34 



Tlie KcihjJicrry Mountains. 



[No. 34, 



The consequence of course is, tliat the soil derives but little or no 

 benefit from the manuring-, no heat is communicated to it to encou- 

 rage the seeds to germinate, or to stimulate and invigorate the growth 

 of tlie young plant, and the grain produced is small, light, and poor. 

 There is no doubt, as I have already remarked, that liuie is the ma- 

 Lime dressiiT^ for the ^^^^^'^ niost needed to improve the general soil of 

 the Neilgherries, but the expense of this mate- 

 rial of course deters the native cultivators, whose ideas cannot be car- 

 ried beyond the prospects and returns of the current year, from using 

 it. But this expense, under a proper system of farming, would be 

 found light, as in all probability about 40 bullock loads, or 2 tons of 

 lime per acre, applied once in 5 years, would be found sufficient to 

 produce a very great and remunerative improvement in the crops 

 raised. 



This quantitv would cost, for lands situated 



Expense 2o Rs. per ... 

 acre, once in 5 within 2 or 3 mlles of an}" of the passes or ghauts, 

 years. 



about 25 rupees, and as the lime burners are 

 always glad to receive Hill produce in barter for their commodity 

 for the sake of keeping their cattle employed, the cultivators would 

 not be called upon to find capital to invest in this part of their farm- 

 ing operations. 



A most essential point on which the Hill cultivators stand in great 

 need of instruction is — the preparation of manure, for which the cli- 

 mate, with its sharp sun heat in the day, and its cold dewy nights, so 

 favorable to the promotion of decomposition, and the abundance of 

 vegetable matter rich in alkali, such as the fern, which is to be foitnd 

 all over the Hills, aff'ords great facilities. Every Burgher and Kother 

 village has a large herd of cattle attached to it, which are penned 

 during the night in a large circular pen surrounded with stone walls, 

 and allowed to graze over the country during the day. They are 

 never littered at night, and their ordure is allowed to accumulate and 

 lie exposed to the sun in the pen, until it becomes an inconvenience 

 to the cattle, when it is removed and thrown outside, and left, as be- 

 fore, uncovered and exposed to waste away. Noav if a few trusses 

 Preparation of ma- ^^^'"^ wei'Q. to be strewed occasionally over the 



pen, and all the collections, down to the scrap- 

 ing's of the soil, removed frequently and laid in layers with soil, 

 weeds, fern or other green vegetable matter alternately, the nutritive 

 gases of tlie dung would be retained, the decomposition of the mass 



