AUTUMN: MARCH AND APRIL.—It will be understood from what has been previously stated as to the divisions of the seasons in the Imèrina province that, as with the seasons in England, there is some variety in different years in the times when they commence and finish. Generally, both crops of rice—the earlier and the later—are all cut by the end of April, although in the northern parts of the province it is usually five or six weeks after that date. But if the rains are late, and should happen to be scanty in February and March, harvest work is still going on at the end of May. In fact, owing to there being these two crops of rice, with no very exactly marked division between the two, autumn, in the sense of rice harvest, is going on for about four months, and sometimes longer, as just mentioned, and extends over the later months of summer as well as the two months of autumn or _Fàraràno_ (March and April). In January those portions of the great rice-plain which lie north-west of the capital, as well as many of the lesser plains and valleys, become golden-yellow in hue, very much indeed like the colour of an English wheat-field in harvest-time; and after a few days patches of water-covered field may be noticed in different places, showing where the crop has been cut, and the few inches of water in which it was growing show conspicuously in the prospect. As the weeks advance, this water-covered area extends over larger portions of the rice-plain, until the whole of the early crop has been gathered in, so that in many directions there appear to be extensive sheets of water. I well remember, when once at Ambòhimanàrina, a large village to the north-west of Antanànarìvo, how strange it appeared to see people setting out to cross what seemed a considerable lake. But of course there was no danger, as the water was only a few inches deep. [Sidenote: THE RICE CROP] As there are channels to conduct water to every rice-field, small canoes are largely used to bring the rice, both before and after it has been threshed, to the margin of the higher grounds and nearer to the roads. At the village just mentioned, which is like a large island surrounded by a sea of rice-plain, there is one point where a number of these channels meet and form quite a port; and a very animated scene it presents at harvest-time, as canoe after canoe, piled up with heaps of rice in the husk, or with sheaves of it still unthreshed, comes up to the landing-place to discharge its cargo. In a very few weeks’ time the watery covering of the plain is hidden by another green crop, but not of so bright and vivid a tint as the fresh-planted and growing rice. This is the _kòlikòly_, or after-crop, which sprouts from the roots of the old plants. This is much shorter in stalk and smaller in ear than the first crop, and is often worth very little; but if the rains are late, so that there is plenty of moisture, it sometimes yields a fair quantity, but it is said to be rather bitter in taste.