

INDIA. 



Produce. 



" A small ball of clay is formed around the root of 

 each sulk, to carry it perpendicularly to the bottom, 

 nd to secure it nourishment, till the roots, by spread- 

 ing, procure a more liberal supply." Tennant, xi. 126. 

 The first mode is ni-c.-ssiirily confined to the higher 

 grounds ; the other modes are followed on such lands 

 as lie low, and can be easily watered. The Ryot is de- 

 termined with respect to his time of sowing rice, by 

 observing its natural season*. In a wild state, it sows 

 itself in the first month of winter, and at the approach 

 of spring begins to appear above the ground : it ripens 

 during the rainy season, and drops its seed at the be- 

 ginning of winter. But, in order that he may have 

 two crops of this necessary and valuable grain, the Ryot 

 sows it not only at its natural period of vegetation, but 

 also during the second month of the rainy season, that 

 he may reap a second harvest- at the beginning of win- 

 ter. In those parts of Hindostan Proper, where rice 

 is cultivated on good land, well managed, five quarters 

 per acre are deemed a large produce, or a return of 

 fifteen for one on the seed. In some parts of Mysore, 

 the first quality of land will produce from 47 to 49 

 bushels ; the second from 35 to 42 ; and the third from 

 17 to 24 bushels of rice. Two crops of this grain are 

 very seldom grown on the same field in one year. In 

 the northern parts of the province of Cochin, however, 

 the rice grounds, which lie in narrow vallies extremely 

 well watered, enable the cultivators to raise two crops 

 annually on them. This is also the case upon land of 

 the best quality in the Rungpoor district of Bengal ; 

 two crops of rice being obtained in the year, besides 

 an intermediate one of mustard seed. In the Vel- 

 later district of the province of Malabar, there are a 

 few remarkable spots of land, watered by perennial 

 streams, which produce three crops of rice annually. 

 Where it is necessary to use artificial means to water 

 the rice, the rice fields are divided into squares of 100 

 or 1 20 yards, round the sides of which there are bor- 

 ders so high and firmly constructed as to keep in a 

 sufficient quantity of water : furrows are made from 

 one square to another, by which the water is, without 

 much labour, carried all over the rice field. At harvest, 

 it is cut with a sickle ; nearly four feet of the shaw is 

 left on the ground, in order that it may rot and serve 

 Hamuing. as manure. It is made into sheaves, which are beat on 

 the ground as a substitute for threshing ; but as all 

 the grain cannot thus be got out, the sheaves are again 

 beaten with a bamboo to obtain the remainder. Rice 

 is cleaned with a wooden pestle and mortar ; and this 

 operation, like all the other operations connected with 

 husbandry, is paid for in produce; the person per- 

 forming it binding himself to deliver back five-eighths 

 of the weight, in clean rice, receiving three-eighths 

 with the husks for his labour. It is afterwards scalded 

 in hot water ; spread out on mats to dry in the sun ; 

 and afterwards deposited in patapas, or granaries built 

 of teak wood. As it is of the utmost importance to 

 preserve rice in cases of scarcity or famine, the East 

 India Company several years ago erected a very large 

 granary at Patna for this purpose. " It is a building 

 of stone, in the shape of a bee hive, with two winding 

 stair-cases on the outside, which have been ascended 

 on horseback : by those stairs the grain is poured in 

 at the top, there being a single door at the bottom to 

 take it out; the walls at the bottom, though 21 feet 

 thick, have given way. It cost 120,000 rupees; but 

 notwithstanding the expense of erection, and the size 

 of the building, it would not be of much use even if it 

 were kept constantly filled, as it would not contain one 



Three crops 

 annually 



day's consumption for the inhabitants of the province- Statistic*. 

 of Bahar, in which it stands. The district of Dacca """ "V ^ 

 Jellallpoor is deemed, from the immense quantity of 

 rice which it produces, the natural granary of that 

 grain, for all the rest of the province of Bengal. 



Maize is little grown, except in the western provinces Maize, 

 of Hindostan proper, on the poorer soils and hilly millet, &c. 

 grounds. Millet is much more extensively cultivated; 

 there are several varieties of it ; though a small eared 

 grain, it furnishes a great quantity of straw, 10 feet 

 long, which is used as provender for the cattle. The 

 Doab is particularly distinguished for its culture of 

 millet. Some of the oil plants have already been men- 

 tioned ; but besides mustard and flax, there are sesa- 

 mum, &c. some of which occupy the cold season, and 

 others ripen soon after the rains. The crop of raggy, 

 in the South of India, is by far the most important of 

 any raised in the dry. field, and supplies all the lower 

 classes with their common food. 



Flax is not cultivated in any part of India for the KIax,hcn,p, 

 purpose of manufacturing into linen, but only for its && 

 oil ; and the common hemp is grown only, that an in- 

 toxicating liquor called bang may be made from it. 

 But sunn, hemp, has lately been cultivated at Lucki- 

 poor, Chittagong, Commercolly, Buddaut, Dacca, Mai- 

 da, Cuttorah, &c. ; the best and finest is that of 

 Luckipoor, which by experiments has been proved to 

 be considerably superior in point of strength to Pe- 

 tersburgh hemp ; all the rest, except the Cuttorah, are 

 also superior in this respect to Petersburgh. The Con- 

 can district of the province of Bejapoor is also noted 

 for the excellence of its hemp. 



Sugar has probably been cultivated to a considerable Sugar* 

 extent in Hindostan from time immemorial : the name 

 of Gaur, the ancient capital of Bengal, a city highly 

 celebrated in Hindostan antiquity, is apparently de- 

 rived from gur, which both in the ancient and modern 

 languages of India, signifies ran sugar ; and that the 

 inhabitants of India have long understood the mode of 

 manufacturing it, seems evident, from the circumstance, 

 that the name given to the manufactured produce, in 

 all the European languages without exception, as well 

 as in the Persian, Greek, and Latin, is derived from 

 the Sanscrit term for manufactured sugar, Sarcara. 

 It is at present cultivated to a great extent in almost 

 every part of India ; in Hindostan Proper, it thrives 

 best in the districts of Benares, Bahar, Rungpoor, Berb- 

 poom, Burdwan, and Midnapoor; in fact there is 

 scarcely a tract of land under the Bengal presidency, 

 from Benares to Rungpoor, and from the borders of 

 Assam to Cuttack, in which it is not cultivated to a 

 considerable extent, and with great success. If we 

 proceed farther south, we shall find it an object of great 

 attention, and the source of much profit in the Delta 

 of the Godavery, and in the Zemindaries of Pedda- 

 poor and Pettipoor, along the banks of the Elyseram 

 river, in the northern Circars. In the neighbourhood 

 of Cudapah, in the ceded districts, the sugar cane 'is 

 also grown to a great extent. In short, wherever the 

 soil is fit for this crop, and agriculture has made any 

 advances, it is cultivated more or less in Hindostan. 

 As it requires a soil of great fertility, it is not culti- 

 vated on the same ground a second time, till after the 

 intervention of two or three other crops ; and such 

 soils as are fit for it, let at a very high rate. One acre 

 of sugar cane will yield on an average about ten candy 

 of sugar, each candy weighing 500 lib. : but the sugar 

 cane, especially that of an inferior quality, is also made 

 into the inspissated juice called jagary, and of this an 



