u 
Method of 
planting wet 
padi. 
Comparison 
with Perak 
methods of 
cultivation. 
Average yield 
per acre of 
wet padi land. 
Yield in 
Krian, 
Plough land 
or tanah 
tenggald, 
Pough land 
clannot b e 
swamps. This latter is the common form of wet padi cultivation 
in Pahang. The depth of the water is regulated by means of small 
embankments of clay thrown up so as to divide the fields into 
rectangular sections of from an eighth of an acre in extent up- 
wards. In swamps a single bank or dam at the lower end often 
regulates the depth of the water over a whole field. 
5. The seed is sown thickly in a nursery, the fields being mean- 
while prepared for the reception of the plants. 
The land, which has been lying fallow for three or four months 
since the last harvest, has become covered with grass and weeds 
which are destroyed by driving teams of buffaloes tied 5 or 6 
abreast about the field until the weeds have been well trampled 
into the wet mud. When this process is completed the seedlings, 
which are now some forty days old, are pulled up by baud and 
planted out in bunches of three or four plants at intervals of one 
or ttoo feet. 
The crop takes from 7 to 9 months to ripen according to the 
species those kinds which take the longest being capable of pro- 
ducing the heaviest crops. 
6. The Perak Malays usually plough their bendangs by means 
of light wooden ploughs drawn by buffaloes and turn the water on 
to the fields afterwards, while in the Krian district, where the best 
crops in the Peninsula are obtained and are almost entirely culti- 
vated by Foreign Malays, the land is cleared entirely by hand 
labour, the weeds being dug dr chopped off just below water level 
with a tajak, an instrument consisting of a heavy straight blade 
about two feet long, fixed like a scythe on to a straight wooden 
handle and used with a long swinging stroke. 
In the Negri Sembilan the fields are cleaned with a changkol , a 
kind of heavy hoe or mattock. 
The Pahang Malay, however, depends entirely on Ins buffaloes 
to save him the labour of cleaning his fields, and this is the method 
which has been handed down to him from his fathers, 
7. It is difficult to estimate accurately the average yield, which 
varies with the quality of land and with the climatic conditions of 
each season. It may be roughly put down at from 35 to 70 bushels 
per acre, the average being probably 40 to 45 bushels. 
The Krian padi lands, which, as I have stated, are considered 
the best in the Peninsula, yield from 60 to 100 bushels per acre. 
8. Plough land, known as tanah tcnggala , consist chiefly of fiat 
alluvial tracts, many of which are situated near the lower reaches 
of the Pahang river. This land is not irrigated, the crop being 
entirely dependent for such moisture as is provided by rain and 
dew. Owing to the uncertainty of the seasons, this sometimes 
proves insufficient, while at others the crops are destroyed by 
floods. Land which is annually flooded after the harvest gives the 
best crops. 
9. Plough land cannot be continuously cultivated year afte 
year. It is usually planted for three, four or five seasons in succes- 
