- Author:
- Lorck, W.
- Publication Info:
-
Batavia, Java:
Distributed gratis by the Royal Packet Steam Navigation Co. (K.P.M.),
1912,
pg 92
Text on page 92
it is planted some inches apart in water. After full growth is attained and the grain well formed it is harvested by women who cut off the ripe grain and tie them in small bundles, leaving the stalks as fodder for their cattle. It is then taken to the kampong and the grain is separated from the ears by threshing. This process consists of placing the bundles into a hollowed block of wood and stamping them with a short heavy pole until the grains become separated. The rice is then ready for domestic purposes. Irrigation plays an important part in rice production and the Javanese employ a most elaborate system. Sloping ground is taken advantage of and the water is conserved in every way, of which, owing to the abundant rainfall, there is no lack. These rice fields or "sawahs" extend in some cases to the very top of large hills and present a very fine
Rice Fields.
picture. The terraces of water gardens seem to hang one upon another, with small streams of water trickling downwards through the green rice fields.
Maize also figures largely with the natives, being sown immediately after the harvesting of the rice crop and being well adapted to the dry season. Cavassa is also grown and the dried discs or roughly prepared flour of this product furnish the raw material for the tapioca factories of Europe. Another plant of commercial value is the "sesamum," from which is obtained castor oil, as also a fine lubricating oil, used in many
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