66 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 
the good, they were filled with astonishment at what they 
considered as the extravagance of the project. Where the 
hills are not too steep for the plough, I am persuaded that 
this might be'done to great advantage; and the quantity 
of live stock and manure might thus be quadrupled.’ 
Of this practice there are, as has been intimated, 
frequently recurring notices in the report. Thus, writing 
of the northern parts of Canara, Dr Buchanan states: ‘In 
the hilly parts of the country many people of a Mahratta 
extraction use the Cumri or Cotu-cadu cultivation. In 
the first season, after burning the woods, they sow ragi 
(cynosurus), tovary (cytisus cajan), and harulu (ricinus). Next 
year they have from the same ground a crop of shamay 
(panicum miliare Lamark.) ‘These hills are not private pro- 
perty, and pay no land-tax; but those who sow them pay, 
for the right of cultivation, a poll-tax of half a pagoda, or 
nearly 4s. On account of poverty, many of them are at 
present exempted from this tax.’ 
‘Writing again of Soonda, he says: ‘The number of 
people employed in the Cumri, or Cotu-cadu cultivation, 
amounts to 2418, who pay yearly 954 half pagodas, or 3s. 
2id.a-head. It is supposed by the revenue officers that 
in this manner 1900 more people might find employment.’ 
Of a caste called Budugar, inhabiting the hilly country 
between Dari Nayakana, Cotay, and the province of 
Malabar, he tells that they not only practice the Cotu-cadu 
cultivation, but have also ploughs, which seems to indicate 
that with it they combine a higher cultivation. 
Of tribes living on the hills west from Coimbatore, he 
tells of the Todear that they cultivate with the plough and 
pay rent for their fields; but of the others, the Malasir, the 
Mudugar, and the Eriligaru, that they cultivate after the 
Cotu-cadu fashion. 
Of the Malasirs, he tells that they live in small villages 
of five or six huts, situated in the skirts of the woods on 
the hills of Daraporam, Ani-Malaya, and Palighat; and 
that they speak a.mixture of the Tamul and Malayala 
