AGRICULTURE- — RYOTS. 321 



over their heads a house that can be built in three days, of 

 mud, straw, and leaves, to eat daily a few handfuls of rice, 

 and to wrap themselves in a coarse cotton robe. Their 

 situation may be considered as ranking below that of the 

 Irish peasantry. The implements of agriculture also are 

 of the most imperfect form. The name of plough can 

 scarcely be applied to the instrument which is used for stir- 

 ring the soil. It has neither coulter nor mould-board ; the 

 handle communicates little power of directing it ; and the 

 share does not penetrate the ground beyond three inches. 

 The business of the harrow is performed by an instrument 

 like a ladder, on which the husbandman stands, while rough 

 bushes attached to it assist in covering the seed. The ro- 

 tation of crops is a principle unknown in India ; every 

 thing possible is drawn from the ground till it is completely 

 exhausted, when it must be recruited, not by a regular fal- 

 low, but by being left for some time unoccupied. Manure 

 is scarcely at all employed ; indeed that of the cow being 

 accounted holy, and largely applied to sacred purposes, is 

 far too valuable to be spread upon land. There are, how- 

 ever, as is observed by Professor Jameson, some soils in 

 India so very fertile that they continue to bear crops with- 

 out intermission. The wealth of the farmer consists al- 

 most wholly in his bullocks ; and according to the number 

 he can rear or purchase is the extent of ground which he 

 cultivates. The only means of fertility on which art or 

 toil is employed to any great extent is irrigation, which, in- 

 deed, in a tropical climate, is of all others the most essen- 

 tial. In addition to the supply furnished by the great rivers, 

 princes and wealthy individuals, influenced by public spirit, 

 form tanks, ponds, or reservoirs, for the general advantage; 

 and wooden troughs or buckets are employed in raising the 

 water into channels, by which it is conveyed over the adjoin- 

 ing fields. The periodical rains constitute the chief source 

 of production in India, and their partial or total failure oc- 

 casions the most desolating famines. During the dreadful 

 one which afflicted Bengal in 1770, several millions of the 

 natives are supposed to have perished. 



The situation of the Hindoo ryot is still further depressed 

 by the load of debt with which he is usually burdened. 

 Even his slender means are found to tempt the avidity of 

 the muhajuns or money-lenders, who enrich themselves by 



