Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN ASIA. 



149 



culture of Hindustan ; not in its details, but as to its peculiar features. It is evidently 

 wretched, and calculated for little more than the bare sustenance of an extensive popula* 

 tion : for though the revenue of the state is in fact the land rent, that revenue, notwitl^ 

 standing the immense tract of country from which it is collected, is known to be very 

 small. The state of agriculture, however, both politically and professionally, is capable 

 of great improvement ; and it is believed that the present government has already effected 

 material benefits, both for the natives and for itself. Wherever the British influence is 

 preeminent, there Europeans settle and introduce improvements j and even the more in- 

 dustrious Asiatics find themselves in greater 

 security. The Chinese are known to be a 

 remarkably industrious people, and many of 

 them have established themselves in British- 

 Indian seaports . Wathen ( Voyage, ^c. ,1814) 

 mentions a corn- mill, combining a bake- 

 house, both on a large scale and driven by a 

 powerful stream of water, as having been es- 

 tablished at Penang, in the island of that name, 

 by Amee, a Chinese miller. The building is 

 in the Cliinese taste, and forms a very pic- 

 turesque group in a romantic spot. {Jig. 120.) 

 jd ; though 



The shipping is tiie chief source of 



About sixty people are employee 



great part of the labour is done by machinery, 



and among other things the kneading of the dough. 



consumption. 



SuBSECT. 6. Of the Agriculture of the Island of Ceylon. 



9*21 . The agriculture of Ceylon is noticed at some length by Dr. Davy, who says the 

 art is much respected by the Singalese. The climate of that country is wilhout seasons, 

 and differs little throughout the year in any thing but in the direction of the wind, or 

 the presence or absence of rain. Sowing and reaping go on in every month. 



928. The soil of Ceylon is generally silicious, seldom with more than from one to three 

 per cent of vegetable matter. Dr. Davy (^Account, ^c.) found the cinnamon tree in a 

 state of successful culture in quartz sand, as white as snow on the surface, somewhat grey 

 below ; containing one part in one hundred of vegetable matter, five tenths of water, and 

 the remainder silicious sand. He supposes the growth of the trees may be owing in a 

 considerable degree to the situation being low and moist. 



929. The cultivation in the interior of Ceylon is almost exclusively of two kinds ; the 

 dry and wet. The former consists of grubbing up woods on the sides of hills, and sow- 

 ing a particular variety of rice and Indian com ; the latter is carried on in low flat sur- 

 faces, which may be flooded with water. Rice is the only grain sown. The ground is 

 flooded previously to commencing the operation of ploughing, and is kept under water 



while two furrows are given ; the water is then let off, and the rice, being previously 

 steeped in water till it begins to germinate, is sown broadcast. When the seed has taken 



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