126 
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
CHAPTER utterly unknown ; scarcely any attention is paid to the improvement 
of the breed of labouring cattle, and still less to providing them with 
May 20, &c. sufficient nourishment. The religion of the natives, indeed, is a 
powerful obstacle in the way of agriculture. The higher ranks of 
society being excluded from animal food, no attention will, of 
course, be paid to fattening cattle ; and without that, what would 
our agriculture in England be worth ? We could have no green 
crops to restore our lands to fertility, and but a scanty manure to 
invigorate our crops of grain. I am afraid, however, that the 
reader, in perusing the foregoing accounts, will have formed an 
opinion of the native agriculture still more favourable than it de- 
serves. I have been obliged to use the English words ploughings, 
weedings, and hoeings, to express operations somewhat similar, 
that are performed by the natives ; and the frequent repetitions of 
these, mentioned in the accounts taken from the cultivators, might 
induce the reader to imagine that the ground was well wrought, 
and kept remarkably clean. Quite the reverse, however, is the 
truth. Owing to the extreme imperfection of their implements, 
and want of strength in their cattle, a field, after six or eight 
ploughings, has numerous small bushes remaining as upright in it 
as before the labour commenced ; while the plough has not pene- 
trated above three inches deep, and has turned over no part of the 
soil. The view of the plough and other implements in the annexed 
plates, will sufficiently account for this circumstance. The plough, 
it must be observed, has neither coulter nor mould-board, to di- 
vide, and to turn over the soil ; and the handle gives the plough- 
man very little power to command its direction. The other instru- 
ments are equally imperfect, and are more rudely formed than it 
was possible for my draughtsman to represent. 
The manufactures of Seringapcitam and its vicinity were never 
considerable. They were chiefly military stores and camp equi- 
page ; and of course, have been greatly reduced by the arsenal 
Manufac- 
tures. 
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