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coat which adheres very closely to the kernel. A wooden 

 mortar and pestle are used for this final operation. 



DR. GEORGE A. PERKINS, of Salem, who had lived for 

 nine years in a rice-growing country, gave a detailed 

 description of the method of its cultivation as practised 

 upon the western coast of Africa. This method differed 

 in many respects from that pursued in Japan, and was 

 substantially as follows : 



The first step in rice cultivation in Western Africa, is 

 the clearing of so much of the waste land as may be 

 needed for a single year, the natives never planting the 

 same land for two consecutive years. This clearing of 

 the land takes place during the dry season, when all the 

 trees and shrubs are cut down and allowed to dry, and is 

 the most difficult and tedious part of the work. Just 

 before the beginning of the annual rains, the wood, being 

 properly dried by the heat of the sun, the whole tract, 

 often of some miles in extent, is burned over ; the in- 

 tense heat destroying all the weeds, and the ashes being 

 all the manure needed. 



This tract of land may belong to a town or perhaps 

 several of them, or even the whole tribe ; each head of a 

 family has a portion marked off and assigned to him, and 

 this he divides among his wives, of which he may have 

 one, two, or more. 



When the first showers, which usher in the rainy sea- 

 son, begin to fall, the women repair to the farms, pro- 

 vided with rice-seed, a large snail shell which will hold 

 a pint or more and a miniature spade ; with this last 

 held in the right hand, they dig a shallow hole in the 

 earth, and by a skilful motion of the left hand, which 

 holds the shell filled with rice, they let fall from four to 

 eight grains of the seed into the hole ; then, by a single 



