February i, 1892.] 
THE TROPIOAL AQRIOULTURI8T. 
S9( 
THE ORIGIN OF PADDY.” 
Ratnapura, Jan, 6lh. 
Deah Sin, — I Bbould bo glad if you would inform 
me of the oorreot derivation of tha word “paddy,” 
as applied to grain grown in Ceylon. 
2. — Is the word in use in other oountrios, and when 
was it first used in Ceylon ? — Yours faithfully, 
0. S. V. 
THE PRICE OP PEKOE SOUCHONG. 
Colombo, Jan. 8lb. 
Dbab Sin, — I have some difficulty in understanding 
the meaning of ‘‘Why” 's last letter, but at any rate 
ho does not answer my statements. 
With regard to what he says about the buying 
standard which I mentioned, why he should suppose 
iustruotioDS to buy tea of equal quality to a sample 
sent (as a standard) mean “ buy quotable Pekoe 
Souebong at 25 oents ” (whatever that may mean) 
passes my eomprehension, I understand it to mean 
buy tea to match the standard sent, not to match 
“ quotable Pekoe Souohong,” or else why send a 
standard ? 
But 1 will not waste more of your valuable epnoe. 
1 offered to buy tea of quality oonsiderably below that 
of your standard, at more money than‘'Why" tells me 
it is selling at in Colombo ; but though that is more 
than a month ago I have not had a single package 
offered me. This is I think Buffioiont answer. — Yours 
faithfully, A BUYER. 
RICE CULTIVATION ; A PLEA FOR THE 
QOYIYAS AND THEIR HUSBANDRY. 
Veyaogoda, Jan. 8th. 
Oeak Sin, — Please permit me to have my little 
say on what jou and your correspondents have written 
on the above subject. 
I must preface uiy remarks by observing that what- 
ever the rosulla obtained by Air. Green and Agricul- 
tural Instructors, they have no practioal bearing on 
the justice or otherwise of the paddy tax. All that 
they prove are tho poasibiliiies in the way of yield 
by the adeptiou of improved methods. These are uot 
general, and the yield of paddy ouUivatlon is, except iu 
favorable localities, what was represented to Uis Ei- 
eelleuoy during his travels. The question, therefore, 
roBolvea itself into whether the recovery or rather 
exiiction of a tythe from fields whose average yield 
5 fold, is a cruel and grinding tax, or no. The 
Beleot Committee of the Legislative Coiiiioil recom- 
mended, if I mistake not, the oxeiiiption of lands 
Hielding lose than 5 fold, aud yon have ever heartily 
endoraed their reoammomiatious, therefore you must 
be of opinion that tho continuance of this exaction 
from gelds yielding these miserable relume is cruel, 
ot at least unjust.* 
Now to the e.litorial comments on the letter of 
W. A. D. B.” I do not think anything ha has 
^ritten warrants the oanolusion that the small ptopor. 
tiOD of plants that resolts to the number o( seede sown 
IS due, as you assort, to carelessuess or woree in 
Harvesting aud preserving seed paddy. There is 
brauoh of paddy onllivatiou operations to 
which the goyiya paya so great attoutioii as tho pre- 
paration and storage of seed paddy- But hardly one 
P8t cent of the poyi'yas grawssnUicient paddy to reserve 
•or seed. The seed granarise belong to tlio minor 
ooadmon or to the extensive field owner, a vciry small 
proportion indeed of Iho village population. Where 
^l*®ddo 1 know only one man for agronpofSorS 
I luges, who is in a position to store and sell seed 
Y' When his stock fails, I know people go as 
y as Heuaratgoda to pcooiiro S' ed paddy, f H must 
With jost this qualifioBtioii, that the very ex- 
” + ilJu’ he a premium on bad Imsbaudry. — Eo. 2’. A, 
T J.heu the quality of the seed depeods upon one 
Win here aud there, aud not to tha care attributed 
«> lae goylyas geuerally.— E p. T. A, 
surely be known iloyon that a oertamproporlion only 
of every kind of seed germinates. The poportion is not 
fixedand varies with circumstances. The goyiya makes 
allowance for that, as well as for what rots by becoming 
too deeply embedded in the mud,* for what is washed 
away by the rains and for what is eaten up by birds, 
when be sows the quantity he does pur acre. 
The system of paddy cultivation ns practised by 
the natives may be unscientific, but it has not been so 
deuonuoed by Hughes, Wallaoe or Voelcker — bat no one 
with an intimate acquaintance with the preparation of 
fields will call it “ careless '' as j on have done, 
nor is it oerrect to say that ploughing is a mere 
stirr'mg of a few iuohea of water-saturated mad. 
There is no doubt that one oC tha advantages of 
the iron plongb is its ability to plongb land 
when dry ; but it neither pulverizes the suil nor stirs 
the subsoil without bringing it to tho surface. In 
fact the ooraplaint against it is that it leaves the 
land with large olods on the nniface, which it is ex- 
pensive to pulverize, and it brings to the surface 
sour subsoil. 
I am very strongly of opiuiou that the inoreased 
yield reanItiDg from the exporlmeats of the Instruc- 
tors, is due ^iefly to tho fields being ploughed at 
the beginning of the dry seseon and being exposed 
for a mouth or two to atmospheric infiuenoss, I think 
the iutroduelion of a "cultivator” or enbioiler will 
yield better results, in more senses than one, than 
those of the iron plongb. It will be lighter than the 
plough, and Ihoreforo more suitable for village oatUe. 
In appearance end action it will clcsoly re- 
semble the native plongb, and it will work deeper 
than the iron plongb, withont bringing the snbsoil to 
the surface. 
A critio shonld be certain of bis facts and not lay 
himself open to a charge of misrepresentation.t No 
one, as far as I am aware, oitod Professor Wallace 
against dry and duep plongbing. He told me personally 
that he was no believer in the iron plough in paddy 
oultivBtion, that the native plough snited our speoial 
circumstances and that with a little improvement, 
wbiob he promised to effect, it will be a very useful 
little implement. He also told me that the artificial 
suratioo of the soil was not so nooessary in a tropical 
laud as iu Europe, and that the innumerable fissures 
he saw iu paddy fields did naturally what had 
to be done by an expuusive process iu Europe. Bs 
denounced neither deep nor dry ploughicg in my 
hearing. 
Dry cultivation of psddy has no doubt all tha 
advantages enumerated by Mr. Elliott and more, but it 
struck mo as a very slovenly system. The fields are 
not as carefully prepared as in wet cultivation, the beds 
are not smoutbed nor the woeda got under the soil. 
That the paddy soils of Oeyluo have not been sys- 
tematically analyzed is a reproach, that ought to bo 
the aim of tlie School of Agriculture to remove. 
The system hitherto practised of statiouiug an 
Iiistcuotor in a village for a few mouths and then 
removing him to another far removed from it, is 1 
think a waste of public muney and of valuable time 
and energy. We know that even with a progressive 
and enlightened people, no radical reforms can bu 
made except their advantages are constantly demon- 
strated. Iu fact “pegging away” is necessary for all 
reforms. Gan It be imagined that a eoiiservalive class 
like the goyiyas can be made to give up time-honored 
easterns and lake to levolutiouary metbuds of paddy 
oultivation by lustrnotors llittiug about the country i 
I lately advocated elsewhere the appuiotment of an 
lusU'Uctor to every Korale, whoso duty will be to esta- 
blish experimental onltivation of high and low lands in 
couueotioii with every village aohool. These stations to 
be under the immediate supervisioc of the sohool mas- 
ters. Whether as a rcsnlt of that or not 1 know uot, 
but 1 was glad to hear tbo Director of Fublio lustruc- 
tion at the re cent prize-giving in connection with the 
* Would not sail less iu the condition ol mad be 
better for the seed and also for the resulting crop ? — 
Ed. T. a . 
+ This refers, of course, to out ooneepoudent A. 
D. b.”— Eu. Y. 4. 
