AGRICULTURE OF LEW CHEW. 19 



a section of a small pyramid made of broad boards, and shaped very much like the body of the 

 house, is fitted over the top of each post, so that when the rats ascend to this point, they find 

 it impossible to go farther; for, to do so, it would be necessary to climb down the inside of the 

 hollow pyramid — a feat utterly impracticable. Some of the granaries have simply a broad 

 plank capping each post, and the house built on these. Eats are abundant everywhere on 

 the island; and without these precautions, much of their grain would be destroyed by them. 

 Near some of the large villages, twenty-five of these granaries were built in one place — built 

 in regular rows, four or five in a line. Many of the private yards have one or two; and the 

 usual number, in proportion to the size of the village, were observed in the mountain districts 

 and on the barren seaboard, where no grain could be cultivated for the distance of several miles 

 from them; leading to the supposition that these granaries were the common property of the 

 town, or that the grain was under the control of government, and stores for the season distrib- 

 uted at harvest to fishing villages, and those engaged in other than agricultural pursuits. 



The Lew Chewans understand the use and economy of water in flooding their flat rice-fields, 

 and having reservoirs for watering their higher lands, as well as any people in the East. They 

 do not require the great "Chinese water-wheel" for raising water from large rivers; nor do 

 they find any necessity for the endless-chain pump to raise water from a lower level to a higher ; 

 and so from one terrace to another, to the top of the hill ; for almost every foot of land suitable 

 for the cultivation of rice has been supplied by nature with an abundance of water on a higher 

 level, in the beautiful running streams universally distributed over almost every mile of its 

 surface, and in the pure fresh springs, finding their way out from among the crevices of every 

 hill-side, and often near their summits. From the small size of the island, and its great length 

 compared to its breadth, having in the middle generally an elevated ridge or beautiful plain, 

 sometimes interspersed by peaks, deserving the name of mountains, the streams are of necessity 

 short, and have a uniform but rapid descent. Yet the valleys on these streams are often broad, 

 and extended in some places twenty miles in length, and from one-half to one mile and a half 

 in breadth. They are terraced from the sea-beach to the summits of the hills, or to the springs 

 and sources of every little rivulet, each level being from nine inches to two feet above the one 

 immediately below it, and so arranged by ditches and embankments that the water which is 

 turned from the stream at the head may be conducted from a higher to a lower level, and so 

 water every acre even to the base ; or by small dams in the streams and ditches constructed for 

 the purpose, and by flood and water-gates of the most simple structure, often nothing more than 

 sods of earth and grass to dam up the pond gateway, a higher, or a lower, or a middle terrace 

 may be watered, while the others remain dry. In some situations, ditches run along the bor- 

 ders of the stream, and separate them from the fields. These crossed smaller streams and 

 ditches by plank trunks, and often crossed in similar movable trunks the large streams which 

 fed them, and watered indifferently either or both sides. The smaller beds, or divisions of 

 terraces, are formed by small banks covered with tough sods of grass. These are seldom made 

 in straight lines, but in various courses, and, winding as they do in every direction, produce a 

 most pleasing effect on the beholder from the hill-sides. Yet these carries are not accidental or 

 for effect, but are arches, and so placed that in case of a great flood, or the accidental breaking 

 of banks above, they would be able to sustain the increased pressure. The irrigation practised 

 on the dry hill-sides on the crops requiring it, is accomplished by reservoir^ filled by the fre- 

 quent rains, and these, when required, may be let out to flood the rice lands below ; often their 

 ditches down the steep hill-sides have dams across them, and at short intervals and opposite 

 the beds, so that deep water, from which buckets-full may be dipped, is found at the end of 



