342 
THE sort- 
and that of the 12th month. Near towns, a rude plough and har¬ 
row are in use, and grain is planted. 
The crops are reaped by means of a short sickle nearly resembling 
the English one ; ahd that part only of the stalk which is grasped by 
the hand close to the ear, is left attached to the latter, a practice al¬ 
so common amongst the Malays. The grain is quickly dried under 
a hot sun, and having been laid on a clay floor in the open air, is 
beaten out by the feet of oxen or buffaloes. The husk is separated 
by pounding the gram in a wooden mortar, or by placing it betwixt 
two logs of wood which are grooved. The lower one is fixed in an 
upright position, and the other is made to revolve on it by manual 
labour. 
Siam, like almost every one of the Eastern countries, produces va¬ 
rious descriptions of rice, some of which are of quick growth, and 
may be raised on high ground when the rain is frequent. 
The Siamese, Burmese, and other Ultra Gangetic nations, prac¬ 
tice gardening in its rudest form. The Chinese, however, are supe¬ 
rior in this respect. But systematic as their ideas may be on the 
subject of gardening, yet they display little real taste in execution. 
Their garden deity is invested with the attributes of utility in prefer¬ 
ence to what is merely ornamental, and when aiming at the beautiful, 
it is by the formal arrangement of flowers and dwarf trees within a 
very limited spot.* The Siamese make a square garden, and plant 
cocoanuts in double rows along the sides. The interior is divided 
by ditches into longitudinal compartments; on the edges of these 
areca trees and plantains are planted, and in the middle, vegetables, 
such as sweet potatoes, plirali mun t,het or yams, and the root of a 
plant, the arum aquafcicum, melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, gourds, 
turnips, radishes, which two last are coarse. The Chinese pickie 
the leaves of these last, and use them at their meals. Also the egg 
plant, greens, and onions. Of flowers they cultivate many; not so much 
on account of their beauty, as to supply the flower shops, as in the Ba- 
* The Royal gardens in Chinese Tartary may seem exceptions : but it is 
their extent only which would appear to render them worthy of being no¬ 
ticed, Sir J. Davis has treated this subject fully in his useful work on China. 
