INTRODUCTTON. 



The implements are it is true of the rudest kind, but the patience and perseverance of the cultivator 

 compensate to a great extent for the inefficiency of his tools, and although a single ploughing may 

 merely scratch the surface, the twelve or fifteen ploughings which are commonly given for the more 

 valuable crops produce a tilth which for depth and fineness might be envied by any English market 

 gardener. The smallness of the holdings render tune of comparatively little value, and the general 

 weakness of the cattle only permits of the land being ploughed, so to speak, by instalments. In 

 places, however, where higher cultivation is spreading, and crops such as sugar-cane are more generally 

 grown, the need of a more efficient plough appears to be felt as is shown by a great increase in the 

 size and weight of the native implement. In general shape the plough is very similar to the one 

 used in Egypt at the present day, and in England at the time of the Heptarchy. In its idea it may be 

 considered a pickaxe drawn by bullocks, the handle being the plough beam, one arm of the pick the 

 plough share, and the other arm the handle or stUt. It therefore tears and does not cut the ground, 

 and weight for weight, and depth for depth, is infinitely heavier to draw than the modern ploughs 

 of Europe or America. It is in fact a grubber not a plough, and merely stirs the earth without 

 inverting it. Although there is a general similarity in the shape of plough throughout the Provinces, 

 there are very wide differences in its practical efficiency. As a rule it may be said to consist of a 

 short beam of wood (the body or kur), in which are fixed (1), the beam (or Mris) by which the plough 

 is drawn; (2), the sole (or paretlia) which carries an iron spike, (the phcira), answering to the English 

 share ; and (3), the handle (muthia or chirdija). The general appearance of the plough varies with the 

 angle at which these parts are attached to the body, the position of which varies from being almost 

 perpendicular to being quite horizontal, in which latter case the plough sole is fixed into one end of 

 it and both are in the same line. In some localities there is no separate stilt or handle, but the upper 

 end of the body is prolonged upwards in a curve to serve the purpose, and in another common variety 

 the stilt, instead of being fixed into the upper end of the body, is cari-ied down behind it, and bolted 

 to it by the hinder end of the beam which passes through them both. 



The plough is at its Avorst in the rice districts of Oudh and the Benares Division, where it is of 

 ludicrously small size, often only Aveighing 17 or 18 lbs. It is in 



tural cattle are poorest and weakest, possibly on account of the poverty of rice straw as fodder. 

 Speaking generally the efficiency of the plough may be said to increase as we go westwards, the 

 ordinary plough of the central Doab weighing about 28 lbs., while that of the Western Districts 

 (Meerut, Muzaftarnagar and Saharanpur) weighs nearly 50 lbs., is bound with iron round the 

 edoes of the sole, and instead of a short spike for a share, has a long iron bar which projects behind, 

 and can be thrust forward from time to time as its point wears down. At a long interval comes the 

 ndgar plough, used for cane cultivation in parts of Bundelkhand, which weighs 4 maunds, tears up 

 the soil to a depth of 18 inches, and is drawn by eight bullocks, the cultivators clubbing their cattle 

 together and ploughing their fields turn and turn about. Bundelkhand also has another character- 

 istic implement, called the hahhar, or hoc plough, which is simply a large hoe drawn by bullocks and 

 used for scarifjdng the surface in the rains. 



The plough is frequently converted into an efficient seed drill by having a bamboo tube attached 

 to its stilt, down which the seed can be dropped. 



For breaking up the clods and levelling the ground, the implement in most general use is a 

 heavy flat log of Avood (the lienga, mai,patela, or pdta) draAvn by two pairs of bullocks, the driver stand- 

 ing on it to increase the Aveight. In the Western Districts a roller (lakkar), neatly fashioned of the 

 trunk of a tree, in common use especially for sugar-cane cultivation, and is generally preceded in the 

 field by a light description of log clod crusher, called maira. 



