26 PADI INDUSTRY, KRIAN. 
sists of an iron rod about two feet long with a crutch handle of wood at 
one end and a cleft at the other. The woman takes a padi plant from 
a bundle tied up in her apron and inserts it just above the roots into the 
cleft of the kuku kambing with one hand, and with the other thrusts it 
into the ground. The rapidity and regularity with which they set these 
plants, a! out eight inches apart, 1s simply marvellous. At a distance 
they appear to be simply sauntering up and down the field. 
As | will mention when I come to describe the varieties of padi, 
some ma‘ure very quickly; others, again, are very slow growing. The 
slower the growth the heavier the grain, ‘and therefore the more highly 
prized. Floods or drought, howev er; occasionally destroy the early 
nurseries, and then others of lighter grain have to be planted, which 
will mature before the wet season is over. I shall never forget on one 
occasion some years ago riding from Bagan Tiang to Kuala Kurau, about 
ten miles, and being particularly struck by the magnificent display of 
padi nurseries the whole way along the road. A fortnight after I rode 
over the same road and there was not a plant left: they had all been 
destroyed in the meantime by a flood. I made careful enquiries at the 
time to enable me to form an estimate of the value of the damage done, 
and over $10,000 was the amount arrived at. 
The larger proportion of the padi planters are non-resident. They 
live on the lane of Penang and along the coast of Province Wellesley, 
as far as the north of Kedah, and go “to Krian to plant their padi, and 
when that is done return to their homes till the crop is ready to be cut, 
some members of the family occasionally visiting it to see that it is all 
right. 
The enemies of padi are numerous, but the principal ones are rats 
and the padi-borer. In newly opened land near jungle, or if patches of 
uncultivated land are left to harbour rats, they are very destructive to 
the young crop, eating the shoot just above the ground. I have seen 
acres of padi that have been destroyed in this way in a single night. 
Traps, poison, and, best of all, the simultaneous clearing and planting of 
large areas are the best preventives against rats. Plaster-of-Paris is a 
favourite poison. Green grasshoppers, which are very plentiful, are 
caught and stuffed with the plaster-of-Paris and left about for the rats to 
eat, and the saying is, ‘‘one grasshopper one rat.” 
The padi-borer at one time practically ruined the entire crop of the 
district, but since then the Government has spent a good deal of money 
in drains and water-gates, by means of which the drainage is under 
better control and the land is not allowed to get into the sour, sodden 
condition that appears most favourable for the increase of this pest. Its 
attacks are apparent about the time the ear is forming. The moth lays 
its eggs on the stem, and when they hatch the maggot bores into the 
straw, “which rapidly turns yellow and dies. To a casual observer the 
corn will appear ripe, but on examination it will be found that there is no 
grain in the ear.* 
* This insect is either Chilo oryzxellus or a nearly allied species. See ‘‘ Report on the 
Padi-Borer,’ No. 19, Jowrnal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1887, and 
Indian Musewm Notes, Vol. 2. p. 19, 1891. It was suggested in the first report that some 
