
































162 On the Boksas of Bijnour. [No. 3, 
The agricultural operations and implements of the Boksas are the 
same as elsewhere in the N. W. Provinces. The chief crops of the 
hot weather (kharif) are rice, of several varieties, and mandei (Mandua, 
Eleusine coracana), and of the cold weather (rabi) wheat with some 
barley, but besides these, most of the cereals grown in the open plain 
are also cultivated to some extent. Maize (makkz) is but rarely grown, 
as it is said to be very subject to be eaten by wild animals (elephants, 
pigs and jackals!) So great is the damage to the crops by these, that 
the inhabitants of one village said, that smce most of their guns were 
taken away, they had been obliged to give up cultivating a number 
of their outlying fields in consequence of not being able to protect 
the crops. 
The pulses are very seldom cultivated, as the leaves are stated 
to be peculiarly liable to the attacks of gindar, a kind of worm 
which injures the plants so much as to prevent their maturing their 
fruit. For this reason, almost all the pulse used is bought from the 
bunyas. Another insect, swndi a sort of weevil, commits great 
damages among their stored grain, especially,-they say, during the 
plowing of the purwa (east wind). 
Nor are the pumpkin tribe cultivated, the reason given for this 
being that they do not ripen their fruit. This, if really true, is a very 
eurious circumstance, the Forest tract being so moist that one would 
have supposed this class of plants would grow well. 
A good deal of sarson (Brassica campestris, mustard) and lahi (B. 
eruca, rocket) are grown, chiefly for their oil, that of the former being 
ased as food, that of the latter for burning. The young plant of the 
lahi is also consumed as greens,—as in France and other parts of Conti- 
nental Europe,—and this is the only green vegetable they raise, such a 
thing as a garden being unknown among them. 
Their agriculture is probably very slovenly, if one may judge 
from the large piles of manure near some of the villages, whick 
they will not take the trouble to remove to, and spread upon, thei 
fields. A still stronger evidence of laziness in this respect is, that 
they do not, so far as could be learned, raise a single stalk of tobacco. 
(which all use), although large quantities are grown in each village every 
year by Santis. The latter are men of the plains and almost all : 
them reside in the forest for a few months only of each year, specially 
