TMG TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1891. 
s6 
the «mai! inorca«e in the popuUtion of so many dis* 
tiiotB of the Iwland dniing the last decade. 
A hud is showing on the cinnamon bushes which 
may ponaihly nncofl-iitato a stoppigo of p' eling opera- 
tions fnr a time. Tho effects o** last year’s drought 
are now showing in the amali a ze of tlio nuts beii g 
gathered ; soma are ridicutouily Rmail. and all hetow 
tho average. This st^t© of thinKS will coiitinao 1 
fancy till towards rh** ctoR* of the y- ar. 
burely the»'o mn^i hr a large number of barren or male 
oocoiuit trees in the Wiiolward I-%lRnds that m«k«s Mr, 
Huggins seem so anxious hr n remedy ? Tneso are sn 
rare in Oey lou {perh'^p;* not onein three or ronr thousand) 
tliat they are not worth e msi' orng; ihe smie may 
be said of •roes ibat produce nuts without kerin ls. 
I am not sufficiently acqualno'd witlj physiology to 
bo able to « xplain iheao tn ak of nature, Mr. Huggins 
wishes to know whether studi tr<» B cauuot bo grafted 
with fruitful ones. Is it pnsbible to griiffc on mono 
ootvledouous plmts? 
Ka'hraim, M"y 17'!’. — Grand rain la“t night: 
measured 'hin morninc 5*87 incliea. The rain fell 
quietly and steadily all night. No wind, lightning or 
thuLdor. 
INDIAN ADIilCUl.TURK IN ITS PHYSICAL 
ASPECTS, 
Dr, Vi elek r hg'i ji'ihpohpd th. frOlnwinK paper; — ' 
'Jo a.iyoi irri.. , . J in igrioun u-'f a tour in 
anethi r cpuntiy .... n his own '• i; ' fail to bo 
of much pr lit, bq ■ when that embv . cs a special 
and definite study of tiie agrionlturf ul a distant 
part of tho great British Empire, it is surrounded 
with peculiar iniereet. Already the growth of an 
export trade in agrioultural produce from India 
has exercised a oonridoruble braring upon England 
itself, and the condition of that vast country 
■•vith its teeming maesoe, tho greater number by 
far engaged in the pur- uit of agriaulture, cannot 
fail to be a matter of deep con 'em. Loolc<d at 
purely from tho point of view ol an agrioultural 
observer and inquirer, I can hardly irn .giiie any 
field so fertile in rewarding a oaref. l study ns India 
off''rs i and when ona IS rr vihge I, a"! I have been, 
to pursue an iuvr stigation under auapioes so favr ur- 
a'jle and with advantages so great aa w.'ro afforded 
to myrolf, he can searecly fail to return deefdy 
impressed with the general excellence of the native 
agriculture of India, and with the truly won 
derful administration of that great and important 
Empire. • ’ . * 
The first and most natural dillerencea that strike 
tho newly-arrived visitor arc the prevailing heat and 
the ever-present sun, features playing a most im- 
portant part in dolctmining the agriculture of India. 
As the journey is made from Bomboy or other 
seaport into the open country, tho town is 
rapidly left, and many an hour or even a whole day 
may be passed in tho train before nnothir town 
of any considerable «i2a is mot with, for agrioulture 
is the staple industry and oooupation of the 
people. But in plaoe of tho wide and often undula- 
ting fields of England, the monotony of orop-growing 
pleasantly broken hero and there by the variation 
of pasture land with its feeding herds of cattle 
and sheep, we find in India a level plain stretching 
for many miles along our route, and split up into 
almost minute divisions, upon which not one but 
several orops or patches of crops ray be seen growing. 
No hedges nor even stone walls mark the boundaries 
either ol field or holding, for, in all hut a tow 
special distriots, hedges, properly so n 'led, will not 
grow, and in other piirts one may traverse a thousand 
miles without coming across a stone even the 
size of a pebble. 
It is not a land of large, but of very smal 
holdiogs, the average area belonging to a oullivating 
tenant being only about five acres. On this small 
space he and his family, and often his brothers 
or other relatives with their families as well, exist — 
living, as it were, under a communal syalem. No 
trees surround the fields or break tho laodscape, 
unless where a poor and barren stretch will not 
repay culiivation, and has been left to jungle growth 
or remains a bare paroholepot. Along tho coast 
may be seen dotted here and there the tall 
encoauut tree; but its region is soon left behind 
and oD oooational pnliiii/ra, or toddypalm, takes 
its place. It is only when Ihe journey, it may 
be of several days’ length, brings one to the 'mountain 
or liilly regions that the va^t forests arc met with 
and fringe thocullivatcd area; otherwise, the general 
appearance of the country is that of a vast, heated, 
an apart from the agricultur , uninter. sting plain. 
The workers we See on these small five-acre 
holdings are not the day labourers, with the farmer 
wallthig busily amongst them but tho tenant liim- 
snlf and his family, each taking his and her part, 
and more frequently than not working ou rather 
than aliiive Ihe ground— a group of scantily olad 
dusky men aud women, hero squatting down and 
busily weeding ; here, in a similar position, cutting 
a crop with hand and sickle, and laying the hand- 
ful-' side by side until a bundle i- gradually formed ; 
there driving along lha pair or more of oxen (not 
ho'Bi.; th.it pull the plough which lightly runs 
tlircugh tiie top surl'ao. of the soil but turns no 
furrow over ; there throwing with wicker basket- 
scoops the water from an adj loent pool or running 
channel ou lo the growing crop, or roieing it from 
a well in leathern buckets drawn up by bullocks 
with a ropo and pulley. In p'ace ol grazing herds 
in green fields, thereare wandering troops ol thin 
halt starved cattle that roam, over ilie barren tracks, 
picking up what they can, though hardly a green 
! pot seems to reward their soaroh, or goats that 
pii 1 down and pluck every green bough or twig 
that offers itself, or buff iloes cooling their hides 
in muddy pools, front which if possible they will 
allow only their heads to emerge. 
Aa we pas.s on, other cl angos are noticed : what 
is now ill the cold seato . a tiny stream, and in 
the hot Bciisoii may be drill up altogether, will 
in tho rainy period swell into a vas swift-Uowing 
torrent, and cover the wide bed which now lies 
exposed. Elsewhere a canal, or its numerous bran- 
ches, carried off by engineering skill from seme 
great river, brings the ull essential water that the 
crops require, and without wliioh agrioulture would 
in many parts bo at a staadstill for the greater 
portion of the year. Yet another feature cannot 
fail to strike tho eye: in some districts ore vast 
p'ains coaled with a snow-like crust aud devoid 
of all vegetation. These are the well-known reh 
or tracts, the bringing ol which into cultivation 
has baffled marly every effort, but tho reclamation 
of which would, over many thouband acres, supply 
food for the vvants of an ever-pressing population. 
As the days and the weeks go by we have no 
longer the changes of a fickle English climate 
with its altcruation of rain and sunsbiae, but a 
steady oontinnance ol a long series of days one like 
the other, but always hot; then, as March is 
reaohed, it becomes hotter and hotter, until when 
all tho country presents at length a burnt-up 
vppoaranoe, there comes, about the end of June or 
early in July, a tremendous change, "The rants 
descend in torrents, tho rivers become swollen and 
flood the land, and coat the barren spots, as if by 
magic, with a green sward. 
Such are, very briefly, some of the most pro 
minent features that characterise the externa 
appearance of Indian agriculture. But this, though 
