RICE. 91 



:able to the cultivator, of any that is carried on in 

 Lombardy ; but the same unwholesome effect is ex- 

 perienced there as in Carolina ; and the government 

 at Milan finds it expedient to restrict the cultivation 

 within a certain limit, beyond which the production of 

 rice is not allowed. The quantity of seed usually 

 .sown is three bushels to the acre, and the average 

 produce, from the same measure of land, is commonly 

 .about six quarters. 



In the province of Valencia in Spain, the method 

 of rice cultivation is very similar to that pursued in 

 Lombardy. The water remains on the ground even 

 during the operations of harvest, and the reapers are 

 obliged to wade up to their knees in order to cut the 

 grain, other persons following to receive the sheaves 

 as they are cut, and to convey them to some dry place, 

 where the grain is detached from the ear by the 

 treading of mules. 



The hollows between Columbo and Candy, in the 

 island of Ceylon, are devoted to the production of 

 rice. The fields on which it is sown are artificially 

 formed .into a regular succession of terraces, one 

 above another, so that the water of irrigation may 

 be made to flow from a higher to a lower level, the 

 plants being in different stages of their growth. In 

 some cases the water is led for a mile, or even two 

 miles along the side of a mountain, and is then dis- 

 charged over the highest terrace, and thence down- 

 ward in succession to the lowest, according as mois- 

 ture may be required by each. Bishop Heber, for 

 whom the charms of nature, whether in a wild or cul- 

 tivated state, were never displayed in vain, remarks, 

 on visiting this district, that ' the verdure of the 

 young rice is particularly fine, and the fields are really 

 a beautiful sight, when surrounded by and contrasted 

 with the magnificent mountain scenery.'* 



* Heber's Journey, vol. iii, p. 169. 



