546 



THE TROPICAL WORLD 



The rice-fields offer a peculiarly charming picture when, as in the mountain valleys 

 of Ceylon, they rise in terraces along the slopes. Selecting," says Sir Emerson 

 Tennent, *' an angular recess where two hills converge, the Kandyans construct a 

 series of terraces, raised stage above stage, and retiring as they ascend along the slope 

 of the acclivity, up which they are carried as high as the soil extends. Each terrace 

 is furnished with a low ledge in front, behind which the requisite depth of water is 

 retained during the germination of the seed, and what is superfluous is permitted to 

 trickle down to the one below it. In order to carry on this peculiar cultivation the 

 streams are led along the level of the hills, often from a distance of many miles, with 

 a skill and perseverance for which the natives of these mountains have attained a great 

 renown. Many of the tanks, though partially in ruins, cover an area from ten to 

 fifteen miles in circumference. They are now generally broken and decayed; the 

 waters, which would fertilize a province, are allowed to waste themselves in the sands ; 

 and hundreds of square miles, capable of furnishing food for all the inhabitants of 

 Ceylon, are abandoned to solitude and malaria ; whilst rice for the support of the non- 

 agricultural population is annually imported from the opposite coast of India." 



Rice does not invariably require the marsh or the irrigated terrace for its growth, as 

 there is a variety which thrives on the slopes of hills, where it is not continuously 

 watered. In the mountain regions of Sumatra, rains fall at almost every season of 

 the year, though dry weather is more frequent from April to July. In August, the 

 rainy days are as three to one, and this is the time generally chosen for the sowing of 

 the Ladang, or mountain rice. After the harvest, the field is sown a second time 

 with maize ; it then lies fallow for a few years, and is soon covered with a thick vege- 

 tation of wild shrubbery, generally with glagah, a species of grass which attains a 

 bight of twelve feet. When the field is again to be cultivated, fire is resorted to, to 

 destroy the dense jungle, in which the tiger has made his lair, or where the rhinoceros 

 grazes. At night, these fires, ascending the slopes of the mountains, present a fine 

 sight ; during the day time, they cover the land with a dun mist. The rapidity with 

 which the dry culms of the glagah take fire is not seldom dangerous to the traveler 

 when his path leads him across the slope of a hill at whose foot the grass-field begins 

 to burn, for the rustling fire-columns ascend with the swiftness of the wind, and soon 

 wrap the side of the mountain in a sheet of flame. The ashes of the glagah aflford the 

 richest manure, so that these fields are only surpassed in fertility by the virgin soil of 

 the cleared forest, a laborious work, which is seldom undertaken in this thinly-populated 

 country. 



Sawa is the general Malay name for artificially-irrigated rice-fields. In the Indian 

 Archipelago, the sawa, or marsh rice, is at first thickly sown in small beds, and trans- 

 planted after a fortnight into the fields, the soil of which has been softened by water. 

 As the plant grows, copious irrigations supply it with the necessary moisture ; but as 

 maturity approaches, the field is laid dry, and about two months later the ears assume 

 the rich golden color so pleasing to the husbandman. Each field could easily be 

 made to produce two annual harvests ; but, when not compelled to labor, the tropical 

 peasant never thinks of taxing his industry beyond the supply of his immediate wants. 



The swamps of South Carolina, both those which are occasioned by the periodical 

 visits of the tides, and those which are caused by the overflowing of the rivers, are 

 admirably adapted to the production of rice ; yet the culture of the valuable cereal on 



