| caption: |
tree trunks used to dam fields; rice crop; buffaloes used for harrowing but not ploughing; hoes |
| text: |
They measure their cultivation by the number of baskets required for seed. Across the field in parallel lines, at no great distance apart, they lay the unconsumed trunks of the trees; these serve as dams to the water which comes down the face of the hill when it rains, and preventives to the soil being carried away with it. In bamboo jungle, the bamboo stumps serve the same purpose. The field has to be constantly watched against the depredations of birds and wild beasts, and weeds being very rapid in growth, to be frequently weeded. The rice raised by the Koupooees generally is of inferior quality. But the villages around the beautiful little Valley of Kowpoom, and near the vale of the Laimatak River, having plain surfaces of fertile soil to cultivate, raise crops of rice of the same superior description as that of the Valley of Munnipore. Although these villages possess buffaloes they do not use them to plough with, but only to harrow after they have dug up the soil with their hoes. |
