wc add Trinco- 
malee and Batticaloa traffic ? The re.sult of the 
broadgauge policy, if carried out, tvill be to 
cripple the revenue of the Colony for Irrigation 
Works for many year.s to come, and yet the only 
hope of traffic in our North-Central regions 
h nges on the possibilities of Irrigation. 
RICE CULTIVATION IN THE 
HAMBANTOTA DISTRICT: 
BIB. ELLIOTT’S EXPERIENCE HOW THE 
UVA PLANTERS CAN BE BENEFITTED. 
The Observer has called attention very briefly to 
Mr. E. Elliott’s advertisement and the signifi- 
cance of his otter to the planters of Haputale. 
He rejiorts to us that he has secured an excellent 
crop of paddy (rice in the husk) over several 
hundred acres, and that his matured experience 
now confirms him in his views that rice cultiva- 
tion can bo profitably carried out by Europeans. 
Excellent crojis have been raised both in the 
Walauwa and at Tissa, -where paddy lately sold 
at R7 for the ammunam of 6 bushels; but it 
has gone up already to R9, and at Tangalle to 
RIO, and is expected to reach R2 per bushel; 
This paddy is |iurchased bj' traders who retail it 
in East Matara and adjacent districts, chiefly 
to women who make a living by pounding the 
same and selling the rice. Further, a good deal 
of rice is sent to Koslande (Haputale) by steamer 
to Hambantota and thence by cart, and so 
successfully competing with the railway. Buying 
at Hambantota, planters save freight and ship- 
I)ing and landing charges which equal quite 
25 cents a bushel. There is no reason why 
planters ‘should not buy the locally-grown paddy and 
get it turned into rice by their own cooly women, 
or adjacent villagers; (or why not a few of them 
club together and get a, hulling machine.) Buy- 
ing paddy in this way should save 50 cents a 
bushel on the rice. Every Tamil woman is ac- 
customed to pound out paddy — a daily house- 
hold duty in Southern India as in Ceylon — and 
a woman can pound joiit a bushel of rice in 4 
day. 
Quarry Stone. — It is claimed that the largest 
single stone ever quarried is the Wisconsin 
monolith, which is 115 feet long, ten feet square 
at the base and four feet square at the top.— 
Indian Witness, April 15, 
