The province is almost entirely agricultural. Manufactures have made little progress and are at present in a primitive stage. Fine herds of cattle are abundant: one chief duty of the Hova dependents who live down south is to watch over the herds, belonging to Imerina nobles, which are fed on the unoccupied hills and wastes. But the chief staple of the Betsileo is rice, and of this great harvests are reaped, which supply the people with abundance of their favourite food. Give to the Malagasy rice and gravy, gravy and rice, and they desire little more. The ingenuity with which the Betsileo secure their crops is deserving of high praise. I do not mean the unhallowed ingenuity with which, after digging up their rice fields and flooding them, they turn a herd of cattle in and drive them round and round, over and over, the soil to mash and pound and tread it into soft mud, until the poor beasts are utterly wearied and are splashed from head to foot with the filth, which in due time the young rice plants will clothe with their tenderest green. I mean the ingenuity with which they terrace the hills; tap the streams at their highest sources, and lead them down step by step over the terraced fields; or by long channels bring them from one basin to another, making the water do duty many times over and securing abundant fruitfulness. Very pleasant to the eye are these bright terraces when the rice is young. Rich in rice are the valleys of Ambohimandroso and the broad fields of Ikala; but nothing can exceed the skill and care expended on the amphitheatre of Nandihízana, in which the terraces descend step by step from a great height, and a lavish supply of water from three streams, covers them year by year with a golden harvest. It was in the weekly market of Nandihízana, that we saw as good an illustration of the products of the Betsileo, as in any part of the province. The chief articles exposed for sale were rice, manioc, Indian corn; in meat, pork, beef and fowls; and a little honey, on the purchase of which there was reserved to the buyer the right of clearing the spoon. The manufactures were very simple: lambas made of rofia fibre; a little coarse silk; coarse but strong iron spades; spade handles, timber rafters, thick clumsy window shutters, with the hinge-pin projecting above and below; wooden spoons; leaf plates; grass baskets and earthen plates.