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NOTES AND QUERIES
ritual requirements, and must be recognized as implying nothing beyond indicating the main basic elements of this important social ritual in Punti villages in the New Territories.
Patrick Hase
NOTES ON RICE FARMING IN SHATIN
Date: 16th April 1982
Informants: Mr. Wai Hon-leung J.P., VR Tai Wai, Shatin
Mr. Tai Foo, Wong Chuk Yeung, Shatin
Food requirements
Both informants stated that 1 adult required 8 taels of rice a day (4 taels at each of 2 meals) or 3-4 catties of sweet potatoes, plus vegetables and fish. Thus Japanese rice ration of 6.4 taels, without other foods available, was seriously inadequate, but it would have been adequate if 1 catty of sweet potatoes with some other vegetables and fish had been regularly available per day.
Yield
Yields were as follows:
Best land in Tai Wai, 4 piculs per tau per harvest, Wong Chuk Yeung, 2 piculs per tau per harvest.
Good average land in Tai Wai, 2.5 piculs per tau per harvest, Wong Chuk Yeung 1.5 piculs per tau per harvest.
Worst land in Tai Wai, 0.7-1.0 picul per tau per harvest, Wong Chuk Yeung, 1 picul per tau per harvest.
If the rains came late or there was a typhoon at harvest, the first crop would be lost or reduced to 1/2 or 2/3 total yield, in such years the total annual yield would drop by 1/4 - 1/3. This happened "perhaps 1 year in 5, or 1 in 10" (Wai H.L.). Failure of second crop was rarer. Failure of both crops in one year was extremely rare and disastrous.
Sweet potato yield
Good land in Tai Wai would yield 10 piculs in the 3rd harvest: the differences between good and bad land were less significant in this
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