OATS UYE BARLEY. 41 



Several kinds of grass seeds are collected by the 

 low caste natives during the monsoon in large quan- 

 tity, and with great ingenuity, by means of a basket 

 swept along over the tops of the grass ; a single 

 man in one day will collect as much as he can carry 

 home at evening. These grasses grow wild in the 

 " beers," or wherever the ground is uncultivated, 

 and spring up in July with the first fall of rain ; 

 they are ripe in less than two months, and then 

 thousands feed upon them who could, at that period, 

 find no other means of subsistence. Of these " Sawa," 

 a kind of millet, and " Numar," wild rice, are the 

 chief. 



Oats and rye are the only cereal grains not 

 cultivated here, and I suppose the temperature of 

 the atmosphere seldom descends low enough to ad- 

 mit of attention to them. Frost seldom happens in 

 Gujerat. 



Barley is one of the cheapest grains to be found 

 in the Bazars; the people have a prejudice against 

 its use; they say a man loses strength by feeding on 

 it ; and they object to give it to their horses and 

 cattle : all my experience goes to prove that the pre- 

 judice is unfounded. I have fed my horses on it, 

 and I have seen it used by many of the poor faini- 



