TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
211 
of the Burman forests, is the varnish from which 
the Shans and Burmese fabricate the lacquer ware 
already described. The finest kind is the pro¬ 
duce of the country of the Shans. From the 
forests of the same country is obtained a large 
quantity of stick lac of excellent quality. 
Burman Agriculture embraces the following 
productions: rice, maize, millet, wheat, various 
pulses, palms, sugar-cane, tobacco, cotton, and 
indigo. Rice (in Burmese, S’han,) is the great 
object of husbandry throughout the kingdom. 
The mode of cultivation in the upper provinces 
has been already noticed. Here the plough is 
used in turning up the soil, which is afterwards 
pulverized by means of a wooden cylinder be¬ 
tween eight and nine cubits long, dragged and 
not rolled along the ground, and by a rude har¬ 
row. The rice is sown first in beds, and after¬ 
wards transplanted. Two crops a year are gene¬ 
rally obtained, and occasionally three; the best 
during the periodical rains, and the others through 
means of artificial irrigation ; a process conducted 
very rudely and expensively, being chiefly effect¬ 
ed through manual labour. The best crops in 
the upper provinces seldom afford a return of 
above fifteen or twenty fold for the seed. In 
the alluvial lands of the southern provinces, the 
plough is rarely used. A rude harrow and the 
treading of cattle, when the earth is softened and 
reduced nearly to a puddle in the season of the 
p 2 
