Miscellaneous. 



346 



[October, 1910. 



ed in the direction of plantations of 

 perennial crops, such as coconuts or 

 mangoes. Such plantations are nowadays 

 a very marked feature in tropical agricul- 

 ture, and it would be absurd to suggest 

 that all of them have developed out of 

 the mixed garden, but there can be 

 little doubt that there has been such a 

 development in many cases. Supposing 

 that a man had only coconuts available 

 to plant on a chena, it would obviously 

 develop into a coconut plantation. The 

 permanent plantation of one product 

 only may be looked upon as in all 

 probability a convergent development 

 of the mixed garden upon the one side, 

 and the field of annual crops upon the 

 other. 



While on the one side the chena might 

 develop into mixed garden, by the 

 plantation of various perennial crops, 

 on the other side it might develop intG 

 the field, in which annual crops were 

 cultivated in a systematic manner. Rice 

 fields, for example, or land laid down to 

 tobacco or cotton, come under this head. 

 The essential distinction between this 

 type of cultivation and chena is that 

 there is here no period of lying fallow 

 lasting for more than a year. One crop 

 a year, at any rate, is taken from the 

 land- And it is distinguished from the 

 mixed garden by the fact that the cultiv- 

 ation is of one, or at most two, crops 

 only. We may probably regard the 

 evolution that has gone on as being re- 

 presented by the diagram. 



X 



pields m' 



OF V*, 

 ANNUALS 



MIXED GARDENS 



CONSUMPTION 

 P00TS ETC 



The field of annual crops would un- 

 doubtedly lead to the fields of perennial 

 crops, except perhaps in the case of 

 coconuts and other crops that have been 

 in cultivation in the tropics for a very 

 long period. It is not intended to imply 

 that the differentiation has gone so far 

 that one man has only one of these forms 

 of agriculture, Practically every field 

 owner has also a mixed garden. 



Another form of field that might come 

 into existence is the grazing ground for 

 cattle, but it must be understood that 



9uch is, in general, rare in the tropics, 

 where one of the great wants is proper 

 feeding ground for cattle. Simple clear- 

 ing of the forest to a moderate degree 

 will often result in the growth of a good 

 sod of grass, while complete clearing will 

 result in a vast crop of weeds. 



Now this new step, to field cultivation 

 of annual crops, at once opens the door 

 to unlimited possibilities of progress 

 in agriculture. Such crops and such 

 methods of cultivation allow of any 

 amount of improvement in the variety 

 of crops, the kinds of crops, the methods 

 and tools by which they are cultivated, 

 and so on, whereas mixed gardens and 

 chenas dc not allow of such improve- 

 ment without the abandonment of the 

 system, as f^r example by the adoptiou 

 of rotation of crops. 



But, on the other hand, so soon as a 

 man opens a field, many demands, some 

 of which are new, spring up. He must 

 have crops that are suitable for field 

 cultivation ; he must be ready to work 

 harder than upon chena? ; he must have 

 tools suitable for the work that requires 

 to be done; he must provide drainage, 

 and sometimes irrigation. All these will 

 have to be considered in a general way 

 later on ; now we must simply refer to 

 them in very brief outline. 



The cultivator must have crops suit- 

 able for field cultivation, i.e,, annual 

 crops, the produce of which he may 

 himself consume. This in general means 

 cereal crops, or crops giving such pro- 

 ducts as oils, cotton or other easily 

 worked fibres, and the like. He will 

 require more labour to a given area 

 than upon a chena, for he must keep 

 the laud free of weeds. The area he 

 can open will thus be directly depen- 

 dent upon the amount of labour that he 

 can find, which will in general be small, 

 being only that of his own family un- 

 less he possesses slaves. This require- 

 ment thus gives an indication of how the 

 first opening of fields came about. In 

 all probability it ,vas forced upon the 

 people by increasing density of popul- 

 ation, which would reduce the aiea avail- 

 able for chena, and compel harder work. 



He will require better tools. On the 

 chena he did little, if any, cultivation of 

 the soil, but now he must keep it tilled, 

 or weeds will very soon take possession 

 of it. Ploughs, harrows, hoes, and other 

 tools would thus come in, as well as 

 draught by domesticated animals, such 

 as cattle. Although at first men would 

 work with home-made articles, there 

 would ultimately come a time when the 

 making of tools would fall into the hands 

 of a special class of men, carpenters and 



