122 
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
Manures. 
CHAPTER breeds from them whenever he can procure a stallion. As many 
good horses have been introduced by the English officers, I have 
May 20, &c. no doubt, that, in the hands of th z Amildars, the breed will improve, 
and become very hardy and serviceable. The mothers have now 
the former quality in an eminent degree ; and they only want an 
occasional supply of foreign horses to give them size and figure. 
A good deal ot attention is here paid to manuring the soil. Every 
farmer has a dunghill ; which is prepared by digging a pit of suf- 
ficient extent ; in this is collected the whole of the dung and litter 
of the cattle from the houses where they are kept, together with 
all the ashes and soil of the family. The straw, and various leaves 
intended to be used as manure, are never mixed with the dung. 
The farmers who are within two miles of the city, send bullocks with 
sacks, and procure from the Halal, orsweepers, the ashes, ordure, and 
other soil of the town. This also is kept separate from the dunghill. 
The straws of various crops, as before-mentioned, are reserved for 
manure; and to these are added various leaves of wild plants; the 
Cogay Sopu, or Galega purpurea; the Hoingay Sopu, or Robinia mitis; 
the T umb ay Sopu , or Phlomis esculenta of Dr. Roxburgh’s MSS. ; the 
Ugatiy Sf)pu, a Convolvulus : the A tty Sopu, or Ficus glomerata, R. ; the 
Umutty Sopu, ov Datura met el ; and the Yeccada Sopu, or Asclepias gi- 
gantea . These leaves, and the straw, are the manure given to rice 
ground in the sprouted- seed and transplanted cultivations. When the 
field has been reduced to mud, a sufficient quantity of the manure is 
trampled into the puddle, and, with the moisture and heat of this 
climate, soon rots. The dung in every part of Mysore is most com- 
monly carried out on carts, (seeFig. 1 1,) which are applied to scarcely 
any other purpose. The city soil is reckoned best for sugar-cane, 
but is also given to various grains. The use of lime as a manure is 
totally unknown to the natives ; who, indeed, consider all ground, 
naturally impregnated with that substance, as very unfit for most 
kinds of cultivation. This accords well enough with the theory of 
Lord Dundonald, who supposes that lime is useful by promoting the 
