Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-25
COCHIN CHINA GIVES
UP RICE PLANTING.
Rubber and Cotton Occupy
Natives as Modern Agri-
culture Seeps In.

Cochin China, one of the worlds
chief rice producing areas. again is
changing its face. "Once it was a
thickly forested area, formed by silt
washed down from Asia by the Mekong
and other rivers; but the natives routed
tigers, leopards, panthers, venomous
snakes and crocodiles and laid out miles
of rice fields, studded here and there
with banana trees and sugar planta-
tions," says a bulletin from the Ma
tional Geographic Society.
Now the natives are laying out cot
ton, rubber and coconut plantations.
seeping into Cochin China, but the
traveller still sees the natives aping their
ancestors throughout the colony.
Rice Is Everywhere.
zone can ride for many miles in
Cochin China and seldom be out OF
sight of rice fields. Indo-China and
Burma are the worlds greatest rice
producing countries, and in the former,
Cochin China ranks foremost
Apparently season has nothing to do
with Cochin China rice culture. Here
40 a field being made ready for planting.
Next to it is q flooded field planted, but
rice spouts have not yet penetrated the
waters surface. In q nearby field young
sprouts from sea of green, hiding the
lake. And within eyeshot yellow fields
Of ripe rice appear ready for harvest.
villages Hidden.
"Mile after mile through the country
side Of Cochin China the traveller fails
to pass a village. A guide points out
one, but 1t is almost hidden by lofty
bamboos, poinsettas and rhododendrons
Penetrate the wall of verdure and one
comes upon group Of fiimsy houses on
stills, peopled by women IN gaudy
striped sarongs, wrapped about the hips
and knotted, naked children and half
clothed men.
"Capping the southern extremity of
Indo- China, Cochin China Is but 60
square miles smaller than West Viz
GINA and Delaware combined. II the
rivers continue to enlarge the colony as
the Mississippi has added acreage to
Louisiana, Cochin China will match the
areas of these States in a decade.
Saigon Is Mecca of Frenchmen.
"Saigon. now capital and largest sea-
port of Cochin China, is not the largest
city In the colony That honor goes to
Cholon, a neighboring city largely pop
ulated by Chinese. But Saigon Is per-
haps as well known to mariners and
travellers as all Indo-China. 1t was
formerly the capital of Indo-China and
still Is q mecca for Frenchmen in the
East.
Saigon and Hanoi have been called
bits of Paris in the Orient True, i'm
posing government buildings rise in gar
dens laid out by French landscape ar
chitects, but Indo-China verdure dom
mates, while the graceful gabled roofs OF
Oriental buildings form real Oriental
vistas. The streets are straight, wide
and shaded. They bear French names
and are traversed by French auton1o-
biles, but where there Is one autonno-
bile there are half-dozen rtckshaws.
Ten thousand foreigners wearing Paris
fashions are found in Saigon, but they
rub elbows with little Ammanite wom-
enfolk In black, Cambodian women In
bright sarongs, perspiring, half-naked
coolies, Chinese women in white coats
and black pajan1a trousers, and native
soldiers In blue puttees and khaki uni
forms Tonkinese, Malays and Siamese
also mingle in the street crowds.
Native Quarter Oriental.
French shops display European prod
ucts on one street, but around the ccr-
ner a native store caters to the Orien-
tails In the cafes, the Frenchman finds
Paris gayety, but along the many creeks
and canals about the city the traveller
is lost in q wholly Oriental atmosphere,
where streets are lined with .fimsy
huts and open-front shops where dried
fish, strips Of fat, baskets Of eggs and
| loaves of bread hang from the rafters.