136 
Description of the Drill Plough of Tirhoot. 
ing holes bored in the wheels of the trough, during their passage through the seed, 
take up each one or more seeds (seldom more than one), and in the downward part 
of their revolution unload themselves with precision into thehoppers ; which lead them 
into the hollow of the ploughshares ; which last deposit the seed in the furrow they 
have just made ; and the rollers following, cover up the furrow and the inclosed seed, 
in an instant. 
Let us compare this method of cultivating the indigo plant, with the old system ; or 
in fact the general system ; for this method has, only of late years, been introduced, 
by the spirited exertions and forethought of the proprietors of one of the finest and 
most extensive set of works in India. I allude to and T ****** a in Tir- 
hoot: which in the late disastrous season, while neighbouring concerns made but a 
trifle ; manufactured upwards of 2000 maunds of excellent indigo, which brought a 
high price. 
In common with other parts of the country, Tirhoot suffered from the severe 
drought, in the early part of 1828 ; and of the little plant that did ensue from the 
sowings of that period, the best part of that sown broadcast wore a sickly appear- 
ance, while many fields totally failed : on the contrary, such portions as had been 
sown by the drill machine, wore a good appearance, in consequence of having been 
laid well in the ground. In this crisis, the drill machine was called into play : over 
fields which had entirely failed, as well as over those in which a scanty crop only 
prevented itself, the drill was speedily passed : and in lieu of a dreary blank, the 
cheering prospect of interminable files of vigorous plants soon presented them- 
selves. Timely showers soon after descending ; the crop reached maturity, and yielded 
a good produce. 
Look on this picture and on that. On the one side is a planter with his hand de- 
spondingly thrust into empty pockets ; ruminating on the blue looks, with which his 
faithful friends will greet him, on his arrival with some half hundred chests of “ fair 
copper;” not to mention the appalling balance on the wrong side of his annual sheet: 
on the other, a more enterprising and well judging individual, rightly deeming 
there is a remedy for every evil under the sun, puts his shoulder to the wheel, and 
makes a fortune, where another loses one. So much for management. 
In the saving of seed, this machine has a particular recommendation ; and at a 
time, when indigo seed has attained the high price of 10 rupees per inaund (nearly 
double what it was in 1821), it behoves planters to look about them, for any means 
to effect a saving in this respect. 
In the broad cast system about 10 seers of seed are allowed to the beegha*, 
varying a little more or less according to the measurement of the lands in various 
districts — in the drill method only 7 seers are consumed ; so that a saving of 
30 per cent, takes place in a most essential part of the business. 
If this were its only recommendation, it would be valuable ; but there are other 
points connected with the new method to which brief advertence may be made. 
It is well known, that the more lateral room, the indigo plant lias to tiller in; 
the more productive it is, of those minute branches, or ramifications ; and conse- 
quently of the leaves, in which the Indigogene is lodged. 
In the broadcast system, each plant may be considered in the light of an indivi- 
dual in a dense crowd, where the want of air and space renders each anxious to 
overtop the others to inhale a fair portion of the breath of heaven. So it is with the 
indigo plant, sown broadcast ; having no lateral room, a kind of race takes place 
for the superiority of altitude, and the consequence is long, lanky, woody plants, 
with few side shoots or leaves except at their tops. In the drill' system,' there is 
elbow room and free ingress to the sun and air, and whatever else excites the healthy 
vitality of vegetation ; consequently it will be observed, that in drill reared plants, 
the tillering commences almost from the root, and is comparatively lateral ; in the 
broadcast, the forking of the branches only commences high up ; and the produce 
of leaves is scanty ; while the whole bears a perpendicular tendency, as if the plant 
had really no alternative but to struggle upwards, to retain existence, amidst a host 
of closely jammed and equally struggling compeers. 
I am aware, that in a subject like this, I shall be met with many objections. I shall 
be told the machine is not suited to all districts or soils. — true ; but it will suit all hut 
deep clays, which arc not frequently resorted to for indigo when loam can be had : 
and there is an old adage, that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Let any 
planter but try a few beeghas sown by the drill machine, and as many upon the old 
manufacture the plant produced from each, and satisfy himself as to 
the quantity, and quality, resulting therefrom, before he condemn what he has not 
* This beegha contains 57600 square feet. 
