ORYZA sativa. CULTIVATION in Bengal.

Races or
Forms of
Rice.
298

Aus. 299

Aman. 300

Chotan aman, 301

Rice Crops.

large number were all forms which could be separately recognised by the uninitiated. They came from the various districts of Bengal and were readily distinguished by the local cultivators, with whom they bore distinctive names and were supposed to possess properties that rendered the one suitable for one class of soil, nay even for a particular field in the holding, while quite unsuited for another. An attempt to classify these forms of rice by any European standard would very naturally have rejected many as being identical, but experience has shown that such a reduction on the part of any person, save perhaps a rayat, would very probably lead to serious consequences. Mr. C. B. Clarke, an experienced and accurate botanist, remarking on the marvellous intuitive knowledge which the hereditary cultivators possess, in recognising the forms of rice, while dealing with the uri (wild rice), says: "I do not know how, in the young state, the cultivator tells the uri from the áman. I cannot." One might be prepared to suppose that there was something in the texture, colour, or even habit of the growing wild rice which enabled the cultivator to recognise it, but it is far more surprising to find him pick up a handful of dry grain and affirm that it would be found suitable to a particular method of cultivation, while he rejects an almost precisely similar grain as unsuitable.

Speaking generally, rices may be grouped by their colour, size, or shape, or according as they are awned or awnless. The colour of the husk or enclosing glumes gives, however, no positive indication of the colour or shape of the cont ained grain, so that a classification as to colour and shape, &c., would have to first take into account the peculiarities of the glumes and then of the grain. But when every effort had been spent, a hundred forms would suffice to break down completely every theory which had been established, so that attention would naturally have to be turned to the seasons of sowing, methods of cultivation, and peculiarities of climate and soil as affording more trustworthy data for classification; the peculiarities of the grain itself might then come to aid in the elaboration of the classification. The following brief account of the chief rice crops of Bengal was drawn up, by the writer, for the Calcutta International Exhibition, and as it affords the main ideas it may be here reproduced :—

"As far as the plains are concerned, rice crops may be referred to two or three primary groups, according to the method of cultivation, season of the year when cultivated, and length of the period required for ripening. These groups receive various names in different districts and provinces, but correspond to each other pretty constantly, being earlier or later, as the result of special peculiarities in climate and soil or season of rainfall. The average condition in Bengal may be expressed as follows:

1st.-The Aus or Bhadoi Crop.

"The forms thrown into this group are the early or autumn rices. They are sown from April to May, on comparatively high sandy lands not inundated during the rains. The seed is generally sown broadcast, and the field is carefully kept free from weeds during May and the first half of June. The crop is harvested from July to August, or even not till September.

"The forms of áus are the least valuable of all the rices; about onesixth of Bengal rice belongs to this group.

2nd.-Aman Crop-Winter Rices.

"This crop comprises the late or cold-season rices. Owing to their ripening on inundated fields, they are sometimes called the floating rices. They are referred to two important sub-groups :

"(a) Chotan áman.-The early and better sorts of áman are of

in Bengal.

this nature. They are generally sown on seed-beds, and CULTIVATION
when about nine inches in height they are transplanted into the
fields. There are many local kinds of chotan áman, of
which ropa or rowa or roya and shal are most favourably
mentioned. The cultivation of the rices of this sub-group
extends from May to October. They do not require deep
water, and are often transplanted into the same field upon
which a crop of broadcast áus is already well established,
the crop of the latter being reaped from July to August, and
the áman continuing to mature till October or November.
The better classes of chotan áman are, however, grown by
themselves.

(b) Boran áman.-These are much coarser forms of áman, and
grow habitually in deep water. They are sown for the
most part broadcast in bhils or low-lying lands: they are only
occasionally transplanted. The crop ripens in December or
January.

The weeding required for the áus crop is generally sufficient for a combined áus and áman crop. As the height of the water rises over the inundated fields the áman crop is often observed to grow with marvellous rapidity, as much as nine inches having been recorded in 24 hours at the beginning of the rains. When submerged through a sudden flooding for more than three days, the crop is completely destroyed. This is the chief danger to the áman rices.

The áman is the principal crop of rice in the plains, after the harvest of which the land generally remains undisturbed until the end of February, when preparations for the new áus crop commence. Sometimes, however, winter crops of pulses and oil-seeds are taken off the higher áman lands.

3rd.-The Boro Crop.

The hot season rices come under this heading. They are transplanted from the seed-bed or sown broadcast from December to February and harvested in April to May. The forms of this group yield an abundant crop of very coarse and hard rice, chiefly consumed by the poorer classes. They are quick-growing rices, one kind of which is known as the shatia or 60-days' rice, because in that period, from sowing to harvest, it yields its crop. By some writers there is an aus shátia rice as well as a boro. Only a very limited amount of boro rice is cultivated; they are suitable for churs or low-lying lands, and may be grown in 10 or more feet of water notwithstanding strong currents. They are, however, of much value to the poor, since the coming of this crop in the hot season tends to lower the then high rates of other classes of rice. A peculiar kind of boro rice is known as raida or bhasha-naranga. This is sown along with the ordinary boro rice in December. The young stems are shorn when the boro crop is removed, but this does not seem to injure the raida. It continues to grow, and yields its crop in September or October, having been thus 10 to 11 months on the field.

Five Crops of Rice a Year.-A proprietor of an estate with fairly mixed soil according to this system might have three, if not four or even five, harvests of rice every twelve months, thus:—

(1) Aus harvest, from July to August.
(2) Chotan áman, from October to November.

(3) Boran áman, from December to January.
(4) Boro, from April to May.

(5) Raida, from September to October.

Boran aman. 302

Boro.

303

304

ORYZA sativa.

CULTIVATION

in Bengal.

Scented rice. 305 Conf. with pp. 570, 595.

Rowa

306

Classification of

Two harvests are all but universal in Bengal, with an occasional third but smaller one; two crops are frequently taken off the same field. Of these groups of rices, the áus, boro, and raida cannot be used at religious ceremonies as offerings to the Hindu gods; but these, together with the boran áman, are the rices eaten by the million, the finer classes of aman being, from their high price, restricted to the rich. A remarkable fact which may be here noted is that the áus, áman, or boro rices of one district are often so different from those of another, that if interchanged the one will not grow on the fields on which the other has flourished for centuries. Here the European farmer is confronted with a problem scarcely known to his scientific agriculture; but although it is difficult to follow his reasonings, the rice cultivator of India will detect the one from the other with a perfectly marvellous degree of certainty.

Scented and Other Special Rices.-Some forms of rice are scented, while the majority have no smell whatever. Scented rices are common, for example, in Orissa, Thana, Behar, &c, and are much prized by certain classes of people. Of the scented rices, benaphuli, kamini, bans-mati, and ránduni-pagla (or cook-maddening) are considered the best. The better class Natives eat the long thin white chotan áman rices, chiefly cultivated upon higher lands; while the short, thick, more or less reddish rices-the so-called Patna rices—are those eaten by the mass of the people of India. The Muhammadans prefer an absorbent rice, such as that from Pilibhit. In Burma, amongst many high class rices, a grain is grown which, while largely used for industrial purposes, is regarded as unwholesome as an article of food. One of the most curious peculiarities and one recently brought to light regarding rice is that, while the great mass of rices contain only one grain within the husk, two or even three grains are regularly present in certain rices."

A FURTHER CLASSIFICATION OF CULTIVATED RICES.-Mr. C. B. Clarke, in his paper on the Cultivatian of Rice in Bengal (published in the Kew Bulletin of December 1888), divides the rices into three crops: (1) Rowa, (2) Aman, and (3) Aus lowsh). Mr. Clarke's main object ap. pears to have been to impress on his readers the fact that there is actually a rowa crop, a fact which, for some reason unknown to the writer, Mr. Clarke appears to think, is not generally credited in India. The hardand-fast separation of rowa from áman which Mr. Clarke insists on can hardly, however, be said to exist. It most certainly does so in Eastern and Central Bengal, the region of which Mr. Clarke more particularly wrote, but the transition from the higher lands on which the better class rowa is grown to the deeper submerged tracts on which the áman (of which he speaks) is found to luxuriate, is a gradual one and whole districts might be said to belong to the middle region which could neither be classed in Mr. Clarke's rowa nor in his áman, while other districts are, almost (as far as these two crops are concerned), either entirely rowa of good quality or entirely áman of a very inferior kind. Thus, for example, the rowa rice of Dacca is scarcely as good as the áman of many other districts such, for example, as Burdwan and Hooghly. Mr. Sen very properly remarks (Report on System of Agriculture of Dacca, p. 28), that fully one-third of the whole produce of Dacca belongs to the aus and boro classes of rice, and that even the áman paddy, especially the longstemmed variety, is a coarse and inferior grain. In his note on the rices of Bengal, however, Mr. Clarke omits from consideration the boro and raida crops and gives only the most general statements regarding the forms he specialises. His urgency to have the rowa separately established serves, however, a useful purpose, since, in the writer's opinion, the superior class of áman rice, grown on high lands, is botanically distinct from

the long-stemmed áman of the jhíls. Mr. Clarke's words on this subject CULTIVATION may be here quoted :

"I should warn you that many points in the above description have been controverted; and in particular it has been asserted, not only by Calcutta English newspapers, but by Government officers, that there exists no such rice as I have described as rowa." As far as the writer can discover, however, every recent book and report which treats of Bengal rices clearly establishes the existence of the rowa crop. What many authors differ in, is the propriety of the chotan and boran áman crops being viewed as sections of one crop or as entirely separate crops. And there is much to be said in favour of the latter opinion, for they are not only grown under quite different conditions, but, as has already been stated, they are probably derived from different stocks. The seasons of sowing and harvesting, however, are practically identical and in a great many parts of Bengal the áman crop consists chiefly of chotan áman, while in others it is mainly if not entirely boran áman. The term rowa, moreover, does not, strictly speaking, denote a form of rice, but is rather the process of transplanting from a seed bed. But transplanting is not confined to chotan áman rice; áus is sometimes once, and boro crops are frequently twice, transplanted. Moreover, broadcastings of what Mr. Clarke alludes to as rowa are by no means unusual.

Degree of Rainfall and Season suitable for Rice Culture. Mr. Clarke's remarks regarding the water requirements of the rowa crop are instructive and may be here quoted :-"The rowa crop depends very little on the early setting in of the rains (the Government printed reports I am aware imply a contradiction of this statement), but almost entirely on the rain holding on in the autumn. The Bengalí expects rain at least once a week during October, and enough to prevent his rice drying up before quite the end of the month; if he gets this he has a full crop (and I say whether he dibbled early or as late as 15th August to 10th September). If the rain holds on steadily (i.e, sufficient in quantity and at sufficiently short intervals to prevent the rowa field getting dry) to the beginning of November (as I have known it do nearly half the seasons I have witnessed) the crop is a bumper. If the rain stops by the 10th to 15th October, so that the rowa fields then dry up, there may be a three-quarter crop. If the rain stops before the end of September, as it did in Orissa in 1869, the crop (at least all the August-September dibbled) fails. Also, if the rain stops by the middle of October, so that the rice dries up, a late down-pour in November or December (which I have seen twice) does harm rather than good." Mr. A. P. MacDonnell, however, expresses in perhaps more precise language the necessities of the rice crops of Bengal for water. He says:—“ :-"My instructions suggested the possibility that the varied experience of 1873 might afford some clue to the establishment of a fixed connection between an ascertained deficiency in the rainfall at any one place and a consequent failure of the crops there. I regret I have failed to establish any definite connection of the kind." The facts contained in his work will make it quite clear, he continues, “that the character of a harvest depends, within certain wide limits, much more on the seasonable distribution of the rainfall than on its absolute quantity. Although a well marked deficiency in the rainfall will certainly entail a deficient cropyield, yet the magnitude of the deficiency will depend on the distribution of the rain which fell. For the bhadoi and late rice harvest it would seem that the distribution most favourable to agriculture -the husbandman's ideal year- is when premonitory showers, falling in May or early June, facilitate that spade husbandry which, to secure a really good crop, must precede

in

¡Bengal.

Season of

Rice Culture.

307

Amount of

Rain neces

sary.

308

ORYZA sativa.

CULTIVATION

in Bengal.

Amount of rain necessary.

Rotation: Manure, 309

:

Rotation with Other Crops.

ploughing operations. The rain in the end of June and in July should be heavy then should come an interval of comparatively fair weather, in which weeding operations may be successfully prosecuted. The September rains must be heavy, shading off into fine weather with October showers. On the sufficiency of the September rains, more than of any other month, depends the character of the winter rice crop-the chief harvest in these provinces. Finally, periodic showers from December to February (inclusive) are essential to a good rabi harvest."

In the Famine Commission's Report, much valuable information has been tabulated, as to the degree of rainfall necessary for the rice and other crops of Bengal, and the deficiencies or rather seasons of deficiency that are calculated to produce famine. The following passage may be here given as of special interest in this connection :-"Of the rice crops there are in Bengal three main varieties—(1) the early rice, which is also known as the summer or autumn rice; (2) the main crop or winter rice; and (3) the late or spring rice. The first is sown on the highest, the last on the lowest lands; a year of excessive rainfall is as good for the former as it is bad for the latter.

The question of famine or no famine depends solely on the main crop, which is sown between April and June, and reaped between November and January according to the district concerned-its soil, climate, rainfall, &c.

There are three critical periods in the life of this crop during which rain is required, vis. :

(1) in May and June for sowing, when light rains are required;
(2) in July and August for weeding, transplanting, and sub-soiling,
when heavy rain is required; and

(3) in September and October for maturing the growth and filling out
the ear, when moderate rain is necessary.

The last of these stages is the most critical, and it is to the failure of the rains in September and October that all famines in Bengal have been due." "Excessive rain has never been known to cause famine in Bengal, even indirectly by causing floods. It damages the rice crop and rabi crop only when it falls at two stages of their growth, vis. :—(1) the earlier— i.e., before the young plants are high and strong enough to bear it, and (2) the later—when the grain is formed in the ear and the plant is beaten down by the rain. Exceeding good and promising crops have often been damaged by heavy rain, especially at the latter stage of their growth, but never to such an extent as to cause any widespread distress. The bhadoi and early rice crops are sown in April and May, and reaped in August and September. They require only a moderate rainfall at regular intervals. The rabi crops and late rice are sown in October and November, and reaped in April and May. They are more independent of rainfall than either of the other two classes of crops."

Rotation of Crops and Manure.

In the passages quoted below from local reports (which are intended to convey a general idea of the rice cultivation of Bengal as a whole) incidental allusions will be found to the subject of Rotation of Crops and Manures. The following passage, from the Famine Commission's Report, is believed to be as fully applicable to Bengal now as it was some 16 years ago when first penned :-"The manuring and rotation of crops as practised in Bengal does not affect in the slightest degree the question of famine. These matters vary so widely in different districts and in different parts of the country; the use of manure is so uncommon-save for the most valuable of the non-food crops, such as indigo, sugar-cane, jute, &c.,—and the rotation