Abstract

There is a large backwater near Coondapur town. With a view of getting this reclaimed and brought under cultivation, I gave out last year about sixty acres of this on cowle terms, of rupees two per acre for five years and rupees four per acre there-." after, to a number of private persons. The lands were sold by auction for the most part and fetched about Rs. 65 per acre. On inspecting these lands this morning I was interested to see the first steps which the people were taking to bring them under culti- vation. Normally the lands are submerged by salt water at high tide and the first thing they do is to exclude this by building a high mud bund, sometimes faced with stone, leaving an opening for flood-water to escape. Very large quantities of sea sand are then brought in dugouts and spread over the surface till the level is sufficiently raised. A thick layer of mud from the river is then spread on the top of the sand. When the monsoon comes the first rain water is impounded in the field, and kept on the land for about a month, when it is let out, and a coarse salt-resistant paddy called Kaggu bhatta' is sown broad-cast. This year being the first, the crop grew very well till the rains stopped (about October) when the salt, no longer being diluted by the rain, became concentrated, with the result that the crop, then just maturing, was burnt up' and gave a very poor yield. The outlet to the backwater is open and a good deal of drainage water is still running off from the field. The same process will be re- peated next monsoon, and it is hoped that the salt will be sufficiently washed out by the time the next crop is sown to allow the crop to mature.

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