34 CLIMATE AND RESOURCES OF 



by which the land on both sides bordering the roads gets 

 carried away. This might be prevented by making ridges of 

 earth on the sides of the land or fields abutting the roads, and, 

 instead of continuous ditches acting as drains by the roads, 

 having separate pits or tanks to arrest the flow of the water, 

 which would be limited to what fell on the road. 



The tanks for the reception of the rain-water running off 

 the roads need not be deep, the space they would occupy 

 would not be wasted, as they could be planted with the 

 " Singhara " (Trapa bispinosa], a species of water-nut which is 

 much used by the natives as an article of food, and is eaten 

 either raw, roasted (when it is not unlike the chestnut), or it is 

 dried and ground into flour, when it is used mixed with water 

 as a porridge, or made into cakes, in which form it is much 

 eaten by Hindoos on fast days, when they are not by their 

 religion allowed to eat their ordinary food. The edges of 

 these tanks could be planted with the plantain or banana, 

 which is said by Humboldt and other authorities to produce a 

 greater amount of food for man off a given area of land than 

 any other plant. It is said ' ' that an area of land which sown 

 with wheat would feed only one man, would nourish five-and- 

 twenty if planted with bananas.'" The above has reference to 

 the fruit. The Bengalees also eat the inner part of the stem 

 of the plant as a vegetable. 



The plantain propagates itself by suckers, and its leaves 

 and stem die away after it has borne fruit. In Upper India, 

 where it is not much cultivated, after bearing fruit, the stem 

 is cut down and allowed to rot on the ground, the natives not 

 knowing how to utilize it; but the whole plant, stem and 

 leaves, when chopped up, is readily eaten by cattle, and I hear 

 the milch-cows in Calcutta are regularly fed on it. Whether 

 this is the case or not I do not know, but I have for years 

 given what I had in my garden to cattle as food without any 



