corn. — Consumption. 89 



considered advisable to rate it here at 60-fold only. 

 The rice hind, or bbtdfiufh of Province \Vellesle\ ^uvs 

 an avcra.^v return of 117* fold; tlie maximum decree 

 of productiveness hein*t* six hundred guntamys of pad- 

 die or an otfottg (or l\ acre) of well-flooded, alluvial 

 land, or 150-fold ; w hich num!>cr of ^untangs are equal 

 to ;i()i)-iiutair4>nfri;v. \* ciirhiu- nearly 4,520 Laiglish 

 pound*. The present average produce has been very 

 moderately estimated in this account at 470 ^untangs 

 the nrlontr. of paddie. The quantity of seed inva- 

 riahly allotted f<»r an orfong of laud is 4 guntangs. In 

 the estimate of future produce as available for the 

 support of the local population, 4S0 guntangs an orlong 

 have been assumed as the net average produce, this 

 increase being admissible on the score ofthe improving 

 productiveness of the land. The average produce 

 now derivable, as above specified, from one square mile 

 of bindang land will be 2481 coy ans of paddie, or 

 142- c vyans of rice, affording f >od sufHcieut for the 

 support of 1,915 souls ; so that were every orloug to 

 bave its complement, the populati m of this Province 

 Blight be more than doubled without outrunning the 

 means of subsistence. Prospectively viewed, the 

 number which a square mile will be suflieieut 

 to support may be rated at 1,036 souls. IuSiain 

 forty-fold is estimated a good average produce. 

 A t*Tavoy, on the Tenasserim Coast, the maximum 

 rate of productiveness ofthe rice land was, in 1825— 

 and is still believed to be—nearly the same as the 

 average of Siam; while the average was only 20- fold, 

 at which last rale the produce of a square mile would 

 support about 1000 souls. There the return for seed 

 sown is not only thus small, compared with the return 

 for the quantity sown here, but to obtain the above 

 nu-rage of 2iUold, or 260 gun tangs of paddie from 

 one orlong o* laud, it would be requisite to sow tbir- 



