Burma . deredby low turfy mounds (kazin) about a cubit high, to keep in the water. Theseregular rice-lands form one-tenth or less of the gross area of the country, therest being practically irreclaimable, chieflymountain, waste. The waste areas of thealluvial plains (kwin) are flooded from threeto ten feet deep in the rains. They areclothed with elephant-grass {kai7tg) studdedthrough with silk-cotton trees and a fewother species. The lowest levels in the kwinform shallow lagoons {in, No. 103) which dryup in the hot season. Dry-season crops—sugar-cane (which is also grown on the wetsystem), mai
Burma . deredby low turfy mounds (kazin) about a cubit high, to keep in the water. Theseregular rice-lands form one-tenth or less of the gross area of the country, therest being practically irreclaimable, chieflymountain, waste. The waste areas of thealluvial plains (kwin) are flooded from threeto ten feet deep in the rains. They areclothed with elephant-grass {kai7tg) studdedthrough with silk-cotton trees and a fewother species. The lowest levels in the kwinform shallow lagoons {in, No. 103) which dryup in the hot season. Dry-season crops—sugar-cane (which is also grown on the wetsystem), maize, lentils, and vegetables for alimited market—are obtained in the kaing. Burma- has become the rice-mart of theworld. Since the development of this tradethe price of the staple export has morethan quadrupled, producing in the lowercountry a prosperity which has no parallelin respect of its equal diffusion. It is be-lieved that this development of the wealthof Pegu has been favoured by the upheavalH. 105. HILL-PEOPLE MAKING THEIRCULTIVATION CLEARING. 5° BURMA of the delta of the Irawadi, by which fresh silt-beds are raised to the cultivationlevel. The town of Thaton, now sixteen miles from the coast and without a seaapproach, was, in historic times, a port. Ships came up to Tenaserim in thesouth, the ancient emporium of trade across the Peninsula to Siam, and toAkauttaung in the north, and probably to Pegu. A massof precise data on this subject was collected by the lateMr. John Merrifield, who came to the conclusion thatTenaserim had risen fifteen to twenty feet in the courseof the last 300 years. In 1893-94 eight and a half millionacres were cropped in Burma. The export of rice wasone and a half million tons, worth nearly ^11,000,000in Europe. The local consumption is about the lands were estimated at two to three million acresand arable waste at twenty millions, out of a gross areaof one hundred and ten millions. In 1872 a considerablefirm failed over the en
Size: 1299px × 1923px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidcu31, booksubjectethnology
