Abstract

Rice being a crop that adapts itself to a variety of conditions is most extensively cultivated and is also the staple food for the largest popula- tion in the world. It thrives well in the tropics and temperate zones, from the sesconst to an altitude of 5,000 ft. as in Coorg and Mysore Plateaux, the Wayaned and Gudalur taluks of the Madras Presidency as well as on the hills of Assam, Kashmir. and Burma. But in higher altitudes and in temperate zones, the duration of the rice varieties gets a bit prolonged. Kice is cultivated in areas, with low rainfall with irrigation, us in the case of Sind, and under heavy rainfall amounting to over 150 inches as in Assam and the West Coast districts of Mela- bar and South Konara. It is grown in almost all types of soils varying from the shallow laterite soils of the West Coast. and the Coastal sandy areas where the hoofs of animals and fingers and legs of coolies working in the puddles get soft and pitted, to the heavy and deep soils of the delta areas where the soils crack deeply in summer and animals and coolies working there sink knee-deep. Lastly, rice is also grown under a wide range of agricultural seasons. Therefore it is no wonder that in rice which is cultivated under such wide ranges of rainfall. soil, altitude, seasons etc., the number of varieties is so numerous that one gets bewildered at the large number of collections totelling about 2,000 annually grown at the Paddy Breeding Station. Coimbatore comprising not only the varieties of our Province but also of the other parts of India and types got from foreign countries, besides new types extracted from artificial crosses in the course of the study of the mode of inheritance of various characters in the rice plant. The collection is in fact a rich mine affording one, a wide scope tor choice of a variety suited to bis conditions. Naturally it will be interesting to know in detail the varying conditions in which the cultivation of the rice crop is carried on in the Madras Presidency.

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