54 Cultivation , Manuring, Measuring, etc. 



great yearly inundations do not occur, it is both 

 necessary and imperative to supply the exhausted 

 lands with some equivalent in the shape of manure, 

 and for this sect is the best and cheapest. 



After the young plant appears, the measuring of 

 the crop is commenced, and this is performed with 

 the assistance of a wheel, exactly one cottah in circum- 

 ference, twenty of which cottahs go to a bigha in length. 

 Two wheels are used, one working the length of the 

 field, the other the breadth. The wheel is furnished 

 with a piece of iron protruding from the edge, which 

 at each revolution strikes against a small brass bell or 

 gong attached to the framework and notes off the 

 number of revolutions. 



An average of the quantity of plant apparent is 

 then taken, and noted in the margin of the measur- 

 ing-book. A full crop is put down as a sixteen-anna 

 crop, that is, sixteen annas in the rupee, or full mea- 

 sure ; a three-quarter crop as twelve annas ; a half 

 crop as eight annas, and a bad show of plants as four 

 annas, i.e., a quarter crop. This latter will, in all pro- 

 bability, have to be broken up and re-sown as soon as 

 possible. Many planters when engaged in the mea- 

 suring have their tiffin sent out to them, and enjoy it 

 sitting in the shade under a tree : it saves all the 

 trouble of going home and returning in the middle 

 of the day, often a good distance, and, as the days are 



