CHAPTER XXV. 



The administration of justice, collection of the revenues, and 

 superintendence of the districts under my charge, especially dur- 

 ing the seasons of seed-lime and harvest, required frequent excur- 

 sions into the country, and afforded me an opportunity of observ- 

 ing the state of agriculture in the Guzerat province, and the man- 

 ners and customs of the peasants in some of its remote purgunnas. 

 In that delightful part of Hindostan are " no antres vast, nor de- 

 serts idle," all is fertility and plenty; the soil, generally rich and 

 loamy, produces valuable harvests of batty, juarree, bahjeree, and 

 other grain, with cotton, shrubs for oil, and plants for dying. 

 Many parts yield a double crop, particularly the rice and cotton- 

 fields, which are both planted at the commencement of the rainy 

 season, in June. The former is sown in furrows, and reaped in about 

 three months: the cotton shrub, which grows to the height of three 

 or four feet, and in verdure resembles the currant-bush, requires 

 a longer time to bring its delicate produce to perfection. They are 

 planted between the rows of rice, but do not impede its growth, or 

 prevent its being reaped. Soon after the rice harvest is over, the 

 cotton-bushes put forth a beautiful yellow flower, with a crimson 

 eye in each petal; this is succeeded by a green pod filled with a 



