Chap. XVI. 
HARVEST. 
271 
Yedo about the end of the month, and the oil har- 
vest begins. The plant is not cut like corn, but 
is pulled up by the root, and laid on the field 
where it has been growing. When it has lain for 
a few days to dry, a convenient space is cleared in 
the middle of the prostrate crop, upon which mats 
are laid, and the labourers (women chiefly) take 
the stalks, handful by handful, and tread out the 
seeds upon the mats. In the beginning of June 
fires are seen all over the country, and smoke fills 
the air. The rape-seed has been harvested, and 
the farmers are now engaged in burning the stalks 
and other refuse on the land, with the view of 
getting the ashes for the summer crops which are 
now being sown to take the place of the rape. 
The barley harvest commences in the first days 
of June, and in 1861 was in full operation on the 
5th of that month. The com is cut with a small 
hook exactly like that which is used in China. A 
portion of this is carried home to the farm-houses at 
once, in order to be secure from the weather, which 
is rather moist at this period of the year. Here 
the heads of corn are separated fr.om the stalks by 
beating them over a bamboo grating. The bamboo, 
being flinty and sharp, cuts off the heads at every 
stroke, and leaves them to fall through the grating 
to the ground. In the court-yard of every farm- 
house there is a broad flooring of chunnam, hard 
and smooth, on which the com is laid and thrashed 
out with a flail, in the same way as in the olden 
time in England. 
