23 
Agriculture is yet in its infancy in Madagascar, 
notwithstanding it is extensively practised : they have 
neither ploughs, harrows, nor working cattle; and 
the division of labour (the principle which facilitates 
and expedites every manual employment) is unknown 
amongst them. The implements made use of are the 
spade, shovel, pick-axe, and hoe. The former are 
used in planting yams, potatoes, and other roots of 
the kind; and the latter in sowing rice and other 
grains. The process is simple and unlaborious;— 
they make small holes in the ground, at a little dis¬ 
tance from each other, with the pick-axe or hoe, into 
which the children throw a few kernels of rice, or 
whatever grain they intend it for, and shuffle the 
mould over it with their feet; and such is the raging 
fertility of the soil, that this slight preparation is gene¬ 
rally rewarded with a produce of a hundred fold. 
The red rice, as we have before noticed, grows only 
on wet lands; therefore, in situations where the natural 
moisture is not sufficient to promote its cultivation, 
they make cuts, in the month of December, to convey 
the excess of water from the rivers, during the rainy 
season, upon the lands intended to be sown, which 
are banked round to retain it. This is suffered to 
remain until the ground is thoroughly saturated, and 
has acquired the consistence of a bog, when they turn 
in a drove of cattle to divide the soil with their feet, 
which answers the purpose of ploughing, and the rice is 
sown immediately after: it soon springs up, and, when 
it gets into the blade, is again covered with water, 
