INDIA. 



85 



acre will produce more. The annual produce of 1 100 

 ..icies of Peddapoor MM! Pettipoor 

 wt prr acre; consequently their whole produce 

 e 97 nogtbrarii of IS cwt. each, which is about 

 one-f' ' of the produce of Jamaica. The cane 



is planted in January, on land which has been either 

 manured, or prepared by a fallow, or the growth of 

 leguminous plant* : it must be watered repeatedly be- 

 fore the rainj >et in : in about ten months from the 

 of their | :he cane* are ready to cut. 



The apparatus for making the manufacturer's sugar 

 is Tfry simple, confuting of a mill erected in the field, 

 or earthen or (tone mortar, and wooden pestle, turned 

 .vo bullocks, boiling pott of common earthen 

 wan, and boilers of country iron plate* rivetted. Six 

 pound* of juice will yield one pound of sugar from 

 good cane*. The refuse i< given to cattle, or carried 

 away by the labourer*: the sugar harvest in Hindoa- 

 tan, as in the Weit Indies, i* a joyous and busy season. 

 Cotton is another of the agricultural production* for 

 which India ha* been celebrated from the moat remote 

 time*: it* manufacture* of cotton of extraordinary 

 whiteneM are exprexly mentioned by Arrian, ftc. It 

 is cultivated very extensively, but of a better quality, 

 a* well a* in greater abundance in some part* of Gu- 

 zerat, Bengal, the Mahratta district*, the distr 

 Tinnevcllv, the vicinity of Surat, and on the coatt of 

 Coromamfel, the (oil and climate of which particularly 

 *uit it, than ebewhere in llmdoatan. The cotton 

 grown near Ahmood in the province of Guserat, i* 

 pet hap* the fir ert of* all ; the fibre i extremely deli- 

 cate, bat the staple, BJ i* the caae with almot all In- 

 dian cotton, very short. The cotton grown near Nag- 

 poor, in the province of Gundwanah, u also in great re- 

 pute ; conaiderable quantities of it are brought for the 

 supply of the Bengal manufacture to Midnapoor, which 

 i* the great depot in IBM part of India tor cottot 

 thoar dittr.ct* of Gwserat. which lie near the Gulf of 

 iy, the cotton i* of good quality, but perhapa not 

 to the Ahmood cotton : it i* *own here on fal- 



tig with rice, the latter being reaped at 

 the beginning of the rainy sea*.n, while the cotton 

 stands. It is precarkm* crop, a* either too much or 

 too little rain destroys it. On the bank* of the Jumna 

 h* cultivation i* an object of great attention ; indeed 

 the demand of the Bengal market U so extensive and 

 regular, that the growth of this hrub must always be 

 profitable in every district, with a proper soil, within 

 the reach of that market, especially aa Bengal 

 with the exception of it* n> re eastern tract*, in which 

 fine sort of cotton is grown for the moat delicate ma- 

 nufacture*, doe* not supply nearly enough of fine cot- 

 ton, nor even a sufficiency of the coarse ugh 

 they are cultivated in every part of the pn. 

 tenperstd in fields of puUe. Cotton, a* it is disposed 

 of by the cult called eopsm ,- when diverted 

 of ha seed, which U on an average full three-fourth* of 

 it* weight, it i* named rooir. 



A* there can b* little doubt that indigo U the *ame 

 M tbe indk-um of the ancient*, we may reckon this 

 plant at another of the agricultural production* or 

 doatan. cultivated from time immemorial. The great 



I for indigo from HindosUn, in conaeqvence of 

 the devastation of the plantations in the island of St. 

 Domingo, which formerly yielded a protluce nearly 

 equal to that of all the otlirr Wrst India islands, ha* of 

 Ute year* very much inert and the cultivation 

 especially in the British provinces under the Bengal 

 r; but the culture of it by the natives ha* 



not improved, notwithstanding the increased demand, Statistics. 

 and, at first, the consequent increased price. The qua- "" *"Y"^ 

 lity and quantity of the produce depends nearly as 

 much on the nature of the soil, as on the mode of cul- 

 tivation. In the Dooab the soil is so favourable to this 

 !>' int. tliat what grows there in a wild state, is of supe- 

 rior quality to that produced bv cultivation. The soil 

 and cultivation of the Benares district are alsoextreme- 

 ly favourable to indigo ; but perhaps there are few 

 spot* of equal extent, in which it is grown to a greater 

 extent, than in the vicinity of Mowily Ghaut in the 

 province of Agra ; from this place there was sent to 

 Europe, from one manufacture alone, in the year 1798, 

 800 mannds of 80 lib. each of manufactured indigo. 

 We have already adverted to the stimulus which was 

 given to the cultivation of this plant by the state of 

 St. Domingo : A* a proof of this, we may mention, 

 that at the sale* of the East India Company, in the 

 year 1786, only 245,011 pounds of manufactured indi- 

 go were sold : in lM>7_s. the total manufacture ot in- 

 digo in the Bengal presidency amounted to 8,800,000 

 lib*.; and in the year 1810, the total quantity of in- 

 digo, British property, which was sold at the East In- 

 dia Company sales, amounted to upwards of five mil- 

 lion pounds weight. See INDIGO. 



The poppy paj'avtr toninifemm, is chiefly cultivated Pi>ppy. 

 in Bengal, Allahabad, and Bahar. It i* a very uncer- 

 tain crop the produce of an acre varying from 20 Ibs. 

 to 40 lb< It also require* much labour in the cultiva- 

 tion, and in the gathering of the juice, which is after- 

 ward* evaporated into opium. Bennies between SO Ibs. 

 and SOIba- of the opium itself from an acre of land, 

 the cultivator obtains about 40 Ibs. of poppy aeed, and 

 frequently from the ame land a crop of pot herbs, or 

 some other early vegetable* or grain. In Bahar. the 

 cultivation of the poppy, and the manufacture of opium, 

 are carried on so extensively, that 4000 chest* of the 

 latter may be exported annually ; but it i* a general 

 complaint in Europe, that in thin, a* well a* other pro- 

 vinces of Hindostan, the opium is frequently adultera- 

 ted by a mixture of cow-dung, an extract from the 

 leave* and stalk of the poppy, the gum ot'th mimosa, 

 and other subatance*. It i* (aid, that opium of an ex- 

 cellent quality i* made from the poppy'- gum in some 

 part* of Northern Hindustan. In the ceded districts 

 of Mysore, poppies are cultivated not only for the pur- 

 pose of making opium, but also for the lake of their 

 seed, from which, when ripe, an intoxicating liquor, 

 called port, is made, that M mm I, ilrunk fur inebriation, 

 both by the Mabomedan* and Hindoos. The opium 

 made from the poppies grown in Malwah is do 

 much inferior to that of Bengal, and i* aluiu-t alwayi 

 adulterated with oil and other substance*. In tome of 

 the provinces in the south of India, the poppy is culti- 

 vated almost entirely on account of its seed, which is 

 mixed with the sweet cake* that are eaten by the high- 

 er ranks of the native*. 



Till latrly, it was rather supposed that the tobacco Tobaco*. 

 plant wa indigenous in India; but M.ijur It mull has 

 hewn that this notion is erroneous, as there are in ex- 

 Utence proclamations issued by the Mogul emperor*, 

 especially one by the Emperor Jehangirc. in the be 

 ginning of the 17th century, in which tobacco i.^ men- 

 tioned a* " a pernicious plant, introduced by Euro- 

 peans." Beside* the names by which it i- known in 

 Hindostan, even the Sanscrit name* do not occur in 

 old writing*, and are evidently corruption* from the 

 I.uropean term. Tobacco is now cultivated in almost 

 every part of Hindostan, etpeciully in the northern and 



