f 
296 HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
November. The fields to be planted require to be care¬ 
fully prepared, but this is often done in an inferior manner, 
and without manure. In preparing the low grounds for 
rice, the natives often employ cattle. Twenty or thirty 
oxen are driven into a field, and two or three men employed 
to drive them over the whole surface, to break and soften the 
moistened sods. This is extremely laborious, both for cattle 
and men, but it is found to be the most valuable and effectual 
method of preparing the soil. When the fields are prepared 
for the young rice, each single plant is put in the ground at 
a distance of from six to nine inches apart, the ground 
being then in a state resembling mud rather than earth. 
This part of the labour is generally done by women, and it 
is astonishing with what rapidity their work is performed. 
The plants are held in the left hand, and with the right are 
put into the ground at the rate of two or three in a second. 
A bushel of rice when the ground is prepared in an inferior 
manner, without drying the earth in the transplanting 
ground, will on an average produce fifty bushels. If the 
clods are well dried, it will produce seventy; and if the 
ground is particularly well done, and manured, it is no 
uncommon thing to take home one hundred bushels for the 
bushel sown. The soil when properly dressed is exceed¬ 
ingly fertile; and if the season be favourable, and the 
crops escape the ravages of insects, and the destructive 
effects of blight or mildew', the ground is everywhere 
thickly covered with the prolific grain. 
One of the most agreeable objects in the neighbourhood 
of Tananarivo, and in many parts of the Betsileo country, 
both as it gratifies the eye, and tends to fill the mind with 
delight in contemplating the bounty of the Creator thus 
providing support for a numerous people, is the rice-fields 
in the months of January and February. An immense 
