KICE. 



325 



kill it. The quantity is increased as the plant grows. Forty or 

 fifty days after the sowing the transplanting begins. Land is pre- 

 pared and laid out with trenches surrounding it to hold water. It is 

 then trenched and harrowed, and the planting out proceeded with. 

 For eight days, however hot it may be, the plants are not watered, 

 but when the leaves begin to develop the soil is covered with a small 

 quantity of water, which is increased as the plant grows. 



It is calculated that the aquatic rice only yields a return of 25 for 

 one, but that it might yield up to 80. The upland or mountain rice 

 is, however, said to be more profitable, for it is not unusual to obtain 

 100 to 120 for one. This abundance is explained by the habit which 

 rice has to tiller, and a single grass will often produce many stems, 

 crowned with numerous spikes of grain. 



Formosa. — The chief agricultural crop in this island is rice, grown 

 in irrigated, or rather inundated fields. Much labour and skill must 

 have been bestowed upon the levelling of the fields and the provision 

 of the supply of water, which is conducted by artificial channels from 

 elevated springs, or from the upper courses of streams. The rice 

 fields of the plain of Bangka, ten or twelve miles inland, are chiefly 

 supplied by a stream which is conducted from a higher part of the 

 Tamsuy Eiver, and is carried across another stream at Kiang-beh, 

 by a wooden aqueduct of 100 yards or more in length. Two har- 

 vests in each year are obtained from the irrigated fields. In No- 

 vember or December, after the removal of the autumn crop, the 

 fields are ploughed up. The fields remain vacant for about four 

 months, save that about the end of January seed is grown in nursery 

 patches sheltered from the north-east. In February or March, the 

 fields are in course of preparation for planting. Besides the plough, 

 two kinds of harrows are used, namely (1) the "blade-harrow" 

 (locally called " Kiva-pay ") a wooden-frame, holding beneath it two 

 sets of metallic blades, which make parallel cuts through the clods 

 or mud as the implement is drawn along by a buffalo, the driver 

 standing on the frame; (2) the "hand harrow" (or "Chew-pay"), of 

 iron, with a long row of spikes. This seems to complete the stirring 

 of the ground. In the latter part of March, or the early and middle 

 part of April, the fields, now in a state of soft mud, are planted out 

 with the young rice plants. In taking up the strong plants from the 

 nursery patches, a sort of flat spatula is passed underneath, so as to 

 take off a very thin slice of earth with the plants upon it. 



In the immediate neighbourhood of Tamsuy, about a fortnight 

 before the harvest, the rice is laid down, four adjacent rows being 

 folded together, and so laid that the ears of each cross-row shall rest 

 upon the cross-row in front of it. It does not appear that this prac- 

 tice is followed in the more sheltered inland country. In July the 

 crop is reaped. The grain is thrashed out immediately in the fields. 

 There is a tub, within which is placed obliquely a set of wooden 

 bars. The operator takes by the lower end a handful of rice stalks, 

 and gives it a few smart blows upon the bars, detaching the grain, 

 which is received in the tub. A curtain, supported by bamboo sticks, 

 keeps the grain from flying overboard. The tub is dragged forward 

 as the progress of the work requires. The ground is then speedily 



