140 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



of as being the best gift which the natives ever re- 

 ceived from their European masters. They are, we 

 are told, held in much esteem, ' particularly by the 

 Mussulmans, who find them very useful as absorb- 

 ents in their greasy messes.'* The following ob- 

 servations are gathered from the same volumes. In 

 the neighbourhood of Patna many descriptions of 

 European vegetables are brought to market in abun- 

 dance ; they are, however, reared for the consump- 

 tion of the European inhabitants alone, the natives 

 rejecting all but the potato, which, though known 

 only since the last few years, may perhaps soon take 

 its rank with rice and plantains, as a substantive 

 article of food with the frugal Hindu. It is already 

 largely cultivated in that district, but can never be- 

 come an exclusive crop, inasmuch as those humid 

 stiff soils which are peculiarly favourable to the 

 growth of rice, are wholly unsuited to the potato, 

 the cultivation of which must therefore be confined 

 to those sandy and drier soils, which are inimical to 

 the culture of the rice plant. In such situations this 

 vegetable of English production may be raised with 

 unmixed utility, while the resource of so important 

 a supplementary crop may, in seasons of the failure 

 of the rice harvest, avert the evils of famine, and 

 diminish, in one strong point of view, the resemblance 

 between the Indian and Irish peasantry their re- 

 liance on a single article of food. The almost infinite 

 division and subdivision of their farms is in India, 

 as in Ireland, a fertile source of poverty and wretch- 

 edness. 



The observations of another intelligent writerf on 

 the same subject likewise tend to show the advan- 

 tages which may result from this cultivation in Hin- 

 dostan. He remarks that a dry season is preju- 



* Heber's Journey, vol. i, p. 13. 

 t Tennant'a Indian Researches, 



