Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN ASIA. 



H. 1 } 



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fallow is planted with cuttings of two or three buds, in rows four feet apart and eighteen inches 

 wide in the row ; as they grow, each stool, consisting of three shoots or more, is tied to a bamboo reed 

 eight or ten feet long, the lower leaves of each cane being first carefully wrapt round it, so as to cover 

 every part, and prevent the sun from cracking it, or side shoots from breaking out. Watering and 

 flooding in the dry season, and keeping open the surface drains during the periodical rains, are carefully 

 attended to. Nine months from the time of planting, the canes are ten feet high, and ready to cut. 

 The process of sugar-making, like all others in this country, is exceedingly simple. A stone mortar and 

 wooden pestle turned by two small bullocks express the juice, which is boiled in pots of earthenware 

 sunk in the ground, and heated by a Hue which passes beneath and around them, and by which no heat 

 is lost. 



896. The indigo (Indigo/era tinclhria, jig. 116.) is one of the most profitable articles of 

 culture in Hindustan ; because an immense extent of land is required to produce but a 

 moderate bulk of the dye ; because labour and land here are cheaper than any where else; 

 and because the raising of the plant and its manufacture may 

 be carried on without even the aid of a house. The first step 

 in the culture of the plant is to render the ground, which 

 should be friable and rich, perfectly free from weeds and dry, 

 if naturally moist. The seeds are then sown in shallow drills 

 about a foot apart. The rainy season must be chosen for 

 sowing, otherwise, if the seed is deposited in dry soil, it heats, ^^0 t 

 corrupts, and is lost. The crop being kept clear of weeds is ^^§ 

 fit for cutting in two or three months, and this may be re- 

 peated in rainy seasons every six weeks. The plants must not 

 be allowed to come into flower, as the leaves in that case 

 become dry and hard, and the indigo produced is of less 

 value; nor must they be cut in dry weather, as they would 

 not spring again. A crop generally lasts two years. Being 

 cut, tlu herb is first steeped in a vat till it has become mace- 

 rated, and has parted with its colouring matter; then the liquor 

 is let off into another, in which it undergoes the peculiar 

 process of beating, to cause the fecula to separate from the 

 water. This fecula is let off into a third vat, where it remains some time, and is then 

 strained through cloth bags, and evaporated in shallow wooden boxes placed in the shade. 

 Before it is perfectly dry it is cut in small pieces of an inch square ; it is then packed in 

 barrels, or sowed up in sacks, for sale. Indigo was not extensively cultivated in India 

 before the British settlements were formed there ; its profits were at first so considerable, 

 that, as in similar cases, its culture was carried too far, and the market glutted with the 

 commodity. The indigo is one of the most precarious of Oriental crops ; being liable to 

 be destroyed by hail storms, which do comparatively little injury to the sugar-cane and 

 other plants. 



897. The mulberry is cultivated in a different manner from what it is in Europe. It is raised from cut- 

 tings, eight or ten of which are planted together in one pit, and the pits are distributed over the field at 

 the distance of two or three feet every way. These cuttings being well firmed at the lower ends soon 

 form stools about the height of a raspberry bush, and from these the leaves are gathered. The stools are 

 cut over once a year to encourage the production of vigorous shoots from the roots. 



898. Tlte poppy [Papaver somniferum) is cultivated on the best soil, well manured. The land sometimes 

 receives as many as fifteen stirrings, and the seed is then dropped into shallow drills about two feet 

 apart. During the growth of the plants the soil is stirred, well watered, and sometimes top-dressed. In 

 two months from the time of sowing, the capsules are ready for incision, which process goes on for two or 

 three weeks ; several horizontal cuts being made in the capsule on one day, on the next the milky juice 

 which had oozed out, being congealed, is scraped off! This operation is generally repeated three times on 

 each capsule, and then the capsules are collected for their seed. The raw juice is kneaded with water, 

 evaporated in the sun, mixed with a little poppy oil, and, lastly, formed into cakes, which are covered with 

 leaves of poppy, and packed in chests with poppy husks and leaves. 



899. Tobacco in Hindustan is cultivated in the same manner as in Europe. The soil must be rich and 

 well pulverised, the plants transplanted, and the earth stirred during their growth ; the main stems are 

 broken off', and the leaves are dried by being suspended on beds of withered grass by means of ropes, and 

 shaded from the sun and protected from nightly dews. The leaves afford a much weaker odour than 

 those of the tobacco of Europe or America. 



900. The mustard, Sesamum orientate, Jlax, palma Christi, and some other plants, 

 are grown for their seeds, which are crushed for oil. The use of the flax, as a clothing 

 plant, is not understood in India, hemp supplying its place. The mustard and sesamum 

 are sown on the sand left by the overflowings of the rivers, without anv other preparation 

 or culture than that of drawing a bush over the seeds to cover them. The palma Christi 

 is sown in patches three or four feet apart, grows to the size of a little tree, and is cut 

 down with an axe when the seeds are to be gathered. The mill for bruising the seeds 

 of these plants is simply a thick trunk of a tree hollowed into a mortar, in which is 

 placed the pestle, turned by oxen. 



901. Palm trees of several species are in general cultivation in Hindustan. The 

 most useful is the cocoa-nut tree (Cucos nucifera, Jig. 117.), which grows almost per- 

 fectly straight to the height of forty or fifty feet, and is nearly one foot in diameter. 

 It has no branches, but about a dozen leaves spring immediately from the top : these 

 are about ten feet long, and nearly a yard in breadth towards the bottom. The leaves 

 are employed to cover the houses of the natives ; and to make mats either for sitting oi 



