452 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1965 



and are the common property of the village they surround. Usually 

 a village will have a settled existence and location and if possible per- 

 manent fields close by for certain crops, as in Asia for lowland rice. 



When a villager wants to make a kaingin he blazes his claim in the 

 forest early in the dry season. Then he cuts the underbrush and usu- 

 ally most of the big trees, felling them and allowing the slash to dry. 

 Shortly before the rains begin the slash is fired and all the brush 

 and branches and more of the big trunks of the trees are completely 

 burned. Seldom does the standing forest catch fire, though the fre- 

 quent burnings do scorch the edge of it and gradually force it back. 



The ashes remain scattered over the ground. After the beginning 

 of the rainy season the seeds of the crop desired are dibbled into the 

 surface soil with a sharpened planting stick of some sort, often hav- 

 ing a flat iron bit. A few seeds are dropped into each shallow hole ; 

 then a little earth is pushed over the seed, usually with the toe. Aside 

 from a weeding or two, and the cutting of some sprouts from stumps, 

 there is seldom need for any particular care of the crop plants, for 

 following the years under forest the soil is sufficiently loose so that 

 no cultivation or other stirring of the surface soil is necessary. Of 

 course, if the crop is edible, it is necessary to protect it as it ripens 

 against wild hogs, birds, and other pests. No livestock is needed in this 

 type of agriculture for no plows or similar implements are used. Usu- 

 ally several kinds of crops are planted mixed in the kaingin. The 

 labor required for production of food by this method is high, but 

 even on relatively poor soil a crop can be raised in the kaingin. After 

 one or two crops, or at the most, perhaps three, the field is left fallow ; 

 the villager hopes it will grow up again to forest trees. Whether it 

 does, depends upon local conditions, particularly upon the need for 

 land and upon the character of the soil. 



Unfortunately, in some humid tropical lowlands there are some 

 very serious grass pests, especially the Asian Imferata cylindrical 

 often known as cogon, lalang, or alang alang. This grass has deep 

 underground rootstocks and small seeds with a feathery down, which 

 are disseminated by the wind. If the soil is not too poor, and there 

 are sources of seed, cogon may spread rapidly. The most serious ob- 

 jection to cogon is that it burns readily even when quite green, so 

 that tire is apt to sweep across the old kaingin, burning the grass, and 

 at the same time killing most of the seedling forest trees which, in a 

 few years, might otherwise reforest the land. Only the so-called 

 asbestos or fireproof trees survive the annual fires. It is probably this 

 grass burning annually that is causing most of the extension of 

 savannas in low latitudes." Incidentally and most unfortmiately, 

 cogon grass is now getting a strong hold in the southeastern United 



** Of. Proc. Conf. Af ricaine des Sols, Coma, Kivu, Congo Beige, November l^S. 



