A half century among the Siamese and the Lao : an ... - Khamkoo

350 AMONG THE SIAMESE AND THE LAO
diversity of the cultivated areas is a source of safety.
A season of heavy rainfall which drowns the lowland
rice, is apt to prove exceptionally good for the uplands.
And, on the other hand, a season of light rainfall,
which cuts short the upland crop, is apt to be a good
season for the flooded areas. And in considerable sections
of the country there is the chance that a second
crop in the same season may make good the loss of the
first. There is a further security also in the fact that,
until communication with the coast becomes such as to
make exportation profitable, the excess of fruitful years
remains unconsumed in the country, to supply the need
of less fruitful ones. It thus comes about that scarcity
amounting to a real famine cannot result from the
failure of crops in any single year. It requires two
consecutive failures to produce extensive suffering
among the very poor, and three to result in a real
famine.
This last, however, was the case in 1892. In 1890
there was a light crop throughout the land, with less
excess than usual to be stored. In 1891 the crop was
lighter still. In the eastern provinces, particularly in
Lakawn and Pre, there was very little rice to be reaped.
Famine conditions began there long before the time
for harvest. People were scattering off in squads or
by families into Chiengmai and the northern provinces,
begging a daily morsel. They were poverty-stricken as
well as famishing. The distress led the brethren in
Lakawn to make an appeal to friends in the United
States for a famine fund. Quite a liberal response,
amounting to several thousand dollars, was made to
this call, largely by the friends of the Lao mission.
The relief was almost as timely for the missionaries
as it was for the famishing people. Otherwise they