Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN ASIA. 



147 



the pastuie and arable lands, which greatly deteriorates the former as food for cattle, 

 and unfits the latter for being ploughed. This Juncus, Tennant observes, pushes up 

 a single seed stem, which is as hard as a reed, and is never touched by cattle so long as 

 any other vegetable can be had. Other grasses of a better quality are sometimes inter- 

 mixed with this unpalatable food ; but, during the rain, their growth is so rapid that their 

 juices must be ill fitted for nutrition. In Upper Hindustan, during the dry season, and 

 more particularly during the prevalence of the hot winds, every thing like verdure disap- 

 pears ; so that on examining a herd of cattle, and their pasture, you are not so much sur- 

 prised at their leanness as that they are alive. The grass-cutters, a class of servants kept by 

 Europeans for procuring food for their horses, will bring provender from a field where 

 grass is hardly visible. They use a sharp instrument, like a trowel, with which they cut 

 the roots below the surface. These roots, when cleared of earth by washing, afford the 

 only green food which it is here possible tc procure. 



91 1. The live stock of Hindustan consists chiefly of beasts of labour, as the natives are 

 by their religion prohibited the use of animal food. The horses are chiefly of Persian or 

 Arabian extraction. The Bengal native horse is thin and ill- shaped, and never equals the 

 'Welch or Highland pony, either in figure or usefulness. The buffalo is common, both 

 tame and wild, and generally jet black, with semicircular horns laid backwards upon the 

 neck. They are preferred to the ox for carrying goods, and kept in herds for the sake 

 of their milk, from wliich ghee, a universal article of Hindoo diet, is made. 



912. The common ox of Hindustan is white, and distinguished by a protuberance on 

 the shoulder, on which the yoke rests Those kept for travelling-coaches are capable of 

 performing long journeys nearly in the same time as horses ; those kept by the poor 

 ryots work patiently in the yoke, beneath the vertical sun, for many hours, and upon the 

 most wretched food, chaff or dried straw. Cow's milk is used pretty generally in India ; 

 but buffalo's milk, or goat's milk, is reckoned sweeter and finer than cow's milk, and 

 preferred at the breakfast table even by the English. Goat's milk is decidedly the best 

 for tea. 



913. The sheep is small, lank, and thin; and the wool chiefly black or dark grey. 

 The fleece is harsh, thin, and hairy, and only used for a kind of coarse wrappers or 

 blanketing. A somewhat better breed is found in the province of Bengal. The mut- 

 ton of India is generally good ; at Poona, and in the Mahratta country, and in Bengal, 

 it is as fine as any in the world. 



914. The goat is kept for its milk, which is commonly used at the breakfast table; and 

 also for the flesh of the kids, which is by some preferred to the mutton. 



915. Swine are pretty common except among Mohammedans. They might be reared 

 in abundance ; but only Europeans and the low Hindoos eat pork. Wild hogs are 

 abundant, and do so much injury to the rice fields that it is a material part of the 

 ryot's business to watch them, which he does night and day, on a raised platform of 

 bamboos. 



916. The elephant is used as a beast of burden, but is also kept by a few European 

 gentlemen, for hunting or show. He is taken by stratagem, and by feeding and gentle 

 usage soon becomes tame, docile, and even attached to his keeper ; but does not breed 

 freely in a domesticated state. The leaves and smaller branches of trees, and an allow- 

 ance of grain, constitute his food. It is a singular deviation from general nature, that 

 an old elephant is easier tamed than one taken young. 



917. The camel is used chiefly as a beast of burden, and is valued for his uncommon 

 power of abstinence from drink. He is also patient of fatigue, hunger, and watching, to 

 an incredible degree. These qualities have recommended the camel, as an auxiliary to 

 British officers for carrying their baggage ; and from time immemorial, he has been used 

 by merchants for conveying goods over extensive tracts of country. 



918. The predatory animals are numerous. Of 

 these the jackal (jig. 1 18.) is the most remarkable. 

 He enters at night every farmyard, village, and 

 town, and traverses even the whole of Calcutta. 

 His voracity is indiscriminate, and he acts as a sca- 

 venger in the towns ; but, in the farmyards he is 

 destructive to poultry, if he can get at their roosts ; 

 and in the fields the hare and the wild pig some- 

 times become his prey. The numerous village 

 dogs, which in general are mangy, are almost as 

 troublesome as the jackal. Apes of different kinds 

 haunt houses, and pilfer food and fruits. The crow, kite, mino, and sparrow hop about 

 the dwellings of man with a familiarity unknown in Europe, and pilfer from the dishes 

 of meat, even as they are carried from the kitchen to the eating-room. The stork is 

 common ; and toads, serpents, lizards, and other reptiles and insects, are greatly kept 

 under by him and other birds. 



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