'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎161r] (326/610)

A fortnight after transplanting, weeding (vigin) commences.
The weeds are not plucked out but trampled down into the
mud, a laborious and unhealthy process nearly always done by
women. This system of transplanting is called the “ China ”
system as opposed to the “ Italian ” 'system where seed is scat
tered over the field as in wheat and barley sowing.
The fields must be kept permanently under water for 2 to
3 months during which the rice reaches a height of about 5'.
It is reaped in September with hand sickles leaving about
1 foot of stubble and is thrashed immediately. After thrashing
the grain may be dried in the sun, but more usually is placed
in a small closed bam with a slow fire underneath it and parched
for 4 or 5 days, after which it is ready for the mill (abdhang).
The process of milling is as follows :—
The 1 grain is poured into a circular hollow of stone, about
4 |' in diameter inserted in the floor, and pounded by a log
fixed to a long beam which is worked by a water wheel and rises
and falls like a sledge hammer, breaking the dry husk off the
rice. The rice is then taken up and cleaned in a sieve.
The millers (Abdhangchi) are handsomely remunerated and
it is a popular saying that all the profit of rice cultivation in
Mazandaran finds its way into their pockets. They are mostly
dwellers in the“ yailaq ” who come down to the plains in autumn
and stay until spring. The landlords’ rice is all milled by the
Abdhangchi but the peasants’ rice is hand-milled.
In districts where the soil is rich, rice may be sown every
year on the same land, but the usual practice is to raise a crop
for two or three years in succession and then to leave the land
fallow for a similar period. In Mazandaran on sloping land
which does not become waterlogged, a crop of barley is some
times raised every third year.
The cultivation of rice is most laborious, but the higher price
and much higher yield, averaging from 250 to 350 grains of
rice for every seed sown, makes it more profitable than wheat
and barley, and consequently^in districts where both will thrive,
rice is the more popular crop.
The landlords of Gilan andlMazandaran depend on the lice
harvest for their income as they take a fixed amount of the
cro p as rent. The amount varies greatly in different districts,
1 Before milling the rice is called “shall” or loosely “jau” (barley), when
husked it is called “ brinj ” (rice). Barley is called “ jau-i-kuhi ” to distinguish