14 CLIMATE AND RESOURCES OF 



The cultivated lands are mainly under two descriptions of 

 crops, the rain crops and the cold-weather crops. 



The rain crops, sown shortly after the commencement of the 

 rains, are reaped in October and November. The lands occu- 

 pied by them are then left untouched by the plough till the 

 next rains, except such fields as may be required for sugar-cane, 

 which is planted in February or March. Should, however, 

 there be more copious falls of rain than usual in the cold weather, 

 advantage is sometimes taken of the softened state of the soil 

 to plough up some of these rain-crop fields by landlords who 

 cultivate some of their own land, and by tenants whose tenure 

 insures their having the land for the following year ; but not 

 by ordinary tenants, who hold from year to year, know not how 

 long they may keep the land, and who rarely hold the same 

 fields two years running, but are moved from field to field at 

 the will of the landlord or his agent, or at their own request. 



The natives are well aware of the benefits of breaking up 

 the soil in the cold weather, to expose it to the ameliorating 

 influences of air, heat, and rain ; but only a few of them are 

 in a condition to avail themselves of it. However, broken up, 

 or not broken up, with the exception of the land planted with 

 sugar-cane, indigo, or some such crop, the land which has 

 borne a rain crop one year remains a bare plain throughout 

 the succeeding cold and hot weather. When broken up, the 

 physical condition of the surface- soil only is altered, and it is 

 rendered capable of absorbing and radiating heat; but its 

 powers of absorbing and radiating heat are limited by the 

 shallowness of the ploughing. Still this has some effect, as 

 the temperature of a hot weather succeeding a cold weather, 

 in which more than the usual amount of rain has fallen, and 

 more land nas been broken up, is noticeably cooler than after 

 a cold season in which less rain has fallen, and less ground 

 has been broken up. 



