June i, 1889.] THF TROPICAL 
BICE CULTIVATION IN BBITISH 
GUIANA. 
By the Hon. W. Kussell. 
It is scarcely necessary to dwell upon the impor- 
tance of a cereal which feeds three-fourths. I think, 
of the entire population of the world, or to remind 
the members of this Society of the important 
part it ' plays in feeding a large bulk of the in- 
habitants of this colony, calling for no less a sum 
than £223,284.17.3 to he transferred from this colony 
to India in payment for this food supply. My 
purpose is to trace out the various steps taken to 
grow a home supply here, where both soil and climate 
are apparently more favourable for the plant than 
in any other part of the world. 
In the year 1848 I first saw rice growing, in Ber- 
bice ; and it affords the best illustration that I can 
give of rise cultivation on upland. I had been in 
pursuit of game on the 1st of August holiday, and 
the dogs gave tongue, indicating that the quarry 
was at bay in a high bullet tree reef ; so with the 
" yackmau," I made for the scene of yelping, and 
to my astonishment after struggling through a con- 
siderable distance of tangled bush I came upon an 
opening where a lovely green crop, something simi- 
lar to an oat-field, met my view. The " yackman " 
himself, an African, at once pronounced it was rice, 
and told me that this was the labours of the 
" Timini " people, a race of Africans introduced by 
Messrs. Laing from New Providence, Nassau. Follow- 
ing up, we found a huge ant-eater backed up against 
a tree stump, keeping the dogs at bay. My compa- 
nion soon made short work of the ant-eater, saying 
it was good meat. Everything is meat to the African 
huntsman. I now gave attention to the mode of 
planting this, to me, new plant; and in my after 
travels in the forests of the interior, I have seen 
ways of land tillage reminding me of those practised 
by the Timini rice growers. The forest is felled, 
all except the huge giants, and then after junking 
the branches and scattering them over the surface 
until they are dry, a fire is set, and the whole con- 
sumed except a few stumps and the larger pieces. 
The land in this condition is tickled with a pointed 
piece of hard-wood, or more generally by the never 
absent cutlass ; a few grains of seed are dropped 
into holes, which are roughly covered up ; aud this 
is the whole work the husbandman bestows upon the 
land to cause it to produce an abundant crop of 
rice, maize, ochroes, pumpkins, and the various leg- 
umes, such as pea, bonavist, &c, &c. Such had 
evidently been the cultivation bestowed upon the 
rice fields in question, which must have been planted 
to gain the summer rains of June and July, aud 
were then in August almost ready for the sickle. 
Having reported my find to the managers — we had 
even then dual control — they were much interested 
in this work of industry on the part of the Africans, 
who had thus provided themselves with a food supply, 
at the cost of so little labour ; and there was much 
talk about spreading the industry. The time came 
for reaping the rice, but unfortunately at the same 
time the cane fields required to be cut, and the 
rice cultivators could not be made to see that Massa's 
canes came before their rice. The consequence was 
that not only the rice growers, but the whole gang 
became disorganized. They stowed away the rice, 
tied in bundles over the collar beams to their cottages, 
until one or two fell in, and there was the mis- 
chief to play all round ; and what was a short time 
previously considered a grand industry was now de- 
nounced as a perfect curse : for, African-like, while 
the rice held out, it was a case of pounding rice, and 
entirely neglecting the cane piece. I need not say 
that rice growing was put down, and the Timinians 
soon after removed to some new location. 
I have gone somewhat fully into these my early 
recollections for two reasons. First it explains how 
rice may be induced on dry land to produce two 
crops per annum, by simply burning off rongh 
herbage in the dry weather and sowing the seed 
with the first rain, say in May, in which case the 
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AGRICULTURIST. 829 
crop is ready for reaping in October ; and in the 
same way, rioe planted in first rains in November 
would be ready for the sickle in April. The rapi- 
dity of the rice growth chokes off all other indi- 
genous weeds ; hence there is no call for expensive 
weediugs. Secondly, it shows what in my opinion 
has kept back the spread of rice cultivation, viz : 
sugar. While sugar commanded a high price in the 
markets of the world, the fact of this colony having 
unlimited room for the extension of sugar cultivation, 
and having a sparse population, most of whom pre- 
ferred the planters' cash on the weekly pay day, 
to the insecurity and time required for rice or 
other food products to mature, besides risk of robbery, 
accounted for the small attention given to Minor 
Industries. 
At the present time, with a supply of labourers 
more equal to the demand, and a dying-out of all 
gambling in connection with sugar, and when many 
of the introduced workers from India, Ohina aud 
Barbados, have been taught iu this school of ad- 
versity that if they want to reap and eat, they 
must sow and labour, a new departure may be 
considered as having overtaken the colony. 
The praiseworthy attempt made by Mr. Colving 
to grow rice on a large scale in Caual No I, and 
by the Company which started under such favourable 
circumstances at Vive-la-Force, both failed from 
similar causes — want of practical knowledge of the 
land and seasons, and also want of a water supply — 
to which I ought to add, the stubbornness and want 
of belief on the part of the labourer employed in 
carrying out details. 
The next practical test came under my own ob- 
servation and encouragement about 1865, when a 
couple of hill coolies asked me to allow them to 
have 16 acres in front of Edinburgh house for rice 
growing. Seeing the heavy work of breaking up the 
land, I suggested bullocks and the plough, to which 
they readily agreed, and when I thought I was doing 
a great thing in adding a couple of Yankee eagle 
ploughs to the oxen, they said in their looks "Poor 
buckra, he no sabe." Instead of my ploughs and 
harness, I found them with a mangrove root shaped 
into an Egyptain plough with a long stick leading up 
to the yoke, the latter being a straight courida 
stick with two holes bored at such distances from 
each end as to admit of two pins beiug driven 
through, one on each side of the bullock's neck ; 
these were tied uuder the throat with a piece of 
string. When the team was ready to operate — and 
the way those coolies managed a pair of oxen direct 
out of the pasture was a sight worth seeing— they 
disturbed and worked up the surface of the land 
into such a puddle as would have disgusted au 
agriculturist from the old country, and made him think 
the laud ruined for ever. Having reduced it into 
this state, a plank was set on edge, and with a pole 
extending to and fastened to the yoke, this blunt rake 
was hauled backwards aud forwards until the surface 
was as smooth as a billiard table ; water was of course 
admitted all through these operations. On a small 
paddock of about 4 square roods, was sown the seed 
rice, much as we see cabbage-seed planted in English 
gardening. By the time the land was reduced to the 
puddle above described, these seedlings were seven to 
eight inches high, and the seed bed being in a state 
of pulp, they were easily pulled up in handfuls of a 
dozen to each handful. These were conveyed to their 
final destination, aud the operator separating a single 
stalk plunged his hand down some four or five inches 
into the puddle, and by a judicious turn of the hand, 
left the riceshoot firmly planted in the soil, each plant 
being set in squares nine by nine inches or thereabout. 
For the first few days the plants so pulled about looked 
drooping and seedy, but they did not remain long in 
this condition, lor on the plant taking to its new 
position it began to throw out shoots more like leeks 
than a simple cereal. In a month's time the women 
and children went through and plucked out all indigen- 
ous weeds and grasses, and tying these into small 
handfuls, placed them under foot and firmly imbedded 
them in the soft soil, there to rot and form manure 
