CH. I] RICE AND OTHER CEREALS AND FOOD PLANTS 45 



as much as in Ceylon. Manuring, especially in the form of 

 cattle-penning on the land, is employed, but generally only 

 when two crops are to be taken off the land in one year. In 

 Burmah there is a very large area given to rice, the yield is 

 good, and the annual production is perhaps 4,000,000 tons, a 

 large quantity being exported. 



In Bombay the yield is on the whole larger than in Madras, 

 and manuring, both heavy and rdb, is carefully practised. The 

 latter consists in growing the young plants upon seed-beds on 

 which a mixture of dung, leaves, rubbish, etc., has been slowly 

 burnt. 



Bengal, though most of it is not, strictly speaking, within 

 the tropics, is one of the greatest rice-growing countries of the 

 world, and as the bulk of the rice is grown in the summer, we 

 may for the nonce regard it as tropical. Three main varieties 

 of rice are grown, aus, the early crop, sown in spring and reaped 

 in August and September, aman, the main crop, sown in April- 

 June, and reaped November-January, and boro, reaped in 

 the spring. Aman is by far the most important. It is some- 

 times sown broadcast, sometimes transplanted, and is not 

 infrequently, especially in jute districts, rotated with jute, etc., 

 the order often being rice, pulse or oilseed, jute, pulse or 

 oilseed, rice. What manure is available is carefully applied. 

 More than half of the 70 million acres of rice in India are in 

 Bengal, which exports about 500,000 tons to other countries. 



Java is also a great rice-growing country, and exports about 

 40,000 tons of rice a year. Owing to the hilly configuration of 

 the island, the rice is mainly grown on small terraced fields, as 

 in Ceylon. As soon as the crop has been gathered, the water 

 is allowed into the fields sufficiently to soften them, and they 

 are then cultivated with every kind of vegetable, prominent 

 among these being sweet potatoes, which by the way are the 

 only rotation crop employed in Ceylon. 



Siam and French Indo-China are also great rice-growing 

 countries, and export perhaps even more rice than Bengal. 



In recent years, with the influx of Indian coolies, and their 

 partial settlement, rice has become an important article of 

 cultivation in Mauritius, Guiana, Trinidad, and elsewhere. 



