SUGAR— TOBACCO — INDIGO — PEPPER. 325 



along the alluvial tracts bordering on the Ganges. It is 

 carried on through the medium of the ryots, who are in- 

 duced to engage in it by the assurance of a market, and in 

 almost every instance by advances on the crops. Some in- 

 dividuals have 6000 or 7000 cultivators constantly engaged 

 in supplying them with this vegetable. The crop is pre- 

 carious ; but the average produce of Bengal is estimated at 

 9,000,000 pounds, while upwards of 400,000 pounds are 

 derived from Madras. The planters laboured at first under 

 great inconvenience from the operation of a law which 

 prohibits all but natives from holding land even under a 

 zemindary tenure ; being thus obliged to occupy it under 

 the name of Hindoos, upon whom they became in a great 

 degree dependent. Of late, however, they have been al- 

 lowed, for this and other purposes, to possess farms on very 

 long leases. At first they took from the cultivators the 

 juice of the plant, called fozcula ; but the Hindoos were 

 found to conduct even the process of extraction in so slo- 

 venly a manner, that the substance could never be tho- 

 roughly purified so as to form the best indigo. It has 

 become customary, therefore, to receive the plants, and have 

 the whole process performed by Europeans. Mr. Ramsay 

 represents the condition of the ryots in some districts as 

 much deteriorated by being employed in this manner ; but 

 it is not easy to perceive how such an effect can be the result 

 of so prosperous a branch of production. Mr. Harris and 

 Mr. Crawford assert that the Bengal husbandmen engaged 

 in it are in decidedly better circumstances than their 

 brethren, and the latter gentleman states that the lands 

 have doubled or trebled in value. 



Pepper is likewise an important object of Indian agri- 

 culture. This spice, for which there is such a general 

 demand, is raised amid the wooded hills of Malabar and 

 Canara. Munro describes the pepper-gardens as formed 

 in the deepest glens, shaded by mountains and dense forests, 

 and as appearing only like specks in the wilderness by 

 which they are surrounded. The pepper of Malabar is 

 considered superior to that of Sumatra, as well as of all 

 the other islands. It is exported in the two states of black 

 and white, a distinction which arises from the different 

 modes in which they are prepared. 



India has been celebrated not only for the rich products 



Vol. II.— Ee 



