Chap. XIV. 
TERRACE CULTIVATION. 
233 
highest terrace, into which it flows and floods the whole 
of the level space. When the water rises three or four 
inches in height, which is sufficiently high for the rice, it 
finds vent at an opening made for the purpose in the 
bank, through which it flows into the terrace below, 
which it floods in the same manner, and so on to the 
lowest. In this way the whole of the rice-terraces are 
kept continually flooded, until the stalks of the crops 
assume a yellow ripening hue, when, the water being no 
longer required, it is turned back into its natural chan- 
nel, or led to a different part of the hill, for the nourish- 
ment of other crops. These mountain-streams, which 
abound in all parts of the hilly districts, are of the 
greatest importance to the farmer ; and as they generally 
spring from a high elevation in the ravines, they can be 
conducted at pleasure over all the lower parts of the 
hills. No operation in agriculture gives him and his 
labourers more pleasure than leading these streams of 
water from one place to another and making them sub- 
servient to their purposes. In my travels in the country 
the inhabitants often called my attention to this branch 
of their operations, and I pleased them much when I 
expressed my admiration at the skill with which they 
executed it. The practice is not confined to the paddy- 
fields: for I remember once, when superintending the 
planting of some large trees and shrubs in the garden of 
Messrs. Dent and Co. in Hong-kong, after I had given 
them a large supply of water at the time they were put 
into the ground, I desired the gardener to repeat the 
dose next morning. But on the following day, when I 
returned to the spot, I was surprised to find a little 
