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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July 2, 1883. 



particularly in those 'arg?, fertile, and populous d.stucts 

 in the neighbourhood of dalcutta, which may be termed 

 m^tvopolitln. I may, occasionally, J"f * . ''f ff . *° J^!' 

 features of western Bengal, where *e alluvial plam ceases 

 and the land undulates; but my remarks will haxemamly 

 Reference to such weU-kno«-n and level plains as are com- 

 L'sed S the districts of Nuddea. Jessore, Pabna, Hooghly 

 and the twenty-four Pergunnahs. None of my remarks 

 must be taken to apply to the Doab of Hmdostan, oi 

 even the Piw-inces of Behar and Orissa. I 7>11 f ^"^^ 

 that most of my hearers are aware of the fact -h^it these 

 fotricts of Lower Bengal are entnrely made up of alluvial 

 .eposit. No such thing as a natural or indigenous tone 

 s to be picked up in any one of them. The ordinary 

 roads made by niagistrates and engineers, are composed 

 ,rtVn" brickf and'the very streets of Calcutta are paved ^ 

 with ^ley stone brought as ballast from the Mauritius. The , 

 s il ,1 the Gangetic Delta has been created by s.l tbrought 

 ■ ov linth.. course of centuries, from a network of nvers; j 

 and ii mav te doubted whether, in the wholeof om- Indian 

 Enipire there exists land more productiveor more fitted I 

 fm- the labour of the agriculturist than m Bengal Proper. 

 Now, this land may roughly be dirided into three dif- 

 ferent sorts, for it is scarcely necessary to remind you 

 hat, beforJ entering on a description of *e f aple pro- 

 ,luce of the countiy, the varpng nature of belaud ought 

 to be considered. The ryot himself is accustomed to 

 .lesignate the soil as, first, mattiaL from maU, the earth, 

 which pra -tically is thick, viscous, tenacious clay. This 

 larth in f.ie rabiy season, becomes a quagmu-e, in which 

 carts' stick and beasts are impounded. In the dry season, 

 from November to May inclusive, it presents a surface 

 ataost as hard as rock, on which neither plough no. 

 mattock can make the smaUest impression. The second 

 Snd is kuo^vn as doas; a rich loam with an admixture of 

 sand The third is In.h,, or pure sand, which^absorbs 

 moisture. rapiiUy pulverises, and can be most easdy travelled 

 C cart an 1 bullock, by palanquin or passenger, after 

 heaw rain Or, again, the lands may be cla.ssed analogously 

 m another wider and three-fold division. The first com- 

 prises the vast plains which periodicaUy suffer from the 

 Fnundation of large rivers, such as the Poddha, or Ganges 

 Proper; the Goraifthe Kumar, the Damudaha, Eup Narayan, 

 and others The second ihvision of this category com- 

 prise.- these low levels or depressions which are beyond 

 the reach of the Ganges or Hs tributaries, but, from their 

 elavev soil, hold water Uke a cask, and never dry up tdl 

 hf crops have been reaped and carried and the coM s^^on 

 has (riven way to the heats of March and April. The thunt 

 s^tTsthe high, dry. and sandy tract which is never affected 

 by stream or river, and which rapidly absorbs or throws 

 off any amomit of rain. The ordmary ryot makes two 

 divisions only, and is familiar with the e:qpressions denya 

 „,Ta dry country; or, >/« mirfi-,alow and wet country 

 Bearing" in mmd this triple ^vision of the earth itselt, 

 or of the plains with relation to the mnumerable rivers and 

 ste^ams of the Delta, and also recoUectiug that the ram- 

 fSfoTer a large portion of Bengal may be taken at 6d 

 S 75 inches a year, we now come to the produce which 

 s raised in the' districts aheady enumerated. I should 

 add that the rainfall is heariest towards the eastern and 

 Ughtest in the western districts of Bengal; and that, where- 

 afin Tipperah and Ohittagong, it may nearly average 100 

 inches in Bancorah and Beertbhiun it may fall to 50 or 

 60 in the vear. But. for practical purposes in an ordm- 

 arv year it could be safe, in .Jessore and Nudd«i, to put 

 it as 65 or 70. All of you are aware that rice is the staple 

 production of Bengal. Indeed, so prevalent is this notion, 

 that erroneous deductions have been made as to the necess- 

 K^ of this article of food for all Hindoos anywhere. The 

 rhabitants of Upper India live on wheat. ,oa,-, or hap-a; 

 ,nd thoueh in B.^liar some castes are said to mate one 

 meal in the d»y of rice, it is in Bengal Proper that this 

 n"t cleV m6st v,-ideW cultivated and universally cons.uned. 

 The late Mr. Bnckfe feU into the mis-take of basing an 

 e timate of the qualities of natives of aU India on the 

 assumption that thev all were brought up on nee. 



(T& s cultivatioii there are three mam vanet.es well 

 and wkely known over the whole of Bengal They are 

 caUed respectively the «.«.=, the „„„,o», and the l^u 

 terns which late famines have made familiar to a wide 

 e T Pliilologistshave busied themselves, not improperly 



in deriving these terms from the Sanskrit, as follows:— 

 .4 o»s is a contraction ivom Ashurrild, the qmck^ow- 

 ing- Avmon means J?mo«(«, the season of cola; and Zfont 

 is thought to be a corruption of Varuna, the Indian Neptune, 

 or Regent of waters. 



I shall take the Aoos crop first. In the month of March, 

 or April at latest, the rvot. as well as the Mahajan and 

 the indigo planter, look anxiously for a sowing shower; 

 for ram, in short, which, without floodmg the land, will 

 drench and resolve it sufficiently to aUow of agricultural 

 operations, and mil bear the next few days that sufficient 

 amount of moisture which the Ryot is accustomed to de- 

 signate by a term not found in the dictionaries, or Jo. 

 The Aoos is grown on high ami sandy locahties. it it 

 is sown iu March or April, it is usually cut in August rr 

 September. Once or twice in my experience I saw- a crop 

 of this kind cut as eariy as the very last day ot July; 

 and now and them I have noted a field of Aoos uncut m 

 the first, days of October. But, roundl/ speaking, the Aoos 

 is sown, grown, and reaped m about 100 or 110. or UO 

 days It does not need to have its roots in water, like 

 other varieties; it requires a succession of showers to keep 

 it moist; but from its mere position, it is never rmned 

 by disastrous inundations; and though its returns are sniaUer, 

 its stalks less than, its gram inferior to, the Aumon crop, 

 it is a universally serviceable product, and m ordinary sea- 

 sons a reUable crop. Less rent is invariably demanded tor 

 lauds sown with Aoos. It comes m early m the season, 

 to enable the cultivator to pay his landlord, or to discharge 

 the debt due to the Mahajan, or what in Ireland would 

 be caUed the gombeen, and, as I shall show presently, it 

 leaves a considerable portion of land at the close ot tbe 

 rainy season free for the cultivation of what m Bengal 

 is known as the cold weather crop. 



The Aumon, or winter crop, is the next great division 

 I must guard myself .and others against the mist.ke ot 

 supposing that two crops of rice are grown anj-where on 

 the same piece of land iu the same year. In aU my ex- 

 perience and inquiries, I never knew this to occur but 

 once, and this local exception, of course, proves the umversal 

 rule to be the other way. I find that I saw a man cut 

 the Aoos on the last day of July, and plant the same 

 piece with Aumon thi-ee days afterwards. Aumon is grown 

 in depressions, in vast plains which extend tor mil^s, 

 which separate populous viUages, which for six months 

 in the year are often impassable for pedestnans unless 

 they can pick their way along the slender embankments 

 which divide the fields, and which, from July to October, 

 are deep in water, and are constantly traversed, rice crop 

 and aU, by hght donmjas, or Saltis. In a general way, it may 

 be said that the Aumon requires from five or six months 

 to ripen for the sickle. The harvest ^vill vary according 

 to the level of the ground, and not according to the 

 climate. In stiff clay, but not in the lowest depressions, 

 this crop may be sown in June, and cut towards the 

 middle or end of November. It is, perhaps, most correct 

 to say that the Aumon harvest sccupies the months ot 

 December, January, and February. I have seen the reap- 

 ers at work as Late as March— I have even known them 

 begin by the 10th of November. In very low-lying lands 

 —known eyery^vllere as bheels or jheels, A mjl ice, mashes 

 —the ryot has no sooner cut his wmter crop, than he 

 begins to think about preparmg his soil for next year. 

 As the Aumou is much heavier, richer, more paymg than 

 the Aoos. so it is more exposed to the fluctiuations cap- 

 rices, and irregularities of the seasons. It is reaUy the 

 most important crop of the year. If too much ram faUs 

 in April or May, the ground cannot be got ready for the 

 plough untU heavier showers come down m a ceaseless 

 deluge, flood the low soil in Jmie, and prevent work. It 

 Uttle or no rain faUs m these spring months, a stoppage 

 of work equally ensues. Perhaps the best years are those 

 1 in which the land can be ploughed by timely rains m 

 May the seed sown broadcast in that month, to be ted 

 by 'c'onrinuous but not too heavy showers m June or 

 July In very deep levels, ploughing operations can be 

 ' sot through on the strength of the moisture left by last 

 i year; that is to say. I have seen the winter crop cut by 

 the villagers, iu their boats shaped out of hoUow trees, 

 I in Februarj'. .and the same villagers ploughing the same 

 1 land in MaVch and April, when the surface water ot last 

 I year had just dried oft', and left the soil m a condition 



