66 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



the good, they were filled with astonishment at what they 

 considered as the extravagance of the project. Where the 

 hills are not too steep for the plough, I am persuaded that 

 this might be done to great advantage ; and the quantity 

 of live stock and manure might thus be quadrupled.' 



Of this practice there are, as has been intimated, 

 frequently recurring notices in the report. Thus, writing 

 of the northern parts of Canara, Dr Buchanan states : ' In 

 the hilly parts of the country many people of a Mahratta 

 extraction use the Cumri or Cotu-cadu cultivation. In 

 the first season, after burning the woods, they sow ragi 

 (cynosurus), tovary (cytisus cajan), and harulu (ricinus). Next 

 year they have from the same ground a crop of shamay 

 (panicum miliare Lam ark.) These hills are not private pro- 

 perty, and pay no land-tax ; but those who sow them pay, 

 for the right of cultivation, a poll-tax of half a pagoda, or 

 nearly 4s. On account of poverty, many of them are at 

 present exempted from this tax/ 



Writing again of Soonda, he says : ' The number of 

 people employed in the Cumri, or Cotu-cadu cultivation, 

 amounts to 2418, who pay yearly 954 half pagodas, or 3s. 

 2Jd. a-head. It is supposed by the revenue officers that 

 in this manner 1900 more people might find employment/ 



Of a caste called Budugar, inhabiting the hilly country 

 between Dari Nayakana, Cotay, and the province of 

 Malabar, he tells that they not only practice the Cotu-cadu 

 cultivation, but have also ploughs, which seems to indicate 

 that with it they combine a higher cultivation. 



Of tribes living on the hills west from Coimbatore, he 

 tells of the Todear that they cultivate with the plough and 

 pay rent for their fields ; but of the others, the Malasir, the 

 Mudugar, and the Eriligaru, that they cultivate after the 

 Cotu-cadu fashion. 



Of the Malasirs, he tells that they live in small villages 

 of five or six huts, situated in the skirts of the woods on 

 the hills of Daraporam, Ani-Malaya, and Palighat ; and 

 that they speak a mixture of the Tamul and Malayala 



