THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



217 



anythin^f this country ever knew, and supporting him- 

 self and family on the balance of produce in a manner 

 becoming the loyal subjects of the English Crown '' 



In order, however, to convey to our renders a just 

 conception of the miserable state in which our Indian 

 agriculture is to be found, it will be necessary to glance 

 at the soil, and its tenure. First, then, we have the 

 largest field of fine land in the world, principally com- 

 posed of a rich vegetable mould, from^fc to twenty feet 

 in depth, producing a luxuriance vegetation far beyond 

 the powers of language to describe. The fertile plain 

 of I3engal alone, through which the Ganges flows, ex- 

 ceeds the whole area of England. The rivers, again, 

 are large and numerous, affording ample inland naviga- 

 tion, with an abundant supply of water for irrigation ; 

 while timber, and everything else for mechanical pur- 

 poses, are to be had in abundance. The agricul- 

 tural products of the country are rice, wheat, Indian 

 corn, barley, peas, millet, sugar-cane, silk, hemp, and 

 fruits in endless variety. The Indian ox and buffalo 

 are reared, but only for the yoke and dairy purposes, 

 butcher-meat not being used, on religious principles. 

 Sheep, goats, and swine are also reared. The elephant 

 is used in war, and the camel as a beast of burden. 

 Cultivation is miserable. What is termed the plough 

 is, properly speaking, a single-shared scarifier j and the 

 poor ryot, before he can raise a mould to cover 

 his seed, unless among the warp of rivers, has to go 

 over the ground from five to fifteen times with his team 

 of buffaloes or hurnped oxen. And the work, if any- 

 thing, in harvest is scarcely any more expeditious, the 

 corn being trodden out by the feet of oxen, as in the 

 days of Shera, Ham, and Japheth. Fortunately for him, 

 his land requires little or no manure. 



Irrigation is universal, as no crops can be grown 

 vyithout water, owing to the heat of the climate. The 

 practice is of two kinds : A large area of the country 

 being flat, is annually flooded by the overflowing of the 

 rivers. The Ganges, for instance, like the Nile in 

 Egypt, periodically overflows his banks, fertilizing the 

 soil so as to yield produce sufficient to support a popu- 

 lation of 00,000,000 souls 1 and, with proper manage- 

 ment, might support three times the number. On more 

 elevated grounds, again, the water has to be raised by 

 artificial means. The machinery, or tackle, for this 

 purpose is of the simplest kind, and the same in Hin- 

 dustan as throughout the whole of the East, being com- 

 posed of a leathern bag or buffalo's skin, a pulley, rope, 

 and a few poles. A short straight course is made for a 

 buffalo to walk in, backwards and forwards, to and from 

 the river, out of which the water is to be raised. In 

 receding from the river, a skinful of water is raised and 

 turned into an open channel, which conveys it to the 

 field ; and in returning the empty skin falls into the 

 river, and is filled again. Thus the tedious work con- 

 tinues until the land is sufficiently saturated, requiring 

 a man and a couple of buffaloes to every five acres. 



Rice and sugar-cane are invariably flooded in dams 

 in size according to the levelness of the ground, and very 

 often the other seeds also. Each ryot, for example, 

 divides his small holding into square plots, each sur- 

 rounded by a low broad dyke, a few inches high ; thus 

 forming a dam. The work of flooding commences at 

 the highest ground, and when one plot is sufficiently 

 saturated, an opening is made in the dyke, and the water 

 allowed to flow into a second ; and so on until the whole 

 is watered. Down the centre of every dyke a small 

 channel is made, in which the water may flow when 

 required. With the rude tools of the country, the 

 amount of labour required to prepare the land for water 

 is great ; but when once applied, the vegetation is 

 quick, the period between seed-time and harvest being 

 incredibly short. The whole work, however, it must be 



borne in mind, is rude, and gcfiCTb.ity slovenly performed 

 in the extreme, from the little interest the Hindoo 

 farmer has in the fruits of his own labour. In some of 

 the hilly districts the soil is not even cultivated at all, the 

 seed being merely dibbled in with a peg and mallet, and 

 the rest left to nature. 



As in Egypt, two harvesis are annually reaped, and 

 were proper machinery and skill brought to bear upon 

 the soil, England could receive from her Indian empire 

 all the corn she imports, and much more if required. 

 When we look at the valley of the Nile, and the sup- 

 plies we annually receive from thence, and compare 

 the resources of Egypt with those of Hindustan, it were 

 difficult to estimate wh«t amount of surplus tiie latter 

 might annually spare, under proper management. That 

 the whole country would produce double its present 

 produce falls a long way within the mark, thus leaving 

 a broad enough margin to make sure of supplying all 

 our wants. 



Second. The landlords of Hindustan are of the most 

 despotic character, tenure of every kind being at the 

 mercy of superiors. An instance corroborative of this 

 was a few years since brought before the superior 

 courts of England. The East India Company deprived 

 a rajah or native prince of his property. The rajah ap- 

 pealed to England, and had his property restored, the 

 Company being saddled with the expenses. The rajahs, 

 again, extort from the zemindars, or middlemen between 

 them and the ryots, more than their dues ; while the 

 zemindar in his turn pays no attention to his agreement 

 with the poor ryot, often extorting from him a fourth 

 part more than his rent. The appeal of the above rajah 

 to this country, and the success he has met with, may 

 introduce new ideas among rajahs and their inferiors 

 generally, as we hope it will. But this custom of extor- 

 tion, says Dr. Tennant, has become so established under 

 the iron sway of an arbitrary government, that the miser- 

 able ryot has no idea of appealing to a supreme court for 

 redress. When he has trodden out his corn, and collected 

 the grain into a heap, he sends, with all the religious 

 awe and sanctity of his caste, for the Brahmin or 

 priest, who burns ghee and says prayers over it, re- 

 ceiving one measure for his trouble. Then fol- 

 lows the zemindar, who just leaves no more than 

 will suport the poor man and his family, not even 

 entrusting him with the seed for the ensuing crop, that 

 being supplied him when seed time arrives. It is pos- 

 sible, nay, more than probable, viewing human nature 

 reduced to so low a level as that in which the poor ryot 

 moves, that the zemindar, taking good harvests with 

 bad, does not, on an average, receive full payment of 

 rent, and so on with his own superiors — tlie rajah and 

 Crown, the Hindoo law declaring the king to be the 

 sole lord and proprietor of the soil. As the ryot forms 

 part of the zemindar's property, being bought and sold 

 with tlie land for whatever he is worth, he has little in- 

 ducement to become rich himself, or increase the pro- 

 duce of the soil much beyond his own immediate want. 

 Hence the miserable state of pauperism in which we find 

 the whole social fabric of India. Under such a hopeless 

 state of tenure, what good can be expected in the shape 

 of reform .' 



" Tenant right," it will thus be seen, is th mainspring 

 of progress ; for until the Hindoo farmer is liberated 

 from his present slavery, and allowed to enjoy the entire 

 fruits of his own labour, skill, and capital, it would be 

 absurd to expect of him more than he now gives. On 

 the other hand, were the chains which now shackle his 

 industry broken from off his limbs, so that he could no 

 longer be bought and sold in the market with all that he 

 possessed, then he could accumulate capital, and con- 

 sequently would have an inducement to embrace pro- 

 gress, farm better, increase the produce of his land, and 



