BICE. 295 



The process of preparing the field for rice culture, in the Kan- 

 dian country, Ceylon, is very simple. 



When the paddy is to be cultivated in mud, a piece of ground 

 is enclosed in a series of squares or terraces, by ridges raised with 

 mud and turf; a quantity of water is directed into the field from 

 an adjacent stream or tank, and is allowed to remain on it for 

 fifteen days ; at the expiration of this time the field is ploughed 

 with a yoke of buffaloes, which operation is repeated at the end 

 of fifteen days more, when, by the rotting of the weeds and other 

 matter, the field has become manured. After another interval of 

 fifteen days the field is again ploughed and the broken ridges are 

 repaired. Eight days after the field is harrowed, and subsequently 

 rolled or levelled ; and when the water has been let out the seed 

 is sown, having in most instances been previously made to germi- 

 nate, by. being spread on platforms and kept wet. 



The water is turned in during night, to prevent crabs and insects 

 from destroying the seedlings, and let out during the day ; and 

 this they continue to do .till the plants attain the height of one 

 foot. Water is only retained in the field until the ears are half 

 ripe, otherwise they would ripen indifferently and be destroyed 

 by vermin. A variety of coast paddy, called "moottoo samboo," 

 was introduced into the Kandian province in 1832, which was 

 found to produce a more abundant crop, by one third, than the 

 native. It is of six months growth. 



In Kashmir rice is the staple of cultivation, and the practice 

 adopted there is thus described by a writer in my " Colonial Maga- 

 zine," vol. x. p. 130. It is sown in the begining of May, and is fit to 

 cut about the end of August. The grain is either sown broadcast in 

 the place where it is intended to stand till it is ripe, or thickly in 

 beds, from which it is transplanted when the blade is about a foot 

 high. As soon as the season will admit after the 21st of March, 

 the land is opened by one or more ploughings, according to its 

 strength, and the clods are broken down by blows with wooden 

 mattocks, managed in general by women, with great regularity 

 and address ; after which water is let in upon the soil, which for 

 the most part of a reddish clay, or foxy earth, is converted into a 

 smooth soft mud. The seed grain, put into a sack of woven grass, 

 is submerged in a running stream until it begins to sprout, which 

 happens sooner or later, according to the temperature of the water 

 and of the atmosphere, but ordinarily takes place in three or four 

 days. This precaution is adopted for the purpose of getting the 

 young shoots as quickly as possible out of the way of a small 

 snail, which abounds in some of the watered lands of Kashmir, but 

 sometimes proves insufficient to defend it against the activity of 

 this destructive enemy. When the farmer suspects, by the scanty 

 appearance of the plants above the water in which the grain has 

 been sown, and by the presence of the snail drawn up in the mud, 

 that his hopes of a crop are likely to be disappointed, he repeats 

 the sowing, throwing into the water some fresh leaves of the 

 Prangos plant, which either poison the snails or cause them to 



