Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/148

128 people in our country think of rice culture only in connection with low, flat river bottoms and warm weather. This is not true of the Far East; not only of Korea, but of China and Japan also. I have often seen the hills green with rice, but always where plenty of water was to be had. Our farmer prepares his rice fields, or paddies, as they are called, by making them perfectly level, with an embankment all around the edges to retain the water. In the valleys this is comparatively simple, but on the hillsides it requires some skill and much labor. The hill must be dug down and terraced, with the bank built up on the lower side so the water cannot escape. Thus terrace after terrace is made, one above another, to the top of the hill. This means that somewhere up the hill there is water that can be turned into these paddies. A stream flowing down from the top of a mountain is dammed and tapped at many places, the water being conducted by small channels to the fields which have been prepared to receive it. If only the upper paddies can be well supplied, the whole problem has been solved, since it is an easy matter to allow the water to flow over into the paddy next below, and so on till all have been well supplied. In some instances when there is no stream flowing down the hill the farmer finds that by digging in marshy places on the mountain side he can get water sufficient to carry the crop till the rain comes on, which is usually about the middle of July. At any rate and at any cost, if he is to grow rice he must have water. The ideal rice field is covered with water all the year round. I have often seen the farm-