1839] 



and Statitiscal of the Ceded Districts. 



has been thoroughly broken up, it is thrice harrowed for about a month; 

 after which the cotton seed is sown with kusum or kungoni by means 

 of a drill plough, the drills being usually from twelve to eighteen inches 

 asunder. If the season be favourable, the cotton makes its appearance 

 in about 5 days. The weeding plough, furnished with the double or 

 treble hoe, now comes into u>e, and is employed from time to time 

 until the pod is ready for gathering, viz. from January to March. The 

 rayets, aware of the tendency of cotton to exhaust the fertilizing prin- 

 ciple of the soil, sow it in rotation biennially with white juari : and 

 sometimes even in triennial rotation, viz. one crop of cotton after two 

 of juari. Many agriculturists sow their regur lands in the following 

 order, viz. cotton, juari, chenna, and so on. The cultivation of cotton 

 has been on the increase for the last few years, owing to the increasing 

 demand for the raw articles in European marts. It has been tried in the 

 mussub soils of Bellary and Mysore, but without profitable results. 



The cultivation of the mussub, or red soil, is too well known to require 

 expl anation here. It is simply cleared of rubbish, shrubs and roots, 

 and run over two or three times with the common plough. The chief 

 products are bajra (Holcus Spicatus) yellow juari and culti. The prin- 

 cipal rice or wetland districts are those of Pennaconda, Mudducksera, 

 Codveonda, Durmaveram, Anantipur, the Cummum valley, the banks of 

 theTumbuddra, and taluks lying near the beds of the Pennaur and Hogri 

 rivers. Indigo is grown principally in the Cuddapah collectorate, in a 

 regur, mixed with the detritus* of the limestone kunkar and sandstone. 

 It has lately been introduced into the Bellary collectorate at Tarputry. 

 Sugar-cane flourishes best in the mixed black sedimentary and red 

 soils, containing both protoxide, peroxide of iron, and lime, near the 

 banks of rivers, and in the beds of tanks. It is cultivated with the 

 greatest success in the western taluks of the Bellary collectorate, on 

 the 8. bank of the Tumbuddra, and under tanks. It is planted by cut- 

 tings, generally from February to the end of April, and ripens in about 

 nine months. The crops are made to alternate once in three or four years 

 with rice. I need hardly observe that the seasons of sowing and reap- 

 ing all the crops depend upon the timely supply of water, the failure 

 of which caused a severe famine in 1803 and great scarcity in 1833. In 

 1838, the early crops failed from a similar reason : in some places not a 

 blade appeared above the ground, the plain presenting a dreary black 

 waste; in other situations the crops did not come into ear, and the straw 

 was cut for forage. 



Implements of Agriculture. — The implements for agriculture in com- 

 mon use, are a variety of small ploughs, drawn each by two bullocks, and 



