318 DYAK AGRICULTURE. 



stronger, its foliage broader and of a dark green colour. 

 The land being prepared by burning down the weeds 

 and grasses, the small brooks which run through the 

 valley are dammed up with stakes, which support an 

 embankment of weeds and rubbish. The field is divided 

 by ridges into parcels of land of different levels, and the 

 water is so managed by attention to levels, that any of 

 these can be flooded or drained, as the growth and 

 appearance of the crop may render necessary. The Padi 

 seed is not planted in the fields, but sown in another 

 piece of land, and taken up and transplanted into the 

 wet land of the farm. 



The rice of the wet land growth is of a larger and 

 coarser grain than that produced on the hills, and does 

 not fetch so high a price in the market as the other 

 kinds ; it being said not to keep long either in the rice 

 or Padi state. The crop from it is, however, larger and 

 more certain than that from the dry farms ; the prospe- 

 rity of which, more than the other, depends upon the 

 quantity of rain which falls. 



They have no implements for the cultivation of wet 

 land Padi different from those employed on the other 

 farms ; but in these situations buffaloes and ploughs 

 of a simple construction might be introduced with 

 advantage. I am not aware that the Dyaks possess 

 more than one kind of wet rice, but of the upland Padi 

 they have very many: the one most esteemed and in 

 most general cultivation, is the Padi ber-sabong, a good 

 kind and an abundant bearer. There are others of a 

 whiter nature and smaller grain, but these are not so 



