148 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



895. The bamboo {Amndo bambos) is, perhaps, one of tlie most universally useful trees 

 in the world ; at all events it is so in the tropical regions. There are above fifty varieties, 

 all of which are of the most rapid growth, rising from fifty to eighty feet the first year, 

 and the second perfecting its timber in hardness and elasticity. It grows in stools, which 

 are cut over every two years, and thus the quantity of timber furnished by an acre of 

 bamboos is immense. Its uses are almost without end. In building it forms entire 

 houses for the lower orders, and enters both into the construction and furniture of those 

 of the higher classes. Bridges, boats, masts, rigging, agricultural and other implements, 

 and machinery, carts, baskets, ropes, nets, sailcloth, cups, pitchers, troughs, pipes for 

 conveying water, pumps, fences for gardens and fields, &c., are made of it. Macerated 

 in water it forms paper ; the leaves are generally pvit round the tea sent to Europe ; the 

 thick inspissated juice is a favorite medicine, is said to be indestructible by fire, to resist 

 acids, and by fusion with alkali to form a transparent permanent glass. 



896. The fruits of Hindustan may be said to include all those in cultivation ; since 

 the hardier fruits of Europe, as the strawberry, gooseberry, apple, &c. are not only 

 grown by the European settlers in cool situations, but even by the native shahs. The 

 indigenous sorts include the mango, the mangostan (fig. 136.), and the durion 

 (Jig. 137.}, the noblest of known fruits next to the pine apple. 



897. The natural pastures of Hindustan are every where bad, thin and coarse, and 

 there is no such thing as artificial herbage plants. In Bengal, where the soil is deep 

 and loamy to the depth of nine and ten feet, a coarse bent, or species of juncus, springs 

 up both in the pastvTre and arable lands, which greatly deteriorates the former as food 

 for cattle, and unfits the latter for being ploughed. This juncus, Tennant observes, 

 pushes up a single seed stem, which is as hard as a reed, and is never touched by cattle 

 so long as any other vegetable can be had. Other grasses of a better quality are some- 

 times intermixed with this unpalatable food ; but during the rain their growth is so rapid 

 that their juices must be ill fitted for nutrition. In Upper Hindustan, during the dry 

 season, and more particularly the prevailing of the hot winds, every thing like verdure 

 disappears ; so that on examining a herd of cattle, and their pasture, you are not so 

 much surprised at their leanuess, as that they are alive. The grass cutters, a class of 

 servants kept by Europeans for procuring food for their horses, will bring provender 

 from a field where grass is hardly visible. They use a sharp instrument, like a 

 trowel, with which they cut the roots below the surface. These roots, when cleared of 

 earth by washing, afford the only green food which it is here possible to procure. 



898. The live stock of Hindustan consists chiefly of beasts of labor ; as the natives are 

 by their religion prohibited the use of animal food. The horses are chiefly of Persian or 

 Arabian extraction. The Bengal native horse is thin and ill-shaped, and never equals the 

 Welsh or Highland poney, either in figure or usefulness. The buffalo is common, both 

 tame and wild, and generally jet black, with semicircular horns, laid backwards upon the 

 neck. They are preferred to the ox for parrying goods, and kept in herds for the sake 

 of their milk, from which ghee, an universal article of Hindoo diet, is made. 



899. The common ox of Hindustan is white, and distinguished by a protuberance on 

 the shoulder, on which the yoke rests. Those kept for travelling-coaches are capable 

 of performing long journies nearly in the same time with horses ; those kept by the 

 poor ryots work patiently in the yoke beneath the vertical sun, for many hours,' and 

 upon the most wretched food, chaff' or dried straw. The cow is held sacred, and wor- 

 shipped ; and paintings are made on the walls with her dung, which are objects of 

 superstition. 



