Except for the salt lands, which yield but one crop, the paddy fields of the Territories produce two crops a year. The straw is short, and the grains are small and narrow and of an excellent quality. It is estimated that some 20,000 short tons of milled rice are produced annually, but this quantity is sufficient to supply the Colony's needs for only a very few weeks. It is believed that the 1947 harvest, both of first and second crops of rice, was as high as ever in the history of the Colony.
The farmers save their own seed from year to year both for the first and second sowings, for different kinds of seed are used for each sowing. Annually they select their best paddy for seed, and a consequence of this selection is that from district to district, even from farm to farm, the varieties grown differ noticeably from one another. In July and again in October- November when the farmers spread out their paddy to dry on the smooth tarred surface of the roads, the different colours and shapes of the varieties can be noticed even from a passing car. There is scope for scientific study of these varieties.
The fertilizer most commonly used for the rice field is peanut-cake, mixed perhaps with ashes from burnt rice-husk or from the home. Nightsoil and chemical fertilizers are rarely used for this crop, nor is lime ever employed. There is much research to be done on the most economic fertilizers for the ricefields, and the newly formed Agricultural Department has already carried out some experiments with interesting and somewhat unexpected results. Peanut-cake, the residue from the peanut after the oil has been expressed, is rich in proteins which gradually decompose when the cake is soaked in water, yielding available nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur; but it also is a valuable source of vitamins of the B complex which have an effect, at present largely unexplained, on the vigour of growth of roots. There is much to be said, therefore, for the traditional use of this valuable fertilizer. But the last word has not been said. The main reason why the remarkably infertile soil of the New Territories produces such excellent crops of rice is that with the first heavy rains of summer thou- sands of tons of worm-casts which have accumulated on the mountain slopes since the end of the previous rainy seasons are washed down to the ricefields. Considerable areas of land are almost completely covered with these worm-casts which are often inches high. In this manner very fine silt, enriched with salts of potassium and nitrogen, is deposited annually in the ricefields. Another factor which affects the fertility of these fields is the annual period of winter fallow which is the normal practice, but unfortunately this practice is being upset by the needs of the city for vegetables, as will be discussed presently.
On land unsuited to rice, other crops may be grown includ- ing sugar-cane and peanuts. Vegetables are also cultivated, sparingly in the summer for the needs of the pigs and of the family, but more plentifully in winter. Fruit trees are grown not so much by the farmer as by the more wealthy landlord
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