ABSTRACT
ALTHOUGH the Luyi River, which comes from the north, has become a large stream by the time it enters the village, the gorge is so deep that the cultivated land does not easily profit by its water. The rainy season lasts from May to August. When it rains, the whole valley is filled with water; but when it stops raining, the water level goes down again. This kind of flood and recession occurs several times a year. In August, 1939, there was a big flood. The water level came up even to the village site and destroyed nearly all the crops, both rice and vegetables. We arrived there in October of that year and found no vegetables whatever obtainable in the village. We saw heaps of uprooted rice, which had dried out and was good only for feeding pigs. The entire crop was destroyed. At this time there was a heavy deposit of sand in the fields. Part of the bamboos were laid flat. Debris still clung to the bamboos, showing that the water had come up about 30 feet above the lower level of land. This is why the villagers build their homesites high up above the river. Otherwise, even their houses might be flooded. When we were walking along the river, we met some villagers. They warned us: “Don’t go to that side of the river in the evening!” Later they told us many stories of how women had drowned in crossing the river. From their accounts we had a vivid impression of their dread and dislike of the river. The river is felt to be not a source of livelihood but a threat. However, the villagers are always trying to utilize the water. In 1938 they tried to construct an irrigation ditch—from a point about 7 miles up the river, in order to make it run on a level with their fields. Shortly before they started their work, the Irrigation Committee of the province sent a surveyor to make a plan for them, and they discovered that the place they had chosen for their ditch was not far enough up the stream. In order to reach a place in the river channel from which the water would run, they would be compelled to go much farther up still. This would have been very expensive; so at last they gave up the plan entirely.
