remain in
ignorance of a way of preventing so extravagant and wasteful a mode
of harvesting. The government has been requested to prohibit it on
account of the great expense it gives rise to; but whether any steps
have ever been taken in the matter, I did not learn. It is said that
not unfrequently a third part of the crop is lost, in consequence of
the scarcity of laborers; while those who are disengaged will refuse
to work, unless they receive one-third, and even one-half of the crop,
to be delivered free of expense at their houses. This the planters
are often obliged to give, or lose the whole crop. Nay, unless the
harvest is a good one, reapers are very unwilling to engage to take it
even on these terms, and the entire crop is lost. The laborers, during
the time of harvest, are supported by the planter, who is during that
time exposed to great vexation, if not losses. The reapers are for the
most part composed of the idle and vicious part of the population, who
go abroad over the country to engage themselves in this employment,
which affords a livelihood to the poorer classes; for the different
periods at which the varieties of rice are planted and harvested,
gives them work during a large portion of the year.

After the rice is harvested, there are different modes of treating
it. Some of the proprietors take it home, where it is thrown into
heaps, and left until it is desirable to separate it from the straw,
when it is trodden out by men and women with their bare feet. For
this operation, they usually receive another fifth of the rice.

Others stack it in a wet and green state, which subjects it to heat,
from which cause the grain contracts a dark color, and an unpleasant
taste and smell. The natives, however, impute these defects to the
wetness of the season.

The crop of both the low and upland rice, is usually from thirty
to fifty for one: this is on old land; but on that which is newly
cleared or which has never been cultivated, the yield is far beyond
this. In some soils of the latter description, it is said that for a
chupa (seven cubic inches) planted, the yield has been a caban. The
former is the two-hundred-and-eighth part of the latter. This is not
the only advantage gained in planting rich lands, but the saving of
labor is equally great; for all that is required is to make a hole
with the fingers, and place three or four grains in it. The upland
rice requires but little water, and is never irrigated.