TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
145 
was to be sown with one of the pulses most 
esteemed for food in India, the Phaseolus max. 
The owner told us that he expected it would 
yield three hundred viss of grain. This would 
give five hundred and fifty viss, or about one 
thousand four hundred and fifty-seven pounds 
per acre. The unproductiveness of the soil is 
in some measure balanced by the little labour 
required in tilling it, on account of its loose 
and sandy texture. The implements of hus¬ 
bandry consist of a plough and harrow, both of 
them extremely rude, and, with the exception 
of the ploughshare, which is of iron, and com¬ 
monly imported from China, all of wood. The 
most substantial parts of these implements are 
of the timber of the Mimosa catechu. The 
plough is considered worth two current ticals, 
or four shillings; and the harrow, a rake of 
from four to eight teeth, according to the na¬ 
ture of the soil and the grain cultivated, about 
half as much: these are drawn by a pair of 
bullocks, the most expensive part of the hus¬ 
bandman’s stock, and which, according to our 
inquiries, were worth forty ticals. The ground 
commonly receives a harrowing before it is 
ploughed, by which means the scanty vegeta¬ 
tion on the surface of a loose soil is removed, 
which amounts to a good weeding. Rice is 
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