146 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



tlian from the ravages of the elements. Since Bengal was conquered by the British, 

 the government is, properly speaking, the proprietor of all the lands; and Tennant 

 accordingly observes, that *' nine tenths of all the rent of Bengal and the provinces con- 

 stitute the revenue of the company ; who are, in room of the Mogul emperor, the true 

 proprietors of the soil, " (Recreations, i\. 184.) 



881. The agricultural products of Hindustan are very various. Rice, wheat, and 

 maize are the concimon grains ; but barley, pease, a species of tare or cytissus, called dohl, 

 and millet, are also cultivated. Next to them the cotton plant and the sugar-cane 

 are most extensively grown. To these may be added indigo, silk, hemp, poppy for 

 opium, palma christi, sesamum, mustard, the cocoa-nut. which supplies a manufacture of 

 cordage, and also a liquor called toddy ; guavas, plantains, bananas, pomelos, limes, 

 oranges, and a great variety of other fruits besides what are cultivated in gardens, where 

 the settlers have all the vegetables of European horticulture. The potatoe has been in- 

 troduced, and though it does not attain the same size as in 

 Europe, is yet of good quality. It is not disliked by the na- 

 tives, but cannot be brought to market at so low a price as rice. 



882. Tlie sugar-cane {Saccharum officinarum, fig. 133.) is cultivated in low 

 grounds that may be flooded. The ground being cleaned and pulverized 

 by one or two years fallow, is planted with cuttings of two or three buds, 

 in rows of four feet apart and eighteen inches wide in the row : as they 

 grow, each stool, consisting of three or more shoots, is tied to a bamboo 

 reed, eight or ten feet long, the lower leaves of each cane being first 

 carefully wrapt round it so as to cover every part, and prevent the sun 

 from cracking it, or side shoots from breaking out. Watering and flooding 

 in the dry sea.son, and keeping open the surface drains during the pe- 

 riodical rains, are carefully attended to. Nine months from the time of 

 planting the canes are ten feet high, and ready to cut. The process of 

 sugar making, like all others in this country, is exceedingly simple : a 

 stone mortar and wooden pestle turned by two small bullocks, expresses 

 the juice, which is boiled in pots of earthenware, sunk in the ground, 

 and heated by a flue which passes beneath and around them, and by which 

 no heat is lost. The whole expense of growing and bringing to market 

 does not require above a third of the time, and a tenth of the money, 

 which it does in the West Indies. 



883. The indigo (Indigofera tinctoria, Jig. 134.) is one of the most profitable articles of 



culture in Hindustan ; because an immense extent of land 



is required to produce but a moderate bulk of the dye ; be- 

 cause labor and land here are cheaper than any where else ; 



and because the raising of the plant and its manufacture may 



be carried on without even the aid of a house. The first 



step in the culture of the plant is to render the ground, 



which should be friable and rich, perfectly free from weeds, 



and dry if naturally moist. The seeds are then sown in 



shallow drills about a foot apart. , Tlie rainy season must be 



chosen for sowing, otherwise if the seed is deposited in dry 



soil, it heats, corrupts, and is lost. The crop being kept 



clear of weeds, is fit for cutting in two or three months, 



and this may be repeated in rainy seasons every six weeks. 



The plants must not be allowed to come into flower, as the 



leaves in that case become dry and hard, and the indigo pro- 

 duced is of less value ; nor must they be cut in dry weather, as 



they would not spring again. A crop generally lasts two 

 years. Being cut, the herb is first steeped in a vat till i has 

 become macerated and parted with its coloring matter ; then the liquor is let off into 

 another, in which it undergoes the peculiar process of beating to cause the fecula to 

 separate from the water. This fecula is let off into a third vat, where it remains some 

 time, and is then strained through cloth bags, and evaporated in shallow wooden boxes 

 placed in the shade. Before it is perfectly dry it is cut in small pieces of an inch 

 square; it is then packed in barrels, or sowed up in sacks for sale. Indigo was 

 not extensively cultivated in India before the British settlements were formed there ; its 

 profits were at first so considerable, that as in similar cases its culture was carried too 

 far, and the market glutted with the commodity. The indigo is one of the most pre- 

 carious of oriental crops ; being liable to be destroyed by hail storms, which do com- 

 paratively little injury to the sugar-cane and other plants. 



884 The mulberry is cultivated in a different manner from what it is in Europe. It is raised from cut- 

 tings, eight or ten of which are planted together in one pit, and the pits are distributed over the field at 

 the distance of two or three feet every way. These cuttings being well firmed at the lower ends, soon form 

 stools about the height of a raspberry bush, and from these the leaves are gathered. Tlie stools are cut 

 over once a year to encoui-age the production of vigorous shoots from the roots. 



88.7. The poppy {Papavcr somniferum) is cultivated on the best soil, well manured. The land sometimes 

 receives as many as fifteen .stirrings, and the seed is then dropped into shallow drills about two feet apart. 

 During the growth of the plants the soil is stirred, well watered, and sometimes top-dressed. In two 

 months from the time of sowing, the capsules are ready for incision, which process goes en for two or 

 three weeks, several horizontal cuts being made in the capsule one day, and the next the milky juice 



