46 Indian Agrwutiure in its Physical AspecU. 
alter ? As I have indicated, the seasons are not of the varying 
nature of our own, but are shai'ply defined and continuous over 
the greater part of India. While everywhere and always it is 
more or less hot, there is a cold season ranging from December 
to March, during which, with the exception of occasional and 
uncertain showers at Christmas time, and known as the Christ- 
mas rains, no rain falls. This is the period of the rati or cold- 
weather crops, crops which approach more to our English cultiva- 
tion, and consist mainly of wheat, barley, numerous pulses, 
linseed and other oil-seeds. These crops, sown in November, 
are grown either by the aid of the rainfall of the previous Tiharif 
or rainy season, which still remains in the soil where it is suf- 
ficiently retentive, or, where soil is dry and sandy, by water 
supplied by artificial irrigation either from wells, tanks, surface 
reservoirs, or by the wonderful system of canals now carried 
throughout the country wherever practicable. 
By March the cold-weather crops are reaped and the heat 
gradually increases, initil in May and June the whole surface 
of the land presents a parched and burnt-up appearance, and, 
except in a few favoured parts, no green thing is visible. Cattle 
roam over the fields of stubble endeavouring to eke out an exist- 
ence on what is left, and for about six weeks at this time their 
life is a very precarious one, for the growing and storage of 
fodder-crops is not in general practised, nor can the raiyat 
devote much of his small holding to his cattle. It has to keep 
him and his family, and pay the rent, as well as feed tlie cattle, 
so the latter consequently have only the broken straw (hhvsa) 
which is left after tlie grain has been trodden out by the bullocks 
upon the threshing-floor. Grass the raiyat cannot grow, partly 
for the foregoing reasons, and partly because he lias no water to 
supply to it, whilst more often than not the hills and forests are 
too far away for him to drive his cattle to for shade, shelter, and 
pasturage. 
Just when everything appears at a standstill and forebodes 
the worst privation, a sudden change comes over the scene with 
the advent of the south-west monsoon, about the end of June 
or early in July, and both nature and cultivator spring at once 
into activity. Tlu^ rain falls copiously and the dry earth sucks 
it in greedily ; from being a barren plain, everything presents 
almost in a moment a green surface, and crops rapidly cover the 
ground. These are the l-harif or rainy-season crops, and they 
are as distinct from, as the othei'S are like, our English crops, 
for, though it bo ihe rainy season, the weather is just as hot 
between times, and in some respects much more oppressive than 
even duriiig Ihe heat of May and June. The crops are those of 
