are cut with a sickle (_ka rashi_) generally, so as to leave almost
the entire stalk, and are left is different parts of the field. A
peculiarity about the Lynngam and the Khasis and Mikirs of the low
hills, or Bhois as they are called, is that they reckon it _sang_,
or taboo, to use the sickle. They reap their grain by pulling the
ear through the hand. The sheaves, after they are dry, are collected
and thrashed out on the spot, either by beating them against a stone
(_shoh kba_), or by men and women treading them out (_iuh kba_). Cattle
are not used for treading out the grain. The grain is then collected
and placed in large bamboo receptacles (_ki thiar_). The paddy-fields
are not manured. The Khasis, when cultivating high lands, select a
clayey soil if they can. In the early part of the winter the sods are
turned over with the hoe, and they are exposed to the action of the
atmosphere for a period of about two months. When the sods are dry,
they are placed in piles, which are generally in rows in the fields,
and by means of ignited bunches of dry grass within the piles a
slow fire is kept up, the piles of sods being gradually reduced to
ashes. This is the "paring and burning process" used in England. The
ashes so obtained are then carefully raked over the field. Sometimes
other manure is also applied, but not when paddy is cultivated. The
soil is now fit to receive the seed, either high-land paddy, millet,
Job's tears, or other crops, as the case may be. The homestead lands
are plentifully manured, and consequently, with attention, produce
good crops. They are cultivated with the hoe.

The cultivation of oranges in the southern portion of the district
ranks equally in importance with that of the potato in the
northern. The orange, which is known in Calcutta as the Chhatak or
Sylhet orange, comes from the warm southern slopes of the hills in
this district, where it is cultivated on an extensive scale. Although