820 Memoir of Sylhet, Kachar, §• adjacent Districts. [No. 104. 



inferior quality. These jhils branching from the Bhatta, I should 

 observe, obstruct the cross communications in the higher country, and 

 render it impassable for travellers from about April or May, until the 

 middle or end of November, but do not affect the cultivation materially. 



The ordinary products are dhdn, dhal, and kulaie, of all which 

 there are many varieties : the grain is usually divided into two classes, 

 called from the situation in which it has been grown Sayl, and 

 Aumun ; among these the subdivisions seem to be infinite, and I 

 should add, that they are not mere fanciful distinctions, but made with 

 reference to well marked peculiarities, either of quality or fruition. 

 Thus among the Sayl, which grows on the high lands, there are grains 

 which come to maturity in the short space of six weeks, while there 

 are others, as the Burwa, which can be raised on the Aumun lands in 

 the winter. It may not readily attract attention, but the careful 

 inquirer will, I think, find it no small advantage, that there are so many 

 grains whose times of coming to perfection are unequal, as they afibrd, 

 under proper management, a sure resource against the loss of crops of 

 more ample, but more slow growth. All the Sayl grains are raised on 

 seedling land and transplanted, and this practice extends, under 

 favourable circumstances, to the Aumun, the increased productiveness 

 consequent, being well known. As a point of some interest in Indian 

 husbandry, and on which doubts have been entertained, I may state from 

 personal knowledge, that manures are frequently and extensively used. 

 My occupation, as a Revenue Surveyor, gave me frequent opportunities 

 of making this observation in the most unexceptionable manner, and 

 that the practice is not readily avowed, I attribute to the fear on the 

 part of the cultivator that any practice which attracts the notice of a 

 European functionary, will be made the ground for increased assessment. 



Irrigation is never found necessary except for the winter crops, but 

 if wheat was cultivated, which experiment has shewn to be perfectly 

 feasible in the cold season, water could be had in abundance for the 

 purpose, and in the same way, barley, oats, and potatoes, have all been 

 raised by me in Kachar on terms which prove their culture would be 

 highly profitable. 



In attempting to estimate the profits of agriculture, and the condition 

 of the people employed in it, I should premise, that the minute sub- 

 division of the proprietory right to land which obtains in Sylhet, has 



