348 GARDEN ASSESSMENT. Chap. XXI. 



or rent. Of this last third the Government share is 65 per 

 cent., leaving 35 per cent, as the share of the proprietor. 

 The Government share is thus a little less than a quarter of 

 the gross produce. 



The assessment is not calculated on the extent of land, 

 but on the amount of seed required to sow a given space, 

 according to the quality of the soil, which is divided into 

 three classes, namely pasma (clay), rasee pasma (sand and 

 clay), and rasee (sand). On an average the soil does not 

 yield more than tenfold, and most of it bears only one crop. 

 Some lands are sown in April or May, and the crops cut 

 in August or September. These are chiefly in the coast 

 Talooks. Others are sown in September and October, and 

 the crops cut in January and February. The seeds are raised 

 on small pieces of land, and the plants, when young, removed 

 by hand, and planted in the paddy-fields. 



The garden assessment, as it is called, on cocoanut-trees, 

 the great wealth of Malabar, betel-palms, and jacks, was fixed 

 in 1820. 



The cocoanut-trees are divided according to their situations 

 and soils into five classes — the first and second classes being 

 attivepoo, or sea-coast ; and the third, fourth, and fifth, kara- 

 vepoo, or inland cocoanut-trees. Each tree pays, on an 

 average, eighteen pies,* those which are unproductive from 

 age or youth being excluded. The betel-nut palms pay, on 

 an average, six pies, and the jack-trees twenty-eight pies ; 

 but the tax on gardens is not more than forty per cent, of the 

 landlord's rent. A cocoanut-tree is estimated to bear at 

 least sixteen to forty nuts in the year, according to its site ; 

 and the owner of a plantation derives profit from the leaves 

 as well as from the husks and shells of the nut. The leaves, 

 used for covering houses, sell at two and a half to five Es. the 



Tliey raugu froia 12 (o GO rcas, or H pics to 2 uimas 5 picB pur (ree. 



