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30th March, 2001.

Farm House Rice Harvest Statistics; Bowls Of Vegetables And Meat On Stone Slab: Rice Stone Grinding Mill; Wooden Rake With Heavy Head.

August, 1987.
The farm house we visited was obviously a showcase, but it was an interesting break on our journey from Dazu. The farm house yards were covered with a layer of rice grains Dazu farm Besoms by entrance door. drying in the sun, one of the yards having been neatly raked to produce straight ridged lines of rice, with almost geometric precision. Rice was everywhere; piled up against the outside walls, and against the walls inside the living rooms. Piles of rice grain in living room.The farmer and his family appeared to be accustomed to having so many visitors at one time, and having their photographs taken, and smiled broadly as our local guide bombarded us with statistics concerning the number of hectares under cultivation; the number of kilos of rice produced, and how the harvest had increased each year through the diligent work of the party members, etc., etc.,etc. This stream of statistics happened whenever we visited a commune, factory or workshop, but very little of it was ever absorbed.

We were free to wander from one room to another, just like the hens, and I noticed that in the kitchen, lunch had already been laid out on a home made kitchen table of wood, Farmhouse kitchen with live hen. the food protected with a bamboo cover, and on a tiled slab over the wood fired cooker, three large bowls of vegetables and meat were arranged very neatly, and three newish thermos flasks in different colors were lined up against the cooker wall. Everything looked too neat and tidy to be real and more part of live theatre presented for a captured audience of foreigners.

Wall with Chinese banners.The wall facing the doorway of one room was adorned with red banners each inscribed with a row of Chinese characters, together with some large glossy pictures of singers or actresses, but even this wall had rice piled up against it. Strangely enough I never saw any of the hens feasting themselves on the grain in the rooms, nor the rice laid out in the yards, perhaps at the time of our visit their gullets were full.

Much of the furniture in the farmhouse looked home made, just plain and serviceable, and many of the implements outside had the same country look, from the besoms against the wall, to the wooden buckets and the wooden rake, Grinding mill of stone with one inch diameter pegs in the heavy head, used to form the ridges in the drying rice. Perhaps the most impressive tool we saw was a heavy hand mill made from stone and used for grinding the rice into flour. I should imagine it would be a slow and laborious process. At the end of our visit a group member, made a short speech of thanks, translated by the guide, then we applauded and left the family to continue with their lunch or perhaps to prepare for the next group of tourists.



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