June i, 1889.] 
THE TROPICAL ftGftKSUtTURlSY. 
833 
rice — about one and a half bushels, is put upon an 
acre — is first sown upon a small piece of ground. 
The 5th day of June is the national thanksgiving 
(transplanting) day when these thickly sown stalks 
are pulled up and transplanted in the rice paddy, 
where it is grown, the soil having been prepared by 
thorough flooding, till it is completely saturated. 
After the transplanting it is again flooded, and while 
in this condition 800 pouuds of rape seed oil cake, 
or sardine oil cake thoroughly pulverized, and cost- 
ing $8 to $12, is sown to the acre. The water is 
then turned off, leaving this soaked fertilizer at 
the root of the rice stalks. After frequent flooding 
during the summer, it is harvested in October. It 
is cut with a sickle something like a corn-knife, 
bouud in bundles, aud carried to high grounds, dried, 
and threshed at leisure, or rather shelled by drawing 
the heads of a small handful through a crude heckle. 
The cleaning or winnowing is done by pouring the 
rice from a basket or bucket upon mats by one per- 
son, while another fans it with a large paper fan. 
All this work of cutting, binding, shelling, and 
cleaning is done by women, who, while cutting and 
binding, stand bare-legged in the water 10 to 12 
inches deep. The rice is then put into small straw 
bags, about 130 lb in each, and seut to the mills on 
the backs of men or horses, where it is hulled by 
water-power, or by the primitive mortar and pestle 
worked by the feet. From the interior, horses are 
used to carry the rice, 300 pounds being the average 
load to a horse. A good horse, with a man to lead 
him, will earn 50 cents a day, out of which the 
man is fed and the horse fed and shod. 
The average yield is 50 bushels to the acre, and 
the average weight of lowland rice is 55| pounds to 
the bushel, making 2,666if pounds to the acre. It 
requires 80 days' labour to each acre from the first 
flooding till the rice is marketed. 
The result per acre of rice-raising can be stated as 
follows:— Labour : $18; manure, $8; interest on 
$100 @ 10 per cent., $10; total cost, $36; 2,666§ 
pounds of rice at 2± cents, $66,663; total profit, 
$3066§. 
If the above was a real profit, the farmer could 
make a favourable showing; but the Government 
tax is claimed by the farmers to be 50 per cent, of 
this profit, leaving only $17 to $18 per acre. 
As I remarked before, 10 acres is a large amount 
for one proprietor, and many have oue acre or less. 
The uplaud rice is sown at the same time, and 
flooded and manured in the same manner ; but the 
yield is far less and the profits proportionately small. 
The lowlands rest during the winter, but the uplands 
are immediately dug up and fertilized with rice, 
bran, or hulls, or horse-manure, rice-straw, or liquid 
manure from water closets, at a cost of about §4. 
to the acre and shown in wheat or barley. 
I trust that in this paper I have brought together 
trustworthy information to guide those who may 
throw their energies into rice. All the work re- 
quired is of so light a nature that women and children 
may find employment at it ; and I see no reason 
why bullocks may not be pressed into the service 
in the rougher manipulation of the land. In all 
my remarks, I allude to small cultivators, there beinc 
no restriction to the size of the plots ; it may be 
a square rood, or an acre, or a company with a 
thousand acres. 
I take this opportunity of thanking all the gentle- 
men who have assisted me with reliable information 
connected with the subject under consideration, es- 
pecially Mr. Imlach of la Bonne Intention and Mr. 
McPhail of Auua Regiua, 
By A. K. Gilzban. 
Some twenty-two years ago an East Indian immi- 
grant on Plantation Leonora, cultivated about twenty 
acres of the front lands of that estate for the growth of 
rice He used a bullock-plough for the preparation 
oi t le laud, and, as far as I can remember, ho suc- 
ceeded in raising good crops. After working for a 
couple ot years he abandoned it, but for what reason 
I do not know. I do know, however, that the pro- 
portion of the crop which he gave the estate, in the 
shape of paddy, as rent for the land, was not cleaned 
for use. Labour was so dear then that it did not pay 
to clean the rice. About the same time an experiment 
was made in rice-growing on a large scale at Plantation 
Vive-la-Force. It failed owing to the difficulty and 
expense of the cleaning operation. A machine was 
imported for the purpose, but like all the small rice- 
cleaniug machines of which I have ever heard it 
was not a success. 
The East Indian and Chinese immigrants in various 
parts of the colony, have from time to time planted 
rice in the estate's navigation trenches and the open 
savannahs, but with varying success, meeting with 
great discouragement through the loss of crops from 
floods and drought. 
Sixteen years ago the Chinese on Plantation Anna 
Reyina obtained leave from Mr. G. H. Bascom, the 
manager of the estate, to tap a pipe which supplied 
fresh water to the factory. With this means of irri- 
gating five acres of low land adjoining their dwel- 
lings, they succeeded in raising excellent crops of 
rice ; and, from that day to this, this piece of laud 
has been diligently cultivated. It has yielded on an 
average three crops of rice a year; and with no 
rotation of crops and no rest, the land shews no 
falling off in yield after all these years. No rent has 
ever been charged for this plot, nor has any charge 
been made for the supply of water, so that the only 
deduction that could be made from the suceess of its 
cultivation, was, that such land with such a supply of 
water could be made to yield excellent crops of rice 
with the utmost regularity and perfectly independently 
of seasons. 
In 1884 I induced two free East Indian immigrants to 
lease 30 acres of the adjoining land at a yearly rent of 
six dollars per acre. They sub-let the land in lots of a 
quarter of an acre upwards. The cultivation was so 
successful that applications for more land soon began to 
pour in ; and although I raised the rent, including of 
course a continuous supply of fresh water, to twenty- 
four dollars per year an acre. I soon had nearly 300 
acres taken up. Contracts were entered into with a 
large number of free immigrants living in the villages 
in front of the estates, giving each man half an acre, 
at half price, on condition that he worked on the estates, 
when called on, for 3 days in a week at current rates ; 
and this arrangement worked most satisfactorily for 
some time. At the time that so much land was taken 
up, wages were very low, and they continued to be 
comparatively so until the very heavy season set in at 
the end of last year, when the sugar estates had to 
raise wages to attract labourers to re-establish the 
cane cultivation which was Dearly drowned out. At 
the same time the rice-growers were suffering from a 
plague of rats which were doing great damage to their 
crops. The consequence was that the rice cultivation 
was practically suspended for about six months. When, 
however, wages became normal, the labourers again 
turned their attention to rice, and to-day over 100 acres 
are in full cultivation, while every day some more is 
being planted. Very little labour is required to re- 
establsih the cultivation of a bed which has ever been 
prepared for rice, and the lease of such a bed although 
subject to rent, with no cultivation on it, is a market- 
able commodity. 
Mr. Winter, the proprietor of Coffee Grove, has leased 
a good deal of his front lands to immigrants for rice 
cultivation, and it presents a very handsome and 
healthy appearance. I have heard of no other system- 
atic, or comparatively permanent attempts at rice-grow- 
ing on a large scale in tbe colony. No doubt a large 
quantity ofrice is raised in the fcavannahs, and in some 
instances with good results ; but the difficulty of regul- 
ating the supply of water must be ruinous in many 
cases. 
_ Having given this sketch of the districts of the rice 
industry iu the colony to the best of my knowledge, I 
now proceed todescribe the mode of cultivation, with its 
cost. The front lands of A una Iii'f/ititt and Coffee Grove 
on which rioe is grown, are very low, their average level 
being 50 Georgetown Datum, or about 2 feet under 
