Edible Products. 



804 



[October, 1910. 



village was founded some centuries ago, 

 pyaung was extensively cultivated there 

 and also on the uplands along the banks 

 of the Mon River, before the opening of 

 the new irrigation works by Govern- 

 ment. Now rice, the favourite crop, has 

 of course, taken its place. Specimens of 

 the weed were found there by me in 

 1901, and again by Captain Gage (now 

 Major and Director of the Botanical 

 Survey of India), and myself in 1903, as 

 late in the season as in the month of 

 April.— (Records of the Botanical Stirey 

 India, Vol. III., No. 1 of 1904, quoted 

 above.) 



At present, the Barman cultivator is 

 helpless in his straggle with the weed, 

 and is not even able to reduce or to cir- 

 cumvent its disastrous effects. No practi- 

 cable remedy is known. Uprooting is 

 not attended with success, and cannot 

 be recommended, because, to uproot the 

 weed thoroughly, one would have to dig 

 up each pyaung plaut with it, in order 

 to disentangle carefully and sever all 

 suckers from the former, returning the 

 latter to its bed after such a difficult 

 performance. For, if any fragment, 

 however small of the root of the weed is 

 perchance left in the ground, or attached 

 to the roots of its victim, the pest will 

 spring up again in no time. Very often 

 the pyaung plants are too far advanced 

 to bear transplanting or any interference 

 at all ; they are in this case irretrievably 

 doomed to succumb either under the 

 operation, or under the attacks of their 

 unrelenting enemy. It is therefore to 

 be hoped earnestly that in the near 

 future some remedy will be discovered, 

 some chemical " germicide " or appli- 

 cation, that will destroy this harmful 

 pest, both in the crop or in the latent 

 state of germs or seed in the ground, 

 before the sowing of pyaung can be 

 attempted. This seems the only prac- 

 tical and effective means that can be 

 suggested, one, at least, which would not 

 be attended with disastrous or evil 

 results on the growing crop. 



The second enemy of the pyaung 

 among weeds, not so dreaded as the 

 Pwinbyu, but also very difficult to 

 eradicate, is a small wild creeper or 

 climber named by the Burman culti- 

 vators the kaukyo-nwe or kukyo-nway, 

 the Convolvulus arvensis. It appears 

 annually in July or August, lasting till 

 far into the dry season. Soon after its 

 first appearance, it multiplies rapidly by 

 shoots and layers, as well as from seed, 

 spreading itself in all directions over a 

 large area. By the time the young 

 pyaung crop has attained a, height of 

 2 or 3 feet, the weed is well established, 

 and, without warning, in no time, it has 



entwined itself firmly along the stems 

 of the tender plants, checking them in 

 their grmvth, Constant weeding is 

 necessary to keep it off. If the cultivator 

 is at all slack or careless, his crop will 

 soon be seriously endangered. This weed 

 does not, like the pwinbyu, attack the 

 roots ol its victim, sapping its very life ; 

 it climbs up the erect stems of the 

 pyaung plants, retarding their growth 

 and their development. Though not so 

 deadly as the first one, it can cause con- 

 siderable damage in a field, and is 

 therefore quite worthy of being counted 

 as one of the enemies of the pyaung 

 cultivator. 



The kaukyo-nwe does not, however, 

 attack the rice plant. Its behaviour in 

 a paddy-field is very different, no doubt 

 on account of the excess of moisture 

 always prevalent in rice cultivation. 

 Here it keeps to the kazins or small 

 bunds which always enclose rice fields 

 to retain the water necessary to the 

 crop. The cultivators make good use 

 of the weed at harvest time, when it is 

 collected in long strips to tie up the 

 straw into bundles. Thence the name 

 of kaukyo-nwe, or " creeper used to tie 

 the straw," by which it is commonly 

 known in Burma. 



This short note has no pretension to be 

 a complete and exhaustive review of the 

 enemies of the pyaung. Myriads of birds, 

 sparrows, crows, small owls even, attack 

 the crop either in the flower or in the 

 grain by day and by night. It is also 

 reported that a certain variety of snake, 

 the Russells's viper (in Burmese mway- 

 bivay is fond of the flower and also of 

 the tender unripe grain on which it 

 feeds. These snakes climb up the stem 

 of the plant, and, by their weight, break 

 and bend it to the ground, where they 

 can feast at leisure. It is curious to 

 note that the RusselVs viper is very 

 common in pyaung fields or yas at 

 flowering time and until the crop has 

 fully ripened. 



Pyaung is also attacked by a fungus 

 disease, probably due to organic germs 

 deposited into the flower by insects or 

 by the wind. Many different kinds of 

 insects too destroy the tender plants, 

 but seem to have little or no action on 

 the matured sorghums. In the early 

 stages,however,they can do considerable 

 damage to this most valuable crop. 



