242 



enriched by innumerable aquatic vegetables and 

 animals that have died as the water left them. 

 When the ploughing has been completed, the field 

 is manured with ashes and oil-cake." 



About Malda, " the land is first ploughed in the 

 month of Kartick, length and breadth-ways, and 

 harrowed in like manner ; four or five days after, it 

 is again ploughed and harrowed, as before, twice. 

 In the month of Aghun the whole land is covered 

 with fresh earth, again twice ploughed, and harrow- 

 ed in different directions, so that the clods of earth 

 brought be well-mixed together with the land. 

 This preparation continues until the 20th or 25th 

 of the month of Paus." 



In the vicinity of Dacca during " Kartick or 

 Aghun (October, November), the ryots begin to 

 prepare their ground. They first dig a trench 

 round their fields, and raise a mound of about 

 three feet in height. If the ground to be culti- 

 vated is waste, about nine inches of the surface 

 are taken off, and thrown without the enclosure. 

 The ground is ploughed to the depth of nine inches 

 more. The clods are broken and the earth made fine. 

 In Magh or Faghun (January, February) the 

 sugarcane is planted ; a month afterwards, earth is 

 raised about the plants, which is repeated after 

 a month. The crop is cut in Paus and Magh 

 (December, January). If the ground be not waste, 

 but cultivated, the surface is not taken off. After 



