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AGRICULTURE.

t0 a congiderable extent replaced,as in former years occurred
in the West Indies, by the Forastero varieties, whose seeds
have a more purple break.

IRYING CACAO.

Rice.
Rice (Oryza sativa) occupies in Ceylon and other Eastern
sropical countries the important position as the staple grain
food which in colder climates is held by wheat. Though
less nutritious than the latter, it is a good food stuff; it is
saten boiled, usually in the form of curry—a heterogeneous
mixture of food stuffs and flavouring matters, made up in a
wonderful variety of combinations. each with its characteristic
 taste.
Some 660,000 acres are occupied with this cultivation ;
some of the most characteristic features of Ceylon life and
scenery are connected with the various phases of growth of
the paddy. Rice, unlike other cereals, is semi-aquatic, and
has to be cultivated with the base of the plant constantly
irrigated with some inches of water. The fields are therefore
zarefully levelled and enclosed within low banks of earth.
while the water is let in on the upper side of the field and
sarefully guided through it to the exit on the lower side, for