III. 



69. THE rotation of crops in this district is the simple one of alternative 

 rain and cold-weather crops. No scientific system is carried out, and except 

 perhaps in the case of hemp, the fallen leaves of v\ Inch are admitted as strengthen- 

 ing the soil (whence it and sometimes cotton are grown on newly broken-up 

 land to improve the soil), the effect of one crop upon another following it is not 

 regarded. Jwdr or bdjrd one year followed by bijhra the next year is the 

 almost universal sequence in the outlands. In the better lands maize is fol- 

 lowed the same year by bijhra, and cotton the next year generally by wheat. 

 Cane occupies the land for a whole year, being grown on land that has had a 

 kJiarif crop (generally cotton) the same year, and is followed by a rabi crop the 

 year the cane is cut. The Kdchhi never allows his land to lie idle, vegetable 

 follows vegetable according to season, and as far as possible this drain on the 

 land is met by constant manuring. 



70. Double-cropping is most frequent where canal water induces the 

 cultivator to take a crop of bijhra or peas after his indigo is cut ; or again where 

 the coarse rice is much grown, which being cut in Bh&don allows, if the land is 

 worth it, some ploughing to be done before sowing time. In other'tracts a few 

 acres near the village site are sown with maize or (in the Jumna pargana espe- 

 cially) sdnwdn. The Kdchhis 1 cultivation swells the area of double-cropped t land. 



71. The system of mixed crops is well known, and arises chiefly from the 

 wish of the cultivator to have a little of everything, and by not " putting all his 

 eggs in one basket/' to provide against the risks of the season (see also Elliott's 

 Supplemental Glossary). One form of this provision against all chances is seen 

 in the long fields of the kachhdr lands of the Jumna, which stretch from the cliff 

 to the waters' edges, and the lower portions of which are submerged more or 

 less in the rains. In the higher land bdjra mixed with the castor-oil plant is 

 sown ; where these are destroyed by floods, they are replaced by bijhra or wheat. 



72. I here give a detail of the crops of the entire district as obtained 

 from the measurement records of the settlement department : 



