58 OAT CULTIVATION ESCULENT GRAINS. 



The Oat grows well in some parts of the Bombay 

 presidency, as above the Ghauts, and yields a very 

 productive crop; but the grain is comparatively 

 husky and worthless, and in my humble opinion 

 very inferior as a food for horses to the grain of 

 this country.* 



As to the possibility of acclimatizing any of 

 our Indian oil plants in England, I am not san- 

 guine. Their success in some of our West India 

 Colonies would be more certain ; but in the latter, 

 the quantity of land which could at present be 

 devoted to their culture is so small as to render 

 their introduction hardly an object. 



The number of esculent grains in India, fitted 

 for the food of man and of beast is so large, and 

 their quality generally so excellent, that we ought 

 rather to look to the extension of the means of 

 our cultivation, than to seek to increase the number 

 of grains. 



The number and variety of the melon, cucumber, 

 and gourd tribe, adapted for the food of man, is 

 very large ; and besides these there are many kinds 



* In some districts of Bengal it is cultivated rather extensively, 

 and is rapidly increasing to meet the demand of the Calcutta market. 

 II. II. S. 



