Rice. 119 
scarcely ever more than an acre in one lot, and often less than one 
quarter that amount, and banked. This is thoroughly levelled, so as to 
be entirely flooded. All the soil removed in levelling is put on a lesser 
space adjoining, which is planted in vegetables. The rice-ground is 
thoroughly flooded over several times, on different days, in April, after 
which it is dug up with a heavy hoe. This hoe or spud is unlike any 
civilized implement. The blade is about 16 inches long and 4 inches 
wide, and will weigh from 6 to 8 pounds. The handle is 5 feet long. 
With a powerful blow it is sunk the full length of the blade into the 
soft soil, and with the long leverage of the handle a large amount of 
earth is lifted up and turned over. This process is slow, but it leaves 
the soil in a much better condition than can any plow. At 12^ cents as 
the whole cost of a day's labour, it does not cost much more to dig up 
an acre of tilled land to this depth than it does to plow an acre 
with us. In May, the seed-rice — about one and a half bushels, is put 
upon an acre — is first sown upon a small piece of ground. The 5th 
day of June is the national thanksgiving (transplanting) day when these 
thickly sown stalks are pulled up and transplanted in the rice paddyi 
where it is grown, the soil having been prepared by thorough flooding, 
till it is completely saturated. After the transplanting it is again 
flooded, and while in this condition 800 pounds of rape seed oil cake, or 
sardine oil cake thoroughly pulverized, and costing $8 to $12, is sown to 
the acre. The water is then turned off, leaving this soaked fertilizer at 
the root of the rice stalks. After frequent flooding during the summer, 
it is harvested in October. It is cut with a sickle something like a corn- 
knife, bound in bundles, and carried to high grounds, dried, and threshed 
at leisure, or rather shelled by drawing the heads of a small handful 
through a crude heckle. The cleaning or winnowing is done by pouring 
the rice from a basket or bucket upon mats by one person, while another 
fans it with a large paper fan. 
All this work of cutting, binding, shelling, and cleaning is done by 
women, who, while cutting and binding, stand bare-legged in the 
water 10 to 12 inches deep. The rice is then put into small straw bags, 
about 130 lbs in each, and sent to the mills on the backs of men or 
horses, where it is hulled by water-power, or by the primitive mortar 
and pestle worked by the feet. From the interior, horses are used to 
carry the rice, 300 pounds being the average load to a horse. A good 
horse, with a man to lead him, will earn 50 cents a day, out of which 
the man is fed and the horse fed and shod. 
