ABSTRACT
Rice is the staple food in the provinces of Bengal, Eastern Bengal and Assam, Madras and Burma. The crop next to it in importance is wheat with an acreage of 22,770,000, or 10·2 per cent of the total. Burma's foreign exports of rice in fact constitute about 75 per cent of the total rice shipments of the Indian Empire, and she contributes 63·4 per cent of the Western world's imports of rice against 1·3 per cent supplied by India proper. Ploughing for the main crop begins in June when the rains have softened the soil. Burma has a soil of extraordinary fertility renovated annually by silt. Paddy that is to be stored is usually gathered well on in the season when the temperature has for some time been relatively high and the grain is consequently dry. It is believed that this fact accounts for a curious system followed by the Burman money-lender in making advances upon paddy stocks.
