Irrigation is necessary only for the rice, which yields fairly abundant crops throughout Central and Southern Korea. To the north, rice makes way for millet, the great supplementary food of Korea. Elsewhere paddy-fields abound, and the people have become adepts in the principles of irrigation and the art of conserving water. Rice is sown in May, transplanted from the nurseries to the paddy-fields in June, and gathered in October. In times of drought, when it is necessary to tide over the period of distress, the fields are used for barley, oats and rye which, ripening in May and cut in June, allows a supplementary crop to be taken from the fields. The fields are then prepared for the rice. The land is inundated; the peasant and his bull, knee-deep in water, plough the patches. Beans, peas, and potatoes are planted between the furrows of the cornfields, the land being made to produce to its full capacity. The crops are usually excellent. The fields differ from the farms in China, where the farmers, preferring short furrows, grow their crops in small sections. The long furrows of the Korean fields recall Western methods, but here the analogy ends. The spectacle of these well-ordered acres is a revelation of the earnest way in which these down-trodden people combat adversity. In many ways, however, they need assistance and advice. If it were prudent to accomplish it, I would convert the mission centres of the inland districts into experimental farm-stations, and attach a competent demonstrator to each establishment. [Illustration: CARRYING PRODUCE TO MARKET] The Koreans hold rice, their chief cereal, in peculiar honour. They state that it originated in Ha-ram, in China, at a period now involved in much fable and mystery—2838 B.C. to 2698 B.C. The name, Syang-nong-si, itself means Marvellous Agriculture. The name was doubtless given at a later time. The first rice was brought to Korea by Ki-ja in 1122 B.C. together with barley and other cereals. Before that time the only grain raised in Korea was millet. There are three kinds of rice in Korea, with a variety of sub-species. First, that which is grown in the ordinary paddy-fields. This is called specifically _tap-kok_, or paddy-field rice. It is used almost exclusively to make pap, the ordinary boiled rice. Then we have _chun-kok_ or field-rice. This is so-called upland rice. It is drier than the paddy-field rice, and is used largely in making rice flour and in brewing beer. The third kind is grown exclusively on the slopes of mountains, and is a wild rice. It is smaller and harder than the other kinds; for this reason it is used to provision garrisons. It will withstand the weather. Under favourable circumstances, lowland rice will keep five years, but the mountain rice will remain perfectly sound for quite ten years.