44 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. II 



themselves very old and leave much to be desired in economy 

 and efficiency. Not only so, but each country adheres rigidly to 

 its own methods, and refuses even to try those of another 

 country. Ceylon is very backward in that the method of sowing 

 is by broadcasting, while Java, which is very advanced in the 

 careful transplanting of the rice, and the rotation of crops upon 

 the rice fields, adheres to the system of cutting each ear 

 separately with a penknife, at enormous labour cost. A brief 

 description of some of the methods of cultivation may be 

 useful, but it must be remembered that each country has its 

 own. 



Two crops of rice are obtained every year in the wet 

 districts of Ceylon, but as a rule only one from any one field. 

 The fields are allowed to be thoroughly saturated by the 

 heavy rains of the commencement of the monsoon, and are 

 then turned over with the mamoti, and ploughed with a 

 primitive plough. They are then puddled, usually with the feet, 

 or with a mamoti, and levelled over into a thin creamy paste, 

 on which the seed is sown by broadcasting a most wasteful 

 method, but one, which being the "custom," and comparatively 

 cheap as regards labour, is rigidly adhered to. When the seed 

 has germinated, the water is admitted again, and the rice left to 

 grow, with perhaps an occasional weeding, until harvest time, 

 when as the grain ripens, the water is once more turned off, so 

 that the final ripening is done upon dry ground. The crops are 

 so timed that this ripening shall take place in the drier weather 

 of the monsoon, i.e. from January to March, or from July to 

 September. 



The grain is harvested with sickles, and heaped into small 

 stacks. It is threshed in the same old way that is described 

 for corn in the Bible, by being laid upon the ground, and 

 bullocks driven round over it. It is then winnowed in an 

 equally primitive fashion, by being thrown up into the air from 

 flat basketwork trays, and caught again, the chaff being blown 

 away meanwhile. 



In Madras the general systems of cultivation are not unlike 

 those in Ceylon, but more efficient, and the yield is greater. 

 About 11,500,000 acres are devoted to rice, or fifteen times 



