80 



INDIA. 



culuuu 



Siamtirt. iH'iise, reckoned the most favourable for the cultivation 

 y-~* , . in the Coinilittoor district, tor three or four 



guineas per acre ; it' they are of inferior quality, tlie 

 rent does not amount to 1 per acre. In other parts 

 of this province, good rice land lets for 2, 7s. per acre; 

 the worst for 1 Is. Id. ; and dry field land from 5s. lOd. 

 to Is. (id. per acre. Land in Bengal which produces 

 two crops, one of rice, and the other of mustard or 

 pulse, lets for about a rupee and a half per begah, or 

 about 1 1 s. 3d. per acre. That which produces one crop, 

 at three- fourths of a rupee per begah. Good soil, lit 

 for kitchen gardens, pays a rent of from 12s. to 21s. pel- 

 acre, in some parts of the Mysore. 



These statements of the rent of different kinds of 

 lands, though few, and applying, for the most part, on- 

 ly to particular districts, are. sufficient to point out the 

 extreme difference in the quantity and value of the pro- 

 duce of land, as well as in the labour necessary to render 

 it fertile, in various parts of India ; for the rent is va- 

 ried according to both these circumstances, considered 

 jointly or separately. 



Ditiricts ce- The agriculture of Hindustan, generally speaking, is 

 ifhrauil for i n a very rude and imperfect state. There are, how- 

 Uicir gri- ever> districts in which this art has reached a state of 

 improvement, not inferior to that in which it exists in 

 many parts of Kurope. Perhaps the Burd wan district of 

 Bengal deserves the first place in the scale of agricultural 

 excellencp, and the province of Tanjore, thesecond. Many 

 parts of the province of Allahabad, and especially the 

 district of Benares, rank nearly on a level with Burd- 

 ivun and Tanjore. In the neighbourhood of the city of 

 Patna, the capital of Bahar, also, the husbandry is ex- 

 cellent ; the fields in many places being cultivated with 

 such nice and minute attention, as to resemble gardens. 

 Travancore is distinguished for its excellence in what 

 is called the wet cultivation, which is carried to such a 

 degree of successful perfection, that the whole of the 

 government expenses, civil, military, and religious, are 

 defrayed from it alone, without drawing any thing from 

 the produce of the dry-land cultivation. The agricul- 

 ture of tha Circars is also good. From this province 

 and Tanjore, the Carnatic is frequently supplied with 

 grain ; the Circars being esteemed its granary during 

 the north-easterly monsoon, and Tanjore during the 

 south-west monsoon. Formerly the Punjab exhibited 

 undoubted proofs of good husbandry, and its crops, ow- 

 ing to this and the natural fertility of its soil, were 

 abundant ; but in consequence of the devastation it has 

 sustained, and the number of petty hostile states into 

 which it is divided, it is now but very imperfectly cul- 

 tivated, and contains a large proportion of land abso- 

 lutely waste and neglected. That part of Agra which 

 is called the Doab, was formerly, like the Punjab, cul- 

 tivated with skill and success, especially during the lat- 

 ter part of the Nabob of Oude's government. While it 

 was under the management of Almass AH Khan, and at 

 present, its cultivation is improving, as indeed is the 

 case with all those parts of India which are placed un- 

 der the British authority. In the Midnapoor district 

 of the province of Orissa, improvements have lately ta- 

 ken place in agriculture ; but they arise rather from the 

 extreme ease with which they may be made, than from 

 the superior information or activity of the inhabitants. 

 The other parts of the Decan in which the agriculture 

 rises above the level of that generally practised in Hin- 

 dostan, are the low districts of Aurungabad, some parts 

 of Bcrar, and the Circ.-.rs, already mentioned. In the 

 south of India, besides Taniore and Travancore, which 

 rank in the highest class, the industry of the husband. 



man in the ceded districts has raised the agriculture of Statistics. 

 this province to a considerable degree of perfection ; S T"^*' 

 and they are likely still farther to improve it, in conse- 

 quence of the excellent regulations introduced- by the 

 British. In no part of India has the husbandman been 

 obliged to struggle w.th greater difficulties in the im- 

 provement of his land, and nowhere has he surmounted 

 them more completely than in Canara. The largest 

 portion ef the surface of this province is so rocky and 

 uneven, that nearly all the agricultural labour, and es- 

 pecially the indispensable previous operation of level- 

 ling the ground, must be performed without the aid of 

 cattle ; which, indeed, are by no means common. And, 

 even after the land is brought into a state of cultivation, 

 it would soon revert to its original character, and be 

 broken up by the torrents from the mountains, were not 

 the husbandman constantly alert and active. Notw - th- 

 standing these difficulties, there everywhere appears un- 

 doubted proofs of good husbandry, not merely in the 

 quantity produced, but also in the neatness of the cul- 

 ture, and the regularity and method with which it is 

 carried on. This may in a great degree arise from the 

 circumstance, that each man cultivates his own land, 

 however small ; all the land here, as has been already 

 remarked, being private property, and the subdivisions 

 of that property being very minute. The same charac- 

 ter applies to the husbandry of the province of Malabar , 

 each proprietor bestowing on his little spot " all that 

 minute labour and attention which is so important to 

 Indian husbandry." In no province of the south of In- 

 dia was the husbandry worse than in Barramahal, pre- 

 viously to the introduction of the permanent settlement, 

 but at present it is very respectable, and will probably 

 improve. The tract of land in North Coimbetoor, which 

 lies near Mutu and Coleagala, and that part of South 

 Coimbetoor which stretches along the banks of the 

 Amarawati, are remarkably well cultivated, particularly 

 the first district, in which the management of rice is 

 equal to that of any other part of India. The same 

 character applies to the rice cultivation in the vallies of 

 Cochin. From this sketch of the general state of agri- 

 culture in Hindostan, it will be seen, that, with a few 

 exceptions, that of the south of India is superior to that 

 of Hindostan Proper ; ..that it is more generally good ; 

 and that the husbandry of the Decan is inferior both to 

 that of Hindostan Propei- and the south of India. 



Over all Hindostan, as in every country that lies Three dif- 

 within the tropics, or only a little beyond them, the l(:rent 

 general mode of cultivation, as well as the particular 

 crops cultivated, must depend, in a great measure, on 

 the more or less abundant and regular supply of wa- 

 ter. Hence arise two distinct modes of cultivation in. 

 Hindostan, besides subdivisions of these modes. The 

 two leading species of cultivation are denominated 

 nunja.li and punjnh ; the first being the wet-grain cul- 

 ture, and the other the dry-grain culture. The first is Nu ,"J ;lh . , 



, , . , J e . . , . and puniall 



more attended to than the second, and is deemed more compared. - 

 valuable and beneficial. The grain cultivated on nun- 

 jah lands is generally only of one kind, or at most of 

 two, and is consequently cut down at one season or 

 two; hence the produce of this land can be stored, 

 watched, and sold, with much greater facility, and at 

 much less expence, than the other kinds of grain. In 

 the south of India, the produce of nunjah land was 

 always divided between the government and the culti- 

 vator. Punjah land is in almost every respect the re 

 verse of this. The grains sown on this land are very nu- 

 merous, and are put into the ground at various periods : 

 the produce is uncertain, depending on the rain that 



