294 BICE. 



first high spring tide, opens the bund and allows the whole to be 

 covered with the salt water. This is generally done in December. 

 The sea water remains on the land for about nine weeks, or 

 till the middle of February, which is the proper time for sowing 

 the seed. The salt water is now let out, and as the ground can- 

 not, on account of the mud, be ploughed, buffaloes are driven over 

 every part of the field, and a few seeds of the rice thrown into 

 every footmark ; the men employed in sowing being obliged to 

 crawl along the surface on their bellies, with the basket of seed on 

 their backs ; for were they to assume an upright position, they 

 would inevitably be bogged in the deep swamp. The holes con- 

 taining the seed are not covered up, but people are placed on the 

 bunds to drive away birds, until the young grain has well sprung 

 up. The land is not manured, the stagnant salt water remaining 

 on it being sufficient to renovate the soil. The rice seed is 

 steeped in water, and then in dung and earth for three or four 

 days, and is not sown until it begins to sprout. The farmer has 

 now safely got over his sowing, and as this rice is not as in other 

 cases transplanted, his next anxiety is to get a supply of fresh 

 water ; and for this he watches for the freshes which usually come 

 down the river about th^ middle and en of February, and if the 

 river then reaches his bhull, he opens his bund, and fills the en- 

 closure with the fresh water. The sooner he gets this supply the 

 better, for the young rice will not grow in salt water, and soon 

 withers if left entirely dry. 



The welfare of the crop now depends entirely on the supply of 

 fresh water. A very high inundation does not injure the bhull cul- 

 tivation, as here the water has free space to spread about. In fact 

 the more fresh water the better. If, however, the river remains 

 low in June, July, and August, and the south-west monsoon sets 

 in heavily on the coast, the sea is frequently driven over the 

 bhulls and destroys the crops. It is in fact a continual struggle 

 between the salt water and the fresh. When the river runs out 

 strong and full, the Mulls prosper, and the sea is kept at a dis- 

 tance. On the other hand, the salt water obtains the supremacy 

 when the river is low, and then the farmer suffers. In this man- 

 ner much bhull crop was destroyed in the monsoons of 1851 and 

 1852, during the heavy gales which prevailed in those seasons. 

 The rice is subject to attacks also of a small black sea crab, called 

 by the natives KooJcaed, and which, without any apparent cause, 

 cuts down the growing grain in large quantities, and often occasions 

 much loss. 



The crop when ripe, which, if all goes well will be about the 

 third week in September, is reaped in the water by men, either in 

 boats, or on large masses of straw rudely shaped like a boat, and 

 which being made very tight and close, will float for a considerable 

 time. The rice is carried ashore to the high land, where it is 

 dried, and put through the usual harvest process of division, &c. : 

 and the Wiull is then on the fall of the river again ready for its an- 

 nual pickling. 



