286 
teadily—often more rapidly. ‘The way in — the Amon is got in 
atl 
varies very greatly with the circumstances of t 
In Central and Taneri Bengal (as in all alluvial deltas) the ness he 
the anastomosing rivers are usually dem ost elevated groun 
these sd commonly the villazes stand. As you walk in Abs cold 
season from one river to the next you insensibly descend from the 
Sr bank tin you come to the * bheel" which at this season ma 
similarly from the bheel till you come to the bank of the next river. 
Now this bbeel will begin to swell in spring— sometimes as early as 
April (when the April showers are dud quee not till June if 
and of land round the 
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covers the whole country eru tia narrow belt by the rivers occupied 
by the villages; and the getting in the Amon may thus extend for 
three months. If the water rises very nicely = steadily the Amon 
may be dibbled, provided there is a seed-bed of rice just ready at the 
moment require red, or the cultivator may be driven i sow it broadcast ; 
or if e water rises ien ien jumps the cultivators may fail to piens 
e Amon, i ec 
earlier tina the Bow wa. dre is not only a coarser, less valuable rice 
. d - ite 
toil to the cultivator. “Oori” is belie ved to be the wild state of 
za sativa, the origin of our cultivated rices, and being so nearly 
allied it is pres the most pestiferous weed of rice. vier Amon is 
in 
in their hosti us their fields; they then get down into the water and 
which return to the village as small veris hagetücks s the Oori is 
the village, just above the water evel. .I do not know how, in this 
young state, the saly ators tell the Oori from the Amon. I cannot. 
The Oori grain is good in quality, but so very caducous that it is impos- 
sible to harvest it on any considerable scale. The children often do, 
with the aid of a large cloth, harvest the Oori that fruits in ditches and 
waste corners and so collect a considerable quantity of good grain. The 
typical Amon swamp-rice has often a pink tinge on the husked grain ; 
it i the ma 
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considered of very inferior quality to Rowa and is always muc 
cheaper. [In Behar the masses do not get ‘ist as the Desepel part of 
their food. ] 
THE owsa OR SPRING RICE CROP. 
Owsh, or spring rice, is much smaller in quantity than the preceding 
two classes, though hera are highly-valued varieties raised in 
urisal, But, as a whole, sh may be treated as generally of very 
small i E famine of 1874 a wsh erop in Central 
Bengal (Zillah Jessore, &e.) early reduced the pressure for 
I 
Owsh oe there is oed always grown annually a second crop that is 
not rie 
On itiolading the above description, and before going on to criticise 
fashionable schemes for teaching the natives how to grow rice better; I 
