CiiAP. XIV. 
MANURES. 
239 
certain systems which are found in practice to succeed, 
and to these he himself adheres, and hands them down 
unchanged to his children. 
When the first crop of rice is cut, the second, which 
has been planted in the alternate rows, is left to grow 
and ripen in the autumn ; the ground is stirred up, and 
the stubble and part of the straw of the first crop 
is immediately worked up with the mud and water 
between the rows : this decays in the same manner 
as the trefoil in spring, and affords manure to the 
second crop. Prawns and fish of various kinds are 
frequently used for the same purpose and in the same 
way. 
Burnt earth mixed w^th decomposed vegetable matter 
is another highly esteemed manure, and is common in all 
the agricultural districts. During the summer months 
all sorts of vegetable rubbish are collected in heaps by 
the road-sides, and mixed with straw, grass, parings of 
turf, &c., which are set on fire and burn slowly for several 
days, until all the rank vegetable matter is decomposed, 
and the whole reduced to a rich black earth. It is then 
turned over several times, when it presents the same 
appearance as the vegetable mould used in gardens in 
England. This manure is not scattered over the land, 
but reserved for covering the seeds, and is applied in the 
following manner. When the seed-time arrives, one 
man makes the holes, another follows and drops in the 
seeds, and a third puts a handful of this black earth on 
the top of them. Being principally vegetable matter, it 
keeps the 'seeds loose and moist during the period of 
germination, and afterwards affords them nourishment. 
