Comparison 

 with Perak 

 methods of 

 cultivation. 



swamps. This latter is, the common form of wet padi cultivation 

 in Pahang. The depth of the water is regulated by means of small 

 embankments of clay thrown up so as to divide the fields into 

 rectangular sections of from an eighth of an acre in extent up- 

 wards. In swamps a single bank or dam at the lower end often 

 regulates the depth of the water over a whole held. 



Method of 5- The seed is sown thickly in a nursery, the fields being mean- 

 planting wet while prepared for the reception of the plants. 



1>adl ' The land, which has been lying fallow for three or four months 



since the last harvest, has become covered with grass and weeds 

 which are destroyed by driving teams of buffaloes tied 5 or 6 

 abreast about the field until the weeds have been well trampled 

 into the wet mud. When this process is completed the seedlings, 

 which are now some forty days old, are pulled up by hand and 

 planted out in bunches of three or four plants at intervals of one 

 or tfro feet. 



The crop takes from 7 to 9 months to ripen according to the 

 species those kinds which take the longest being capable of pro- 

 ducing the heaviest crops. 



6. The Perak Malays usually plough their bcndangs by means 

 of light wooden ploughs drawn by buffaloes and turn the water on 

 to the fields afterwards, while in the Krian district, where the best 

 crops in the Peninsula are obtained and are almost entirely culti- 

 vated by Foreign Malays, the land is cleared entirely by hand 

 labour, the weeds being dug or chopped off just below water level 

 with a tajak, an instrument consisting of a heavy straight blade 

 about two feet long, fixed like a scythe on to a straight wooden 

 handle and used with a long swinging stroke. 



In the Negri Sembilan the fields are cleaned with a chan^kol \ a 

 kind of heavy hue or mattock. 



The Pahang Malay, however, depends entirely on his buffaloes 

 to save him the labour of cleaning his fields, and this is the method 

 which has been handed down to him from his fathers. 



7. It is difficult to estimate accurately the average yield, which 

 varies with the quality of land and with the climatic conditions of 

 each season. It may be roughly put down at from 35 to 70 bushels 

 per acre, the average being probably 40 to 45 bushels. 



The Krian padi lands, which, as I have stated, are considered 

 the best in the Peninsula, yield from 60 to 100 bushels per acre. 



8. Plough land, known as tanah tenggala, consist chiefly of flat 

 alluvial tracts, many of which are situated near the lower reaches 

 of the Pahang river. This land is not irrigated, the crop being 

 entirely dependent for such moisture as is provided by rain and 

 dew. Owing to the uncertainty of the seasons, this sometimes 

 proves insufficient, while at others the crops are destroyed by 

 floods. Land which is annually flooded after the harvest gives the 

 best crops. 



Pough land 9. Plough land cannot be continuously cultivated y^ar afte 

 clannot be vear. It is usually planted for three, four or five seasons in succes- 



Average yield 

 per acre of 

 wet padi land. 



Yield in 

 Krian. 



Plough land 

 or tanah 

 tenggala, 



