OF KAMAON. 181 



end of November, too late for sowing wheat, the land is then suffered to re- 

 main fallow till the following spring, when it is again prepared for rice. 

 Different kinds of pulse and vetch are occasionally substituted for one or 

 other of these grains. Where land, which has been fallow, is newly broken 

 up, a crop of Mandiiay or other coarse grain is first taken. Transplantation 

 is adapted in regard to rice wherever the land can be easily flooded ; in other 

 parts the rice is sown as other grains. Irrigation is performed by means of 

 aqueducts or small streams, which are either branches of large streams, or 

 are formed of a collection of many small springs. These aqueducts are 

 frequently carried a very considerable distance, and at much expence along 

 the sides of the mountains. In places where precipitous rocks occur, troughs 

 of wood are made use of, and where the soil is too loose, walls of stone, 

 having a channel at the top, made water tight with clay, are built. The 

 manure used, is commonly the dung and refuse of the cattle shed, which 

 is collected in a regular dunghill with that view. Where the quantity 

 of this may be insufficient, leaves collected from the jungles, are placed in 

 heaps to rot in the fields. As a further substitute, bushes and branches of 

 trees are laid on the land, and when sufficiently dry to burn, are reduced to 

 ashes. 



There is a species of periodical cultivation, which deserves notice : this 

 consists in cutting down the forest, and clearing patches of land along the sum- 

 mits of the ridges : the trees are left for a few months to dry, and being chiefly 

 pine, are then easily consumed, and the ashes used for manure ; as the decli- 

 vity of these spots is usually too great to admit the use of the plough, the 

 land is prepared with a hoe. 



Only one, or at most two crops are taken from each spot, after which it is 

 abandoned for another, and not again touched till after the lapse of from six 

 to twelve years, according to the nature of the soil j such land is termed Kdla 



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