Rice Cultivation. 293 
Sixteen years ago the Chinese on Plantation Anna 
Regina obtained leave from Mr. G. H. BASCOM, the 
manager of the estate, to tap a pipe which supplied 
fresh water to the fa6lory. With this means of irri- 
gating five acres of low land adjoining their dwel- 
lings, they succeeded in raising excellent crops of 
rice ; and, from that day to this, this piece of land 
has been diligently cultivated. It has yielded on an 
average three crops of rice a year ; and with no rotation 
of crops and no rest, the land shews no falling off in 
yield after all these years. No rent has ever been 
charged for this plot, nor has any charge been made for 
the supply of water, so that the only dedu6lion that could 
be made from the success of its cultivation, was, that 
such land with such a supply of water could be made to 
yield excellent crops of rice with the utmost regularity 
and perfectly independently of seasons. 
In 1884 I induced two free East Indian immigrants to 
lease 30 acres of the adjoining land at a yearly rent of 
six dollars per acre. They sub-let the land in lots of a 
quarter of an acre upwards. The cultivation was so 
successful that applications for more land soon began to 
pour in ; and although I raised the rent, including of 
course a continuous supply of fresh w r ater, to twenty-four 
dollars per year an acre, I soon had nearly 300 acres taken 
up. Contrafts were entered into with a large number of 
free immigrants living in the villages in front of the 
estate, giving each man half an acre, at half price, on 
condition that he worked on the estate, when called on, 
for 3 days in a week at current rates ; and this arrange- 
ment worked most satisfactorily for some time. At the 
time that so much land was taken up, wages were very 
PP 
