FIELD-CHOPS WITH CULTIVATED TREES. 751 



times they remove a certain number of poles and other pieces 

 of wood or bamboos for their own use, or for sale in the plains 

 of Sylhet, and the rest of the wood is spread on the ground, 

 and burned in March. The stumps are not extracted, but the 

 land is hoed between them, and cotton or rice sown. In the 

 second year, a crop of yams, chillies, tapioca, etc., is taken off 

 the land, and then the area is abandoned to woody growth 

 from coppice-shoots, seedlings, etc. In about ten years or 

 less, according to the total area of land possessed by the 

 village, the operation is repeated. The Garos levy fines on a 

 village if a fire should spread from its lands to those of another 

 village. The reserved trees are lopped of most of their 

 branches, so as not to over shade the crops, and temporary 

 bamboo huts are built in the forked boughs of these trees, 

 where the cultivators can sleep without fear of elephants and 

 other wild beasts. Tr.] 



3. Field-Crops aJtmiatinii trith the Cult /ration of 7'nvx. 



Wherever care is taken to protect the woody growth after 

 the field-crop has been harvested, the latter may be considered 

 as subordinate in importance to the former. Here, usually 

 after a clear felling, unless the trees have been up-rooted, the 

 stumps are extracted, the refuse burned, and the soil cultivated 

 for a crop of corn. If the soil-covering consists of shrubs, 

 grass, etc., it is hoed up sometimes in sods and burned in 

 loosely piled heaps with the wood-refuse. The heaps are 

 burned to ashes so as to leave as little charred wood as 

 possible. The ashes and the burned earth from the sods are 

 then strewn over the area. This system is termed in German, 

 Sclnnoren, or Schmoden. If the area is hoed roughly, and all 

 the herbage and refuse wood spread over it so that the fire 

 passes over the whole area, the system is termed Sengen. 

 This is usual when there is not much herbage on the soil, the 

 soil-covering consisting chiefly of coniferous needles ; the fire 

 is applied against the wind, or downhill on slopes, otherwise it 

 would be kept under control with difficulty. 



In the system called Schmoren, the refuse is more thoroughly 

 burned to ashes than in the latter system, which produces 



