THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 
517 
1846.] 
laying the land under water, light ploughing, hoeing, manuring, &c. Their man- 
ner of gathering and preparing it for market is likewise on the same principle as 
ours: cutting it down with sickle or reaping hook, (with serrated teeth, cut only 
on one side of the hook, and at an inclination with the handle,) and pounding it 
in a mortar. It is never attempted to be polished, as with ns, and it is always 
much broken in the preparation. There are but few qualities of Asiatic rice equal 
to American, and these confined to the edges of the tropics and the higher altitudes 
inland. There are no steam or water or wind mills, that I have heard or read of, 
in the east, which are used for facilitating the husking of the grain, and so cheap- 
ening its price and saving much of it from bruising and breaking. This is a singu- 
lar fact. The English, with all their capital, have never, to my knowledge, erected 
a single rice mill or threshing machine in their Indian possessions, though they 
have, in conjunction with our own citizens, erected large and expensive establish- 
ments at Charleston, Savannah, and other places. From what causes this has 
arisen, when there are so many projects afloat in India, and have been for the last 
thirty years, and large English and native capitalists ready to embark in any un- 
dertaking promising a moderate profit, I am unable to conjecture. If some of our 
sharp southern planters or New England mechanics, acquainted with this subject, 
were to come out to India, particularly Calcutta, I have no doubt, with prudence 
and economy, they would eventually overcome all difficulties and realize handsome 
fortunes. But they must exercise much patience. The East India Company’s 
government is very willing to encourage foreigners in any undertaking of this 
character . 
The other qtfhlity of rice is raised on virgin land, on the highlands. The trees 
and brushwood are first cut down and burnt as clean as possible, when the ground 
(just after the rainy season has terminated, or rather a spell of wet weather) is 
sown broadcast with the rough rice. I really do not know if lowland rice is capa- 
ble of being raised in these dry situations. The quality is always superior to any 
other, fetching higher prices. Rice throughout the east, before it is sown, is 
soaked, and even often allowed to vegetate, before it is put into the ground . At 
the time of sowing, and before it has taken root, there is much difficulty experi- 
enced from the birds destroying it. To scare these away they use precisely the 
same plans that we practise in the States to keep the crows from our cornfields. 
These are facts interesting to our southern and western planters. As the price 
of cotton is so low at present, I have no doubt they would find it of great advan- 
tage, after felling the forest and clearing the new lands, to sow two erops of rice 
before they put in their cotton. The Cingalese sow two crops of rice in the year 
on these lands, and the yield is very great and of the finest quality. If they wish 
to cultivate them in rice another year they have to manure the land, and return the 
chaff and straw to the soil by burning. They never cultivate the same piece of 
land the third year, as this kind of rice is a great exhauster of the soil. Such 
lands are then left to grow up in jungle again for ten or twelve years, when it is 
again felled and planted. Probably our planters on the rich bottoms of Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, by their skill and knowledge acquired after a 
few years, may be able, by manures and rotation of crops, to grow the two products 
of rice and cotton on the same land. In Java the Malays grow a change of crops 
on their lands, by sowing rice at the beginningof the season and tobacco at the 
end of the rice crop. The rice is flooded, and the tobacco is produced without 
the use of water. I was told by a gentleman resident in Manilla that he had 
frequently seen rice growing at the commencement of the season, and, after it had 
been reaped and the land turned over by ploughing and hoeing, waving with a rich 
crop of wheat. It may safely be stated that rice forms the staple food of the pop- 
ulation of the following eastern countries : 
China 350 millions- 
Siam, Cochin China, Cambodia, and Tonkin 15 “ 
India ... 200 
Indian Archipelago 20 
Ceylon 2^ “ 
Arabia, Persia, Mauritius, Bourbon, and Madagascar .10 
Sugar. — Sugarcane is grown in Bengal, Madras, Ceylon, the Malacca settle- 
ments, Siam, Burmah, Cochin China, China, Java, Luconia, Mauritius, Bourbon, 
and finally everywhere within the tropical east. The cultivation has surprisingly 
