146 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



lying upon. The leaf when reduced to fine fibres is the material of which a beautiful 

 and costly carpeting is fabricated for those in the higher ranks ; the coarser fibres 



are made into brooms. After these useful mate- 

 rials are taken from the leaf, the stalk still remains, 

 which is about the thickness of the ancle, and fur- 

 nishes firewood. 



902. The wood of this palm, when fresh cut, is spongy ; 

 but becomes hard, after being seasoned, and assumes a dark- 

 brown colour. On the top of the tree a large shoot is pro- 

 duced, which when boiled resembles broccoli, but is said to 

 be of a more delicate taste ; and, though much liked, is 

 seldom used by the natives ; because on cutting it off the 

 pith is exposed, and the tree dies. Between this cab- 

 bage-like shoot and the leaves spring several buds, from 

 which, on making an incision, distils a juice differing 

 little from water, either in colour or consistence. It is the 

 employment of a certain class of men to climb to the tops 

 of the trees in the evening, with earthen pots tied to their 

 waists, these they fix at the top to receive the juice, which 

 is regularly carried away before the sun has any influence 

 upon it. This liquor is sold at the bazaars by the natives, 

 under the name of toddy. It is used for yest, and forms 

 an excellent substitute. In this state it is drank with 

 avidity, both by the low Europeans and the natives ; and it is 

 reckoned a cooling and agreeable beverage. After being 

 kept a few hours, it begins to ferment, acquires a sharp 

 taste, and a slightly intoxicating quality. By boiling it, a coarse kind of sugar is obtained ; and by distil- 

 lation it yields a strong ardent spirit, which being every where sold, and at a low price, constitutes 

 one of the most destructive beverages to our soldiers. The name given to this pernicious drink by 

 Europeans is pariah arrack, from the supposition that it is only drank by the pariahs, or outcasts that 

 have no rank. 



903. The trees from which the toddy is drawn do not bear any fruit, on account of the destruction of 

 the buds ; but if the buds be left entire, they produce clusters of the cocoa-nut. This nut, in the husk, is 

 as large as a man's head ; and when ripe falls with the least wind. If gathered fresh, it is green on the 

 outside ; the husk and the shell are tender. The shell, when divested of the husk, may be about the size 

 of an ostrich's egg, and is lined with a white pulpy substance, which contains about a pint and a half of 

 liquor like water ; and, though the taste be sweet and agreeable, it is different from that of the toddy. 



904. In proportion as the fruit grows old, the shell hardens, and the liquor diminishes, till it is at last 

 entirely absorbed by the white milky substance ; which gradually acquires the hardness of the kernel of 

 the almond, and is almost as easily detached from the shell. The natives use this nut in their victuals ; 

 and from it they also express a considerable quantity of the purest and best lamp oil. The substance 

 which remains after this operation supplies an excellent food for poultry and hogs. Cups and a variety 

 of excellent utensils are made of the shell. 



905. The husk of the cocoa-nut is nearly an inch thick, and is, perhaps, the most valuable part of the 

 tree ; for it consists of a number of strong fibres, easily separable, which furnish the material for the 

 greatest part of the Indian cordage ; but is by no means the only substitute which the country affords 

 for hemp. This the natives work up with much skill. 



906. The palmyra, a species of Corypha, is taller than the cocoa tree ; and afibrds still 

 greater supplies of toddy ; because its fruit is in little request, from the smallness of its 

 size; the produce of the tree is therefore generally drawn off in the liquid state. .This 

 tree, like the cocoa, has no branches ; and, like it too, sends forth from the top a number 

 of large leaves, which are employed in thatching houses, and in the manufacture of mats 

 and umbrellas. The timber of the tree is much used in building. 



907. The date tree {Phce^nix dactylifera), being smaller, does not make so conspicuous 

 a figure in the Indian forest as the two last described. Its fruit never arrives at maturity 

 in India, owing to the heat : toddy is drawn from it, but not in such quantity, nor of so 

 good a quality, as that which is produced by the other species of the same genus. 



908. The bamboo (Bambusa arundindcea) is, perhaps, one of the most universally useful 

 trees in the world ; at all events it is so in the tropical regions. There are above fifty 

 varieties, all of wliich are of the most rapid growth, rising from fifty to eighty feet the first 

 year, and the second perfecting its timber in hardness and elasticity. It grows in stools, 

 which are cut over every two years, and thus the quantity of timber furnished by an acre 

 of bamboos is immense. Its uses are almost without end. In building it forms entire 

 houses for the lower orders, and enters both into the construction and furniture of those 

 of the higher classes. Bridges, boats, masts, rigging, agricultural and other implements, 

 and machinery, carts, baskets, ropes, nets, sailcloth, cups, pitchers, troughs, pipes for 

 conveying water, pumps, fences for gardens and fields, &c., are made of it. Macerated 

 in water it forms paper ; the leaves are generally put round the tea sent to Europe ; the 

 thick inspissated juice is a favourite medicine, is said to be indestructible by fire, to resist 

 acids, and by fusion with alkali to form a transparent permanent glass. 



909. The fruits of Hindustan may be said to include all those in cultivation ; since 

 the hardier fruits of Europe, as the strawberry, gooseberry, apple, &c., are not only 

 grown by the European settlers in cool situations, but even by the native shahs. The 

 indigenous sorts include the mango, the mangostan, and the durion, the noblest of known 

 fruits next to the pine-apple. 



910. The natural pastures of Hindustan are every where bad, thin, and coarse, and 

 mere is no such thing as aitificial herbage plants. In Bengal, where the soil is loamy 

 to the depth of nine and ten feet, a coarse bent, or species of Juncus, springs up both in 



