Cereal Farming 
31 
F1G. 36. Harrowing a rice field in the Philippines. The land is flooded to prepare it for plant- 
ing; and the plow and the harrow are drawn bv the carabao, or water buffalo. 
How rice is raised in the Orient. The farmers of India and the 
Far East probably raise three or four billion bushels of rice each 
year. Some of this is exported, but most of it is eaten by the people. 
The most surprising thing about this huge crop is that it is grown 
with little or no help from farming machinery. Nearly all the work 
is done by hand. 
A rice field is always nearly level. It is inclosed within low ridges 
of earth so that it can be flooded as the crop grows. If the rice is 
raised on terraces that are built on a steep slope, as it often is in these 
over-populated regions, the fields are small. The flat land of broad 
plains, valley floors, deltas, and swamps is ideal for rice farming, 
since there the level surfaces and the abundant supply of water make 
it easy to flood the crop. 
It is interesting to watch the rice farmer of the tropics from 
the beginning of his labors, when the rains come, till the crop is 
stored away. In India, for example, after the fields have been 
soaked at the beginning of the rainy season, the earth is lightly 
plowed, or turned over by a large hoe. The plow is merely two pieces 
of wood fastened together, with a metal tip that goes through the 
earth. It is drawn by a pair of bullocks in dry land and by buffaloes