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NOTES AND QUERIES
to put these fields down to peanuts or other crops, sell them, and buy rice with the cash than to labour to grow rice directly from them.
Seeds and Rice Types
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3 types of rice were grown dryland rice for fields that could not be flooded, ordinary rice, and rice for land that was permanently under water and could not be drained. Each required slightly different treatment, eg. ordinary rice required to be dried on the wo t'ong for 1 day, permanently flooded land rice required drying for 3 days. The rice in flooded fields would grow 4 feet high.
Land
The best land was of 2 types: permanently flooded land and land floodable at will. Permanently flooded land with water welling up from the soil, but with water no more than 3 or 4 inches above the mud level was of high quality producing 8 piculs a year, but required great care. Because of the sodden ground, the rice as it came to ripeness would fall over and become ruined on the mud. It was necessary to stretch strings across the field to support the rice. It was also necessary to cut the rice 2 or 3 days before complete ripeness, which would only be reached by the 3 days' drying on the wo t'ong. These fields could grow water chestnuts or other high value crops for the third harvest. Almost as good were the ordinary flooded fields, floodable at will, but drainable at will. Because the ground could be drained before harvest the crop was less likely to collapse, and less likely to rot if it did because the ground beneath was dry. The yield was slightly less than for the permanently flooded "Baan" fields, but less troublesome. In Tai Wai the fields along where the Hong Shing Restaurant stands were "Baan" fields, the fields where the Winner Industrial Building (Po Ha) and the Temp. Bus Terminus (Tai Leng) stand were top quality floodable-at-will flooded fields.
Field names
Every group of fields had its own local name (to meng ±₺ ),
Harvest
The first harvest rice was cut about 1 foot above the ground. The stubble was then ploughed in; it rotted quickly in the flooded water for the second harvest and was a valuable fertiliser. The remainder