84 
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
.v 
CHAPTER season. The grounds are of course formed into terraces, quite 
level, and surrounded by little banks for the purpose of irrigation. 
May 20, &c. The, plots of watered ground, owing to the considerable declivity 
of the country, are very contracted, and irregular in shape : but 
by means of small channels leading from the grand canals, or from 
reservoirs, they can, at the pleasure of the cultivator, be either 
filled with water, or allowed to be dry. 
Irrigation, The tanks or reservoirs not being numerous in the ashta gram , 
and the canals being completely filled from the river in the rainy 
season only, the Hainu crop of rice is by far the most copious. 
The small supply of water in the dry season is l'eserved chiefly for 
sugar-cane. 4 If attention were paid to construct reservoirs for the 
preservation of the water that is lost from the canals in the rainy 
season, much of the ground would annually give two crops of 
rice. 
Different 
manners of 
sowing rice. 
Throughout India there are three modes of sowing the seed of 
rice, from whence arise three kinds of cultivation. In the first 
mode, the seed is sown dry on the fields that are to rear it to 
maturity : this I call the dry seed cultivation ; at Seringapatam it is 
ealled the Bara butta , or Puneji. In the second mode, the seed is 
made to vegetate before it is sown; and the field, when fitted to 
receive it, is reduced to a puddle : this I call the sprouted cultivation; 
at Seringapatam it is called the Mola butta. In the third kind of 
cultivation, the seed is sown very thick in a small plot of ground; 
and, when it has shot up to about a foot high, the young rice is 
transplanted into the fields where it is to ripen : this I call the cul- 
tivation by transplanting ; the farmers of the ashta gram call it 
Nati . 
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