1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



125 



inclination of their sides is abundantly sufficient to 

 admit of water draining away from, instead of 

 flowing toward?, the river. 



But as such rivers are liable to overflow their 

 banks during the rainy season, it becomes neces- 

 sary, in order to prevent the country being inun- 

 dated, to raise walls or embankments to confine the 

 streams. These being raif*ed a little higher than 

 the surface of the river at its highest, confine the 

 stream within proper limits. But as the floods of 

 each successive year bring down a prodigious 

 mass of gravel and sand, the wear and tear of the 

 mountains, fields, and forests, through which the 

 tributary streams have passed, a certain portion of 

 the largest and heaviest of these materials must 

 subside, and remain at the bottom when the river 

 reaches the low grounds, where its rate of motion 

 is much diminished. This addition, though it be 

 small in any one year, gradually raises the bed of 

 the river. If this rise were not carefully met by a 

 corresponding annual elevation of the artificial 

 embankment, it is obvious that the water, in the 

 course of time, would periodically overflow, and 

 inundate the country. The consequence of these 

 alternate struggles between the waters trying to 

 escape, and man insisting on confining them, has 

 been to lift the whole body of the Cauvery, in its 

 passage across the Carnatic, several feet above the 

 highest level of the surrounding country. The 

 supply of water so curiously raised into the air, is 

 exclusively appropriated to the irrigation of the 

 country. 



In the upper lands of Mysore, the peasants are 

 dependent chiefly on their tanks for moisture, as 

 the rains are uncertain in quantity, and transient 

 in their effects. The stock of water collected in 

 these numberless and extensive tanks, many of 

 which well deserve the name of lakes, is capable 

 of being distributed to the precise quantity and at 

 the precise times required. I have been often 

 amused at observing with what scrupulous care 

 the persons appointed to distribute the water, let it 

 off from these magnificent reser\'oirs. The thirsty 

 soil of the Mysore, parched and riven by heat, 

 drinks up the fluid with a kind of relish — a sort of 

 animated enjoyment, at which I was never tired 

 of looking. 



In describing things which lie so much out of 

 the ordinary course of observation, one becomes 

 sensible of the poverty of languige. Thus the 

 word tank suggests, to most people, the idea of a 

 common cistern attached to a dwelling house, and 

 filled with rain water from pipes along the roof 

 The word pond, again, recalls images of muddy 

 water, draggled post horses, rank weeds, and a 

 combined fleet of ducks and geese engaged in 

 common warfare airainst frogs and worms. To 

 call the tanks of Mysore by the name of lakes 

 would be near the mark, for many of them well 

 deserve that appellation. The Moola Talou, or 

 rich tank, for example, near Seringapatam, I un- 

 derstand, is nearly thirty miles in circumference. 

 I never saw that particular sheet of vvater, but 

 many of the artificial lakes which I did examine, 

 measured six, eight, and ten miles round; and so 

 vast are their numbers, that I remember counting 

 considerably more than one hundred at one view 

 from the top of Nundydroog; nor do I believe that 

 the least of them could have been less than two or 

 three miles in circuit. 



Dr. Buchanan, in his journey through those 



countries, made by order of Lord Weliesley, in 

 1800, shortly after the capture of Seringapatam, 

 describes minutely the fbrniation of these tanks. 

 The Saymbrumbacum Tank, not far from Madras, 

 he says, is eight miles in length, by three in width, 

 and is sufficient to supply with water the lands of 

 thirty-two villages for eighteen months, supposino- 

 the usual rains to tail. 



Rice being a water plant, renders these exten- 

 sive means of irrigation absolutely necessary. 

 The ground requires to be moistened before it can 

 be stirred to receive the seed. When sown, it is 

 roughly covered, trodden in by the feet of cattle 

 driven forward and backwards over the field. 

 When sown, the ground is immediately flooded, 

 and durin;^ its growth is never suffered to be dry 

 till it is ripe. The thrashing floor is a circular 

 trench sunk on a dry spot near the field. Into this 

 the crop is thrown as it is brought from the field, 

 and as soon as there is a layer four or five feet 

 thick, three or fciur bullocks or buffaloes are led in, 

 and driven round and round upon the straw inces- 

 santly till the whole crop has been trodden, or until 

 the cattle can no longer be kept in the trench. 

 The straw is then shaken out and removed; and 

 the grain is found in the bottom of the trench 

 mixed with chaff', stones, and earth, which causes 

 a great deal of labor in winnowing, to get it fit 

 for use or market. The grain, when thus freed 

 from the straw, is called paddy, and afler being 

 shelled by the action of a large pestle and mortar, 

 is then fit for use under the name of rice. It is 

 cooked by plain boiling, and eaten with the fingers. 

 Salt is always added ; and those who can afford it 

 flavor it with spices. 



Rice is imported in large quantities into this 

 country, both from the East Indies and America. 

 The Carolina rice is said to be the produce of a 

 small bag, given as a present, by Dubois, the trea- 

 surer of the East I-^dia Compan}', to a Carolina 

 trader; and in 1698 sixty tons were sent home. 

 Upwards of 100,000 bags of rice are now annually 

 imported, and the quantity is gradually increasing. 



The Canada rice, Zizania fluilans, although 

 not yet much cultivated, has all the natural capa- 

 bilities to become a valuable corn. Its grains are 

 large, and replete with a fine bland farina or meal. 

 It grows abundantly in the shallow waters of 

 North America, and has been acclimated here: it 

 grows freely both in Middlesex and Rosshire. 

 Attempts are being made, which, it is to be hoped, 

 will be successful, to cultivate it in Ireland. Pink- 

 erton says, "this plant seems to be designed by 

 nature to become the bread corn of the North." 



From the West of England Jonrnal. 

 VICTORIA WHEAT. 



Experiments have lately been made in the is- 

 land of Jamaica, under the scientific auspices o 

 the philanthropic Dr. Bancroft, with wheat sent by 

 Sir Robert Kerr Porter, first to England, from Ca- 

 raccas, and thenceto Jamaica, the results of which 

 experiments are stated as follows : 



''The Jamaica Agricultural and Horticultural 

 Society have received samples from three or four 

 different places, of the wheat produced there, all 

 of which appear to be of a favorable sort. 



"First, from the mountains of St. Anne's, where 

 the seed had been sown the latter end of January^ 



