Culture of Rice. 549 
to keep the weeds from choking the crop. The seed is sown 
broadcast in May. This kind of rice is harvested in November, 
and to collect the crop is still more tedious than in the other case, 
for it is always gathered earlier, and never reaped, in consequence 
of the grain not adhering to the ear. If it were gathered in any 
other way, the loss by transportation on the backs of buffaloes and 
fiorses, without any covering to the sheaf, would be so great as to 
dissipate a great portion of the crop. 
It appears almost incredible that any people can remain in ig- 
norance of a way of preventing so extravagant and wasteful a 
mode of harvesting. The government has been requested to pro- 
hibit it, on account of the great expense it gives rise to; but 
whether any steps have ever been taken in the matter, I did not 
learn. It is said that not unfrequently a third part of the crop is 
lost, in consequence of the scarcity of laborers; while those who 
are disengaged will refuse to work, unless they receive one-third, 
and even one-half of the crop, to be delivered free of expense at 
their houses. This the planters are often obliged to give, or lose 
the whole crop. Nay, unless the harvest is a good one, reapers 
are very unwilling to engage to take it even on these terms, and 
the entire crop is lost. The laborers, during the time of harvest, 
are supported by the planter, who is during that time exposed to 
great vexation, if not losses. The reapers are for the most part 
composed of the idle and vicious part of the population, who go 
abroad over the country to engage themselves in this employment, 
which affords a livelihood to the poorer classes; for the diflerent 
periods at which the varieties of rice are planted and harvested, 
gives them work during a large portion of the year. 
After the rice is harvested, there are different modes of treating 
it. Some of the proprietors take it home, where it is thrown into 
heaps, and left until it is desirable to separate it from the straw, 
when it is trodden out by men and women, with their bare feet. 
For this operation they usually receive another fifth of the rice. 
Others stack it in a wet and green state, which subjects it to 
heat, from which cause the grain contracts a dark color, and an 
unpleasant taste and smell. The natives, however, impute these 
defects to the wetness of the season. 
The crop of both the low and upland rice, is usually from thirty 
to fifty for one: this is on old land; but on that which is newly 
cleared, or which has never been cultivated, the yield is far beyond 
this. In some soils of the latter description, it is said that for 
a chupa (seven cubic inches) planted, the yield has been a caban. 
The former is the 20Sth part of the latter. This is not the only ad- 
vantage gained in planting rich lands, but the saving of labor is 
equally great; for all that is required is to make a hole with the 
