47 * 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[January i, 1892. 
and 376. No. 379 is tantamount to aayiiig “ early 
planting sbonld be thin, late planting thick.” In Nos. 
380 and 381, early sowing ia shown to bo valuable, 
and in Nob, 883 to 383 tbs results of late sowing 
to be disaatrona. No. 385, alludes to the fact that 
such late sowings rarely oomc to anything. No. 362 
the cliiUa (an insect), which attacks the leaves and 
stalka of tho paddy, is believed to do the crop good, 
if the attack be timely, as it leads to greater vigor. 
In No. 887, the paddy crop is understood to bo 
speaking : the meaning being that it becomes ripe at 
that time. 
Wo quote the following : — 
Will sugarcane and paddy grow on poor roil 7 
Watoh and yon have a paddy bald ; neglect and 
yon have only a waste. 
A paddy field withont weeding is like a temple 
without a god. ..... ... 
Growing tailed paddy ia like befriending a blood- 
sucker. 
A stream for a rice field, a_ troop tor a chief. 
Other oropa form the subjects of the next batch 
of proverba. The following are some ol them— 
Cholom sucoeading obolum will nut grow well. 
The first part of a maize cob and tho Inst part of 
a tobacco leaf are the beat parts. 
In a bad season, even red gram does not grow. 
When you take up land, sow horse gram : before 
you relinqoieh it, crop it with gingelly. 
An easterly wind to green-gram, and month disease 
to cattle (are injurious). 
An impoverished man should sow gingelly. 
Did castor cultivation ever pay well ? 
Ten plonghings for cotton. 
If sogaroane runs crooked, it does not get bitter. 
Tho more you prers sugarcane, giogully seed, or a 
Sudrs, the better will the retnlt be. 
(Transplant) biinjals old and paddy tender. 
If we touch a pumpkin it decays, and if we walk 
over a water-melon plant, it grows well. 
Garlic ia as good aa ten mothers’ care. 
Water obtained aftur cleaning rice is injurious to 
oocouut plants. 
The last batch ol proverbs relates to live stock. 
From Mr. Benson’s remarks we quote as follows ; — 
The number of sayings on this subject ia com- 
paratively limited and they are not very comprehensive. 
No. 464 alludes to the real extravagance of pnrebas- 
ing poor cattle. Nos. 466 to 473 give varied advice 
as to purchasing stock — color, horns, logs and tail, 
are all to be taken into account. In No. 469 the 
seven members are the legs, horns and neck. Xu No. 
471, the bullock referred to is one that has been 
troublesome to break in. The birth of a short-tailed, 
or of a blind animal in a man's herd are believed to 
be followed by the results noticed in No. 472 agninst 
each. No. 473 indicates much carelessness in breeding. 
Nos. 478—481 allnde spooially to the necessity for 
feeding cattle well, the last mentioned alluding 
specially to tho value of fodder given to cattle in 
the early morning before they go to work. The 
JJultuhadimi a the ii/iaiu/tia jiaivi/olia. No. 482 allndos 
to what is seldom practised, littering cattle well 
in their stalls. The high value set on dairy cattle is 
referred to in sovcral sayings, many of which convey 
practical hints Thus No. 187 refers to tho groat care 
required by miloh cattle ; Nos. 488 and 489, to the 
necessity for feeding them well ; No. 496, to the value 
of brooding ; No. 492, to the prevailing idoa that a 
sfae-bufialo will yield ae much whether milked ouce 
or twice a day ; Nos. 495— 498, to tho difficulties ex- 
perienced in milking cows which have lost their calves; 
No. 600, to the habit of concealing tho value of a 
milker as long as she lives; No. 602, to the practice 
which prevails in places of turning out the buffalo 
to act as the village scaveoger ; and No. 503, to the 
way in which the calf is usually half-starved. No. 
604 alludes to the fact that tho esro of tho sbo- 
biifl'sloes is especially the women’s work. Few of the 
ryots’ cows calve annoally (No. 606), and the calves 
of those that do are usually puny. The belief that 
a cow will invariably kick (No. 606) when they are 
t>«mg milked leads to tbeir legs always being tiedi 
Noa. 609 and 610 allude to the differauees in the 
qualities of builuoka and bo-buffaloes fur draught pur- 
poses. In No. 513, tho necessity for branding in 
exactly the right sput, being as groat as that of speak- 
ing to the point, is alluded to. 
The following are speoiniens ol the proverbs : — 
High-priced cloths and low-priced cattle sbonld not 
be bought. 
Furohaso without further inquiry a bull with thiu 
horns. 
One word is enoagh for a good man, and one 
stroke for a good bnllock. 
A bullock witbont a nose-string and a child brought 
np by a widow are nncontrollable. 
The plongbman wbo works a bullock for inorotbao 
ten years ia sinful. 
Property is the strength of man, food that ol a beast. 
There will be no want in a honao where tho 
ohurn and tho ppimiing wheel are at work. 
There are sixty-six varieties of sweetmeats in the 
udder of the cow. 
Look to the mother before you marry the daughter, 
milk a buffalo before you buy it. 
Though a shc-buffalo eat filth, will the milk bo 
spoilt ? 
To keep an elephant a man requires a diatriot ; 
to keep a horse a village ; to keep a shc-bafi'alo a 
maid. 
Cultivation with buffaloes is nselesa. 
We have thus given specimens of this interesting 
collection ; and we hope that we shall coon see 
in print a similar oolleotion of the wise saws of 
our Ceylon agriculturists. 
Brick Tea as Currency. — M r. Julius M. 
Frioe, the special artist ol the Illustrated London 
Nevis, in his description ol his journey across 
Mongolia writes : — 
The currency of Mongolia ia peculiar, and re- 
quires much oxporienco to understand it. On one 
occasion I bou^t some trilling article and paid for 
in it Itiissian money, which the Mongols aro, at any 
rate, shrewd enoagh never to refnao. But Imagine 
my Burprise when, for the change, I was handed a 
small mab of brick-tea and two dirty littlo bits of 
floss silk, which I shonld have passed nnnoticed in 
the gutter. 'Thoso rags, which intrinsically wore 
probably worth less than a farthing, represonted 
twenty "kopoks (sixpence), aa X was informed, while tho 
tea was eqnivalont to thirty kopeks. This tea, by 
the way, ia tho only real oiirronoy thronghout Mon- 
olia ; the silk is becoming gradoally obsolete probably 
ecanse it wears out too soon, whereas the tea will 
stand almost any amount of hard wear. A “ brick ’’ 
of tea, sixteen inches long by eight wide and about 
one-ond-a-haU thick, represents sixty kopeks, equal 
to ono shilling and sixpence. If a smaller snm is 
necessary, the brick is cut up into sections worth six 
or ten kopeks each, and oven those are again sub- 
divided by tho poorer Mongols. It is curious to 
noto that, although Mongolia is really Chinese ter- 
ritory, evoythiug is Xlnaaian, so to speak ; and even tho 
tea and silk represent an equivalent in Xinsaian and 
not Chinese money. Bomo of tho Rnssian morehanta 
in Ourga have even adopted a sort of private bank- 
note system, so as to do away with the bother of 
having to keep a large stock ofloose cash — that is, of 
“brick” — always handy. Those notes represent so 
maiw bricks each, and aro redeemable on demand; 
but I hoar that tho Mongols prefer the bulky article 
to the flimsy paper aubatituto. When, after a time, 
this currency becomes injured by hard usage, and 
chipped round the edges, it is used for tho usual pur- 
poses of tea, and it may be imagined what a delight- 
lul beverage it makes after it has been passing from 
hand to hand for some months among tho dirty Mon- 
gols. XXowovor, these childem of the desert aro 
not fastidious, and tho greasjr-looking stuff ia broken 
up and literally put to stew in tho common caldron 
of tho “ yourt,” where, eaten with millet seed, it 
makes a msh mnch appreciated for spme days, 
