MYSORE, CANARA, AND MALABAR. 
123 
putrefaction of inert vegetable matter. The heat of the climate is CHAPTER 
here sufficient for the purpose ; and the lime, which in a cold climate 
may be necessary, would be here destructive, by exhausting the May 20, &c. 
vegetable matter too quickly. 
Near Seringapatam the farms, in general, extend to two or three Size of farms, 
ploughs of land. One plough is a poor stock ; the possessor of four 
or five is a great farmer ; and six or seven are reckoned prodigious 
wealth : the total want of a land-measure, and the scattered dispo- 
sition of the plots of which each farm consists, render it very dif- 
ficult to ascertain the extent of a plough of land ; especially as a 
difference arises from the proportion of watered land and dry field 
which it cbntains. We may readily affirm, however, that the ex- 
tent of a plough of land is very inconsiderable ; for the ploughings 
given to the same field are very numerous, although dispersed over 
a considerable portion of the year; and I was assured, that a plough 
wrought by bullocks did not labour more, daily, than one seventh 
of an acre. 
This account of the tenures and extent of farms not being satis- 
factory, on my return to Seringapatam I assembled the Amildar of 
the Pattana Ashta gram, with the most intelligent of his Sheris - 
tadars, and several respectable Gaudas , to consult them on the sub^ 
ject. They say, that a farmer having five ploughs, if he lives near 
the town, must keep ten servants, owing to the scarcity of forage. 
At some distance, five men servants are sufficient. In harvest and 
seed time, he must hire additional labourers, who are chiefly 
women, and must have fourteen oxen. 
Instead of dividing the crops, as usual in most parts of the Rent of wa- 
country, the farmer here cultivates his- •watered 'land as he pleases, teied ldnu * 
and pays for each Candaca of ground ten Candacas of Paddy, which 
are equal in value to 1120 Seers of rice. The average price of this 
is about 20 Seers for a Rupee. For this ground, therefore, he pays 
to the government 66 Rupees, which is at the rate of 1/. 3s. an 
acre. He must also give an allowance to the gods, and to the 
