156 THE CHIEF NUTRITIVE PLANTS OF THE TORRID ZONE 



germination of the seed, and what is superfluous is permitted to 

 trickle down to the one below it. In order to carry on this 

 peculiar cultivation the streams are led along the level of the 

 hills, often from a distance of many miles, with a skill and per- 

 severance for which the natives of these mountains have attained 

 a great renown." 



The prodigious embankments constructed in ancient- times 

 for the purposes of irrigation may be reckoned among the 

 wonders of the island. 



" Many of the tanks, though partially in ruins, cover an area 

 from ten to fifteen miles in circumference. They are now 

 generally broken and decayed, the waters which would fertilise 

 a province are allowed to waste themselves in the sands, and 

 hundreds of square miles, capable of furnishing food for 

 all the inhabitants of Ceylon, are abandoned to solitude and 

 malaria, whilst rice for the support of the non-agricultural 

 population is annually imported from the opposite coast of 

 India." * 



It will be the duty and glory of England to restore these 

 monuments of ancient greatness, and by raising one of her 

 fairest colonies to her former affluence, contribute at the same 

 time to her own wealth. 



Eice does not invariably require the marsh or the irrigated 

 terrace for its growth, as there is a variety which thrives on the 

 slopes of hills, where it is not continuously watered. In the 

 mountain regions of Sumatra, rains fall at almost every season 

 of the year, though dry weather is more frequent from April to 

 July. In August, the rainy days are as three to one, and this is 

 the time generally chosen for the sowing of the Ladang^ or 

 mountain rice. After the harvest, the field is sown a second 

 time with maize ; it then lies fallow for a few years, and is soon 

 covered with a thick vegetation of wild shrubbery, generally 

 with glagah, a species of grass which attains a height of twelve 

 feet. 



When the field is again to be cultivated, fire is resorted to 

 to destroy the dense jungle, in which the tiger has made his 

 lair, or where the rhinoceros grazes. At night, these fires, 

 ascending the slopes of the mountains, present a fine sight; 



* 8ir Emerson Tennent's Ceylon, vol. i. p. 26-27. 



