Provincial Geographies of India/Volume 4/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV
FIELDS AND GARDENS
Rice. Rice, the ordinary food of all classes, is the chief staple of cultivation. Grown in every district, it absorbs the energies of farmers and peasants in the flat region of
Fig. 57. Irrigation with water scoop.
Lower Burma, converting it into what has been graphically described as "a howling paddy plain." The main crop is sown in nurseries (pyogin) at the beginning of the rains; later, the young shoots are taken up and carefully planted, one by one, at suitable intervals, in the sodden fields which have been ploughed with the aid of buffaloes and bullocks. But often rice is sown broadcast. Each field is separated from its neighbours by a low mound (kazin). Harvest comes at the beginning of the cold weather. Of many varieties of rice, kauk-kyi, which supplies practically all the crop for export is the most important. In Upper Burma, besides rice grown on fields watered by rainfall, great quantities are raised on irrigated land. In dry districts, a winter crop, mayin, is sown in the cold season on the edges of meres and on marshy depressions and reaped in the early rains. In the hills is practised a wasteful form of cultivation known as taungya. The trees and undergrowth are cut down and burnt in the dry weather and rice seed is dibbled in as soon as the rains begin. After garnering the crop, the taungya cutter usually abandons the field and starts afresh next year on another plot. The same ground is seldom cultivated two years in succession and is not re-visited till at least the undergrowth has sprung up again. It will be understood that this practice may involve the destruction of much valuable forest[1].
The area under rice cultivation is over 10,000,000 acres, of which over 8,000,000 acres are in Lower Burma. The principal rice-growing districts in Lower Burma are Pegu (868,987)[2]; Hanthawaddy (789,385); Myaung-mya (701,563); Bassein (697,572); Pyapôn (660,948); Akyab (656,203); Thatôn (623,803); Insein (530,759); Tharrawaddy (529,224); Henzada (527,361); Amherst (424,491); Toungoo (400,731); Ma-u-bin (392,336); Prome (324,577). In Upper Burma, Shwebo (444,975) with a vast area under irrigation, alone rivals these great rice-producing districts. Katha (183,771) and Yamèthin (176,686) come next but far behind.
The out-turn of rice is enormous and has been increasing almost year by year. The estimated crop in 1921–22 amounted to 6,900,000 tons of paddy. Of this quantity, it was expected that 4,000,000 tons of paddy, or 2,600,000 tons of cargo rice would be available for export.
Dry crops. Though rice is so vastly the most important, many other products are cultivated in fields, gardens, and taungya. Wheat has long been cultivated in Upper Burma, but not so far back as the 9th century. San Germano remarks that "the wheat of the Kingdom of Ava is most excellent[3]." Crawfurd "found that wheat was cultivated in the vicinity of Ava in considerable quantity....We compared the grain with the Patna wheat which we had along with us, and it was greatly superior both in size and colour[4]." Wheat is grown also in the Shan States with success. It is perhaps surprising that a form of cultivation so long established has not been more largely practised. Other cereals, maize, gram, and millet, red and white, are grown in dry districts. Millet suffers much from the ravages of a small parasite plant called pwinbyu. Many varieties of peas and beans are produced in all parts of the province. The dani palm is cultivated in the Irrawaddy Delta.
Sesamum, grown on about 1,000,000 acres is a very valuable crop. About 300,000 acres, principally in Pakôkku, Magwe, and Myingyan, are devoted to ground-nuts of which the out-turn reaches some 100,000 tons. The extension of this cultivation is comparatively recent.
Tea is the staple product of the Shan State of Tawnpeng where it is grown to the annual value of about £200,000, for the purpose of being made into letpet, pickled tea, a condiment of universal consumption. Many Europeans profess to find the durian delicious and even ngapi has its admirers. It is not on record that any one other than a native of Burma has found letpet palatable. In Burmese times, letpet was brought down by strings of bullocks to the mart at Mandalay. The railway has now superseded this primitive mode of transport. Tea for the European market is not yet produced. Coffee has been grown by Europeans at Toungoo and Bhamo but with only moderate success. Its cultivation in the Northern Shan sub-State of Hsumhsai is very promising.
Potatoes are cultivated in the Southern Shan States and elsewhere, for instance in Putao. Sugar cane culture is widely distributed.
In most parts of Burma, tobacco is grown on in all about 120,000 acres. The indigenous varieties are of no great value commercially, perhaps
because the processes of curing are either imperfectly understood or unskilfully practised. Burmese cheroots are well known, but for the most part are made of imported tobacco. Experiments with Virginia and Havana seed have been only moderately successful. But some of the best Burmese cigars are now made of tobacco grown at Danubyu from this seed and cured locally. Very little tobacco is put into the large green and white cheroots, wrapped in thanat leaves, which are smoked by every Burmese man and woman and by many children. No doubt there is a great future for tobacco cultivation in Burma; but it may be remote.
The betel-palm (Areca catechu), called by the Burmese kun, is widely cultivated and also grows by nature. From association of name and use may here be mentioned the betel vine (Piper betle) grown in dry districts and producing betel leaves for chewing. This is a very valuable product.
Cotton is grown largely in Sagaing, Myingyan, Meiktila, Lower Chindwin, and Thayetmyo, to a less extent elsewhere. The area under cotton is about 300,000 acres, the annual out-turn about 12,000 tons.
Rubber is grown with success in plantations in Mergui, Hanthawaddy, Amherst, Toungoo, and elsewhere. The first experiments were made in Government plantations in Arakan, Mergui and Rangoon. The Mergui plantation has been acquired by a Company.
Fruits. Fruits abound in rich and varied profusion. Most widely distributed is the plantain (banana) which is cultivated everywhere. Plantains vary in quality; some kinds are of excellent flavour; others are hardly fit to offer to a pony. A somewhat similar judgement may be passed on the mango, except that it is not offered to ponies. The ordinary mango with a flavour of turpentine is worthless. The best kind is one of the most delicious fruits. From the extreme south come the durian (Durio Zibethinus) and the mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana). So highly esteemed by B urmans is the durian that, in the king's time, as soon as the fruit ripened, a steamer was chartered every year to bring a cargo of the dainty for the Court at Mandalay. As already mentioned, some Europeans profess a morbid passion for this fruit. To others, its scent and taste alike are inexpressibly loathsome. The mangosteen, by universal consent, is the most delicate and exquisite of eastern fruits. Coco-nuts abound; pine-apples, custard-apples (Anona squamosa), pleasant but somewhat insipid, marian, jack fruit, papaya (Carica papaya) of peptic virtue, guavas, and pomegranates are plentiful. Allied to the custard-apple, the chirimoya of Peru (Anona cherimolia) has been introduced and is cultivated but not to any great extent. Oranges grow best in the Northern Shan States; less successfully elsewhere, as in the Southern Shan States, Chin Hills, and Amherst. Limes and citrons are cultivated in the hills. Mulberries are grown by Yabein[5] in Magwe and Thayetmyo; but for the sake of the leaves to feed silk-worms, not for the fruit. The bael tree, of which the fruit is valued for medicinal properties, is also cultivated.
Of vegetables and miscellaneous products may be specified chillies, onions, capsicum, mustard, sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), yams (Dioscorea), brinjals (Solatium Melongena), tomatoes, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins.
Poppies grow luxuriantly in the Shan States and Kachin Hills, where opium is consumed apparently without ill-effects. The cultivation of the poppy in the Kachin Hills has recently been declared illegal.
Department of Agriculture. The interests of agriculture are committed to the charge of a special Department under a Director and controlled by the Development Commissioner. Among the aims of the Department are, the amelioration of agricultural conditions, the encouragement of experiments with new products, the introduction of modern scientific implements, the improvement of indigenous staples. The Department is about to be strengthened and reorganized. When thoroughly equipped, it will include 17 Imperial, 19 Provincial, and 188 subordinate officers. In a country where the bulk of the population depends for subsistence on fields, gardens, and orchards, the scope for the energies of the Department is unlimited.
- ↑ But recently successful efforts have been made to utilize taungya cultivation for concentrated regeneration of forests.
- ↑ Figures in brackets show the area in acres under rice in 1920–21.
- ↑ The Burmese Empire, 190.
- ↑ Crawfurd, 101—2.
- ↑ Yabein are of Burmese stock, dwellers on the western slopes of the Pegu Yoma; despised on account of their practice of destroying silk-worms in the course of their silk culture.