so little consistence that no furrow is perceptible, and the plough does
little more than loosen the stiff mud to some depth, and cut the roots of
the grass and weeds, from which it is afterwards cleared by means of a
kind of harrow or rake, being a thick plank of heavy wood with strong
wooden teeth and loaded with earth where necessary. This they contrive to
drag along the surface for the purpose at the same time of depressing the
rising spots and filling up the hollow ones. The whole being brought as
nearly as possible to a level, that the water may lie equally upon it the
sawah is, for the more effectual securing of this essential point,
divided into portions nearly square or oblong (called piring, which
signifies a dish) by narrow banks raised about eighteen inches and two
feet wide. These drying become harder than the rest, confine the water,
and serve the purpose of footways throughout the plantation. When there
is more water in one division than another small passages are cut through
the dams to produce an equality. Through these apertures water is also in
some instances introduced from adjacent rivers or reservoirs, where such
exist, and the season requires their aid. The innumerable springs and
rivulets with which this country abounds render unnecessary the laborious
processes by which water is raised and supplied to the rice grounds in
the western part of India, where the soil is sandy: yet still the
principal art of the planter consists, and is required, in the management
of this article; to furnish it to the ground in proper and moderate
quantities and to carry it off from time to time by drains; for if
suffered to be long stagnant it would occasion the grain to rot.

TRANSPLANTATION.

Whilst the sawahs have been thus in preparation to receive the padi a
small, adjacent, and convenient spot of good soil has been chosen, in
which the seed-grain is sown as thick as it can well lie to the ground,
and is then often covered with layers of lalang (long grass, instead of
straw) to protect the grain from the birds, and perhaps assist the
vegetation. When it has grown to the height of from five to eight inches,
or generally at the end of forty days from the time of sowing, it is
taken up in showery weather and transplanted to the sawah, where holes
are made four or five inches asunder to receive the plants. If they
appear too forward the tops are cropped off. A supply is at the same time
reserved in the seed-plots t