Be 



AGRICULTURE IN ASIA. 



149 



900. The sheep is small, lank, and thin ; and the wool chiefly black or dark grey. The 

 fleece is harsh, thin, and hairy, and only used for a kind of coarse wrappers or blanket- 

 ing. A somewhat better breed are found in the province of Bengal ; but the mutton 

 of neither is good till the animals are improved by a year's good keeping. 



901. The goat is kept for its milk, which is commonly used at the breakfast table ; and 

 also for the flesh of the kids, which is more tolerable than mutton. 



902. Swine are not very common, though herds may be seen in Bengal. They might 

 be reared in abundance ; but the natives are strictly forbidden the use of pork ; 

 and it is only eaten by the Europeans, and some of the 138 

 out-casts. Wild hogs are abundant, and do so much in- 

 jury to the rice fields, that it is a material part of the 

 ryot's business to watch them, which he does night and day, 

 on a raised platform of bamboos {Jig. 138.) 



903. The elephant is chiefly used in war, but is also 

 kept by a few European gentlemen, for hunting or show. 

 He is taken by stratagem, and by feeding and gentle 

 usage soon becomes tame, docile, and even attached to 

 his keeper ; but does not breed in a domesticated state. 

 His food is the leaves and smaller branches of trees, and 

 an allowance of grain. It is a singular deviation from 

 general nature, that an old elephant is easier tamed than 

 one taken young. 



904. The camel is used chiefly as a beast of burden, 

 and is valued for its uncommon power of abstinence from 

 drink. He is also patient of fatigue, hunger, and watching to an incredible degree. 

 These qualities have recommended the camel, as an auxiliary to British officers for carry- 

 ing their baggage ; and from time immemorial, he has been used by merchants for con- 

 veying goods over extensive tracts of country. 



905. The predatori/ animals are numerous. Of 139 

 these the jackal (Jig. 1 39. ) is the most remarkable. , '*'^ ar 

 He enters at night every farm-yard, village, and ^ I f_ 

 town, and traverses even the whole of Calcutta. 

 His voracity is indiscriminate, and he acts as a sca- 

 venger in the towns ; but, in the farm-yards he is 

 destructive to poultry, if he can get at their roosts; 

 and in the fields the hare and the wild pig r,ome- 

 times become his prey. The numerous parish ^^^^*^.^ 

 dogs, which in general are mangy, are almost as ~ 

 troublesome as the jackal. Apes of different kinds 

 haunt houses, and pilfer food and fruits. The crow, kite, mino, and sparrow hop 

 about the dwellings of man with a familiarity unknown in Europe, and pilfer from 

 the dishes of meat, even- as they are carried from the kitchen to the eating room. The 

 stork is common ; and toads, serpents, lizards, and other reptiles and insects, are 

 greatly kept under by him and other birds. 



906. The implements and operations of Hindustande agriculture are as simple as can 

 well be imagined. The 

 plough, of which Major 

 Beatson has given several 

 forms (Jig. 140.), is little 

 better than a pointed stick, 

 and is carried to the field 

 on the shoulder like the 

 spade. It scratches the 

 sandy uplands, or the mud 

 left by the rivers in a toler- 

 able manner; but the 

 strong lands of Bengal, 

 that send up the juncus 

 already mentioned (897.), 

 appear as green after one ploughing as before ; " only a few scratches are perceptible 

 here and there, more resembling the digging of a mole than the work of the plough." 

 To accomplish the work of pulverization, the ploughman repeats the operation from five 

 to fifteen times, and at last succeeds in raising mould enough to cover the seed : one 

 plough and pair is allowed to five acres. From this mode of repeatedly going over the 

 same surface, and effecting a little each time, governor Beatson has drawn some inge- 

 nious arguments in favor of the use of the cultivator in this cquntry, which will be after- 

 wards noticed. 



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