342 REV. GEORGE A. SHAW, F.Z.S., ON 
town on the south bank of the Matitanana, about two miles 
from the mouth of the river. 
The people at any rate showed a considerable amount of 
acuteness in their choice of territory, for the district of Mati- 
tinana must be one of the richest, from an agricultural point 
of view, in this remarkably fertile island. Well watered by 
the Matitanana river, the many tributaries of which dow 
through an extensive and gently undulating country con- 
taining about 600 square miles, and also by the Mananano 
river, to the north, not to mention the many small streams 
which flow into the sea or the lagoons along the coast, there 
is every facility for rice-growing, one of the most extensive 
and lucrative employments of the people. Very little of the 
engineering skill exhibited by the Betsileo in the formation 
of their rice plantations is required here. The low plains 
are easily flooded with water, and nothing more is required 
than little banks to mark the boundaries of each man’s 
possession, and to assist in confining the water necessary for 
the growth of the rive-plant. The soil is alluvial, and is 
constantly added to and enriched by the frequent over- 
flowings of the rivers. Even the higher lands are so fertile 
that a lazy style of cultivation has become the custom. 
Little if any attempt at manuring is adopted; the ground is 
simply weeded, the weeds burnt, and without any further 
digging, the beans or earth-nuts or manioe are planted and 
left until ripe enough to be gathered. The rice-fields are of 
two kinds: firstly, those planted in June and July, which 
resemble the fields in the interior of the island. In the 
preparation of these, the cattle are made to trample the clods 
of earth which have been roughly turned over by a spade, 
until, by the united action of their hoofs and the water 
retained between the little banks already referred to, a soft 
smooth mud has been produced. Into this the rice is thrown, 
and when about six or seven inches high, it is thinned out. 
All the young plants removed in the course of this process 
are transplanted into other fields similarly prepared. In 
these respects, the plan adopted by the Taimoro, and that 
by the people in the interior, differ. Among the Hova and 
Betsileo, the rice is sown as thickly as possible in a small 
patch, and the whole is transplanted, when of the requisite 
size. In the Matitanana district it is sown thinly in large 
plots, and only the superabundance is taken up, the 
remainder being left in sttw to ripen. 
The other kind of rice-field is made by first burning down 
