262 TiMEHRI. 



cultivation, to be cropped and fallowed in bush or grass 

 for six or more years, while on the forest land bordering 

 the numerous rivers and creeks of the Colony, all the 

 advantages ot the system in vogue with the Hill tribes of 

 India and Burmah are secured and the option of fallow- 

 ing or moving to new lands can be pra6lised. Sir Wm. 

 Hunter says ; " The system yields a larger return for 

 " the same amount of labour than permanent plough 

 " husbandry. A virgin soil, manured many inches deep 

 " with ashes and watered by the full burst of tropical 

 " rainfall, returns forty to fifty fold of rice, which is the 

 " staple grain thus raised." Here we have the return of 

 rice from land so situated that it is impossible to flood the 

 rice fields, and if our farmers on the Pomeroon and in the 

 North West Distri6l would take the hint, they might add 

 largely to their profits, but upland rice would require to 

 be planted or rather sown. The different kinds of rice 

 vary, some having straw 12 feet long which keeps the 

 head of grain above the rising waters of the Bramapootra 

 River, others have straw 18 inches long, grown on the arid 

 plains and dry uplands of Orissa. In Nepal " various 

 " dry rices are cultivated, and some do not require to be 

 " flooded as in Bengal, but flourish in the driest and 

 " loftiest spots." Such is the wide extent of soil and 

 climate to which rice may be profitably cultivated. 

 Would that some individual or the Colony's landlord, 

 would experiment for the benefit of all, and thereby 

 make rice a staple produ6lion. Returns from provisions 

 generally are in a like case. Notwithstanding all 

 this abandon of tropical nature, playing upon a virgin 

 soil, which I cannot think is one grain of yielding power 

 behind that of the East Indies, the price of provisions 



