Afoot and afloat in Burma . nis now grown. Different fibers for ropemaking and like purposes are also in the Shan Hills one sees potatoes, andthe fields here are worked in a very peculiarway. After the plowing has been completed,the loose soil on the surface is raked up intolittle heaps, one every foot or so across thefield. In these heaps are mixed leaves, grass,or stable waste. Afterward each one is setafire, the ash remaining to enrich the soil. In some of the more out-of-the-way partsof the country the people do not steadilyfarm the same land year after year, but theywander a
Afoot and afloat in Burma . nis now grown. Different fibers for ropemaking and like purposes are also in the Shan Hills one sees potatoes, andthe fields here are worked in a very peculiarway. After the plowing has been completed,the loose soil on the surface is raked up intolittle heaps, one every foot or so across thefield. In these heaps are mixed leaves, grass,or stable waste. Afterward each one is setafire, the ash remaining to enrich the soil. In some of the more out-of-the-way partsof the country the people do not steadilyfarm the same land year after year, but theywander around, burning and clearing a smallpatch of forest here and there, often on asteep hillside, and after a few crops havebeen taken off, leave it for a new place. Rubber is now being grown in LowerBurma, the heavy rainfall there being suitedto this tree; but much of this work is in thehands of large companies, which work per-haps thousands of acres; so we do not findthe Burmese interesting themselves in it toany great o ^ 8 —i a! 03 PALM TREES FOR EVERY PURPOSE Chauk-chaw Candy — Ice Fruit and Toddy Palm —Travelers Palm, with Its Cool Drink You remember the cocoanut palmsaround Aung Baws house? The nuts asthey grow on these palms look very large,for outside of what is usually called the shellthere is a coarse, fibrous husk, which is abouttwo inches thick all round. The valuablecoir fiber, from which ropes and mattingare made, is obtained from this husk. If a nut is picked before it is fullyformed, it is found to be soft and jelly-likeinside, and filled with a sweetish water whichmakes a very pleasant drink on a hot as the nuts grow older, the meat be-comes firmer, and the water dries up untilit is all gone. In its place there grows upinside what is called the flower. This isreally the new plant which is slowly beingformed. When a native wants to plant some cocoa-nuts, he takes a number of nuts, with the ^8 Afoot and Afloat Through Burma outer husk on, just
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