A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
294 
CHAPTER 
V. 
July 8, &c. 
Yatam, a 
machine for 
raising water. 
Gardens. 
neighbouring places I have seen them very neat. The' soil, to be 
fit for these gardens, ought to be black rich mould, where water 
may be had by digging wells to no great depth ; for they are all 
watered by the machine called Yatam . 
In this immediate neighbourhood the Yatams that are wrought by 
men walking backwards and forwards on the lever are preferred. 
There are here two kinds ; one in which two men walk on the ba- 
lance, which has a bucket containing 40 Seers, or 9 T Wo a R gallons, 
and which can raise this five men’s height, or 26 feet 3 inches. In 
the other kind, one man only walks on the lever, and can raise 32 
Seers, or 7 T VoV a ^ e gallons, from the depth of three men’s stature, or 
15 J feet ; for, the men here being in general small, 34 cubits, or 5^ 
feet, are reckoned the ordinary human stature. The people of this 
place reckon, that the same number of men will raise more water 
by the larger Yatam, m than by the smaller one; and much more by 
their small one, than by the Yatam which is wrought entirely from 
below : of this, however, I am doubtful. The machine here is 
equally rude with that described at Bangalore. I examined one 
while it was at work, and which was wrought by two men on the 
lever. It raised the water only eight feet, and at each time thirty 
five Seers only could be emptied from the bucket. It drew water 
six times in the minute, and consequent^ raised 3066 ale gallons 
in the hour, or 1022 gallons for each man; but at Bangalore each 
man can raise 671 gallons to more than double the height. I have 
seen the single Yatam drawing water from about eight feet deep at 
the rate of seven times a minute, by which means a man will raise 
1175 gallons an hour. 
Garden ground, in order to have a sale for its produce, must be 
near a town. It pays a fixed money rent, in proportion to what it 
would pay if cultivated for dry grains, but much higher. Beside 
the garden stuffs cultivated at Seringapatam, the gardeners of this 
country raise, 
Gaysagussa , or Papcver somnifermn. 
