ery tight and close, will float for a considerable time. The
rice is carried ashore to the high land, where it is dried, and put
through the usual harvest process of division, &c.: and the _bhull_ is
then on the fall of the river again ready for its annual pickling.

The process of preparing the field for rice culture, in the Kandian
country, Ceylon, is very simple.

When the paddy is to be cultivated in mud, a piece of ground is
enclosed in a series of squares or terraces, by ridges raised with mud
and turf; a quantity of water is directed into the field from an
adjacent stream or tank, and is allowed to remain on it for fifteen
days; at the expiration of this time the field is ploughed with a yoke
of buffaloes, which operation is repeated at the end of fifteen days
more, when, by the rotting of the weeds and other matter, the field
has become manured. After another interval of fifteen days the field
is again ploughed and the broken ridges are repaired. Eight days after
the field is harrowed, and subsequently rolled or levelled; and when
the water has been let out the seed is sown, having in most instances
been previously made to germinate, by being spread on platforms and
kept wet.

The water is turned in during night, to prevent crabs and insects from
destroying the seedlings, and let out during the day; and this they
continue to do till the plants attain the height of one foot. Water is
only retained in the field until the ears are half ripe, otherwise
they would ripen indifferently and be destroyed by vermin. A variety
of coast paddy, called "moottoo samboo," was introduced into the
Kandian province in 1832, which was found to produce a more abundant
crop, by one third, than the native. It is of six months growth.

In Kashmir rice is the staple of cultivation, and the practice adopted
there is thus described by a writer in my "Colonial Magazine," vol. x.
p. 130. It is sown in the beginning of May, and is fit to cut about
the end of August. The grain is either sown broadcast in the place
where it is intended to stand till it is ripe, or thickly in beds,
from which it is transplanted when the blade is about a foot high. As
soon as the season will admit after the 21st of March, the land is
opened by one or more ploughings, according to its strength, and the
clods are broken down by blows with wooden mattocks, managed in
general by women, with great regularity and address; after which water
is let in upon the soil,