428 THE PALMYRA PALM. Chap. XXV. 



reckoned inferior, and the latter in February and March. 

 Two crops in the year from the same land do not yield 

 much more than a single crop, but, owing to the liability 

 of the seasons to fail, the cultivators rear as much as pos- 

 sible for the first crop. This is reaped in the rainy season, 

 when the straw cannot be preserved, so that the second crop 

 must necessarily be sown, for fodder for cattle. Eice requires 

 rain to ensure the full development of the grain, as well as 

 irrigation. The seed is sown thick, and then transplanted to 

 the fields about forty days afterwards ; and the fields must 

 be constantly supplied with water. The stalks when cut are 

 stacked for a few days, and the grain is then thrashed out by 

 manual labour or cattle, the husk being separated from the 

 grain with a rice-stamper, generally beaten by women. In 

 the interval of sowing, the natives often sow the land with 

 pulse or sesame, the stubble of which is used as manure for 

 the next rice-crop. 



At intervals scattered over the plain, there are groves of 

 cocoanut and palmyra-palms, like islands in the vast sea of 

 rice-fields, with small villages built under their shade. As 

 the betel-nut palm is the most graceful in India, so the 

 palmyra (Borassus jiahelliformis) is undoubtedly the ugliest, 

 with its black stem the same size all the way up, and coarse 

 fan-shaped leaves. It is chiefly from this tree that the 

 Shanars draw the toddy. The spadix or young flowering branch 

 is cut off near the top, and an earthenware chatty is tied on 

 the stump, into wliich the juice flows. Every morning it is 

 emptied and replaced, the stump being cut afresh, and so on 

 until the whole is exhausted. Sugar is also extracted by the 

 same process, the inside of the chatty being powdered with 

 lime to prevent fermentation, and the juice being boiled down 

 and dried. The sugar thus obtained is called jaggery. The 

 timber of the palmyra-palm is extensively used for building. 



As we drove towards Trichinopoly, with these rice-fields 



