604 
or allowed to remain for the iffue of the 
young; after which fhe alfo dies; and 
can at no time be detached, without 
death being the refult, It is this that 
makes it ef fuch confequence, when a 
plant is to be fown, to take the largeft 
females, on the firft appearance of young. 
T have thus, my lord, ftated, I hope, 
fufficient to fhow. that this infeét is valu- 
able, eafily reared, and worthy of every 
encouragement to bring it into general 
culture. I am, my lord, &c. 
ANDREW BERRY; 
Superintendant of the Hon. 
Fort St. George, Company's Nopalry. 
Dec. 8, 1795. 

To Sir JoHN SincLAIR, Bart. Prefident 
of the Board of griculiuve, London. 
Havine diftributed fome hundred co- 
pies of your queries, about the middle of 
daft month, I was in hopes that anfwers 
might have followed; but no anfwers 
appearing from any quarter, and the 
packet by the fhip Mary being to clofe 
this evening, I have written what oc- 
curred on the inftant, and enclofe it for 
your fatisfaction, till fuch time as you 
may be informed by higher, and, per- 
haps, better authority, as you know that 
my opportunities in this way muft- be. 
very limited. 
Fort St. George, 
Od. 25) 1795. 
_JAmMEs ANDERSON. 
Anfwers to. fome Queries of the Board of 
Agriculture. 
Anfwer 1.—A ftiff clay; but in diffe- 
rent partsof the country there are all 
forts of foils. 
2. The occupied lands in the country 
are by villages, which are {mall commu- 
nities. 
3. The land is employed by the vil- 
lages in both pafture and hufbandry, in 
the proportion generally that appears in 
the Cowle of the Maghan of Pooroor, 
the prefent population being only equal 
to the cultivation of two thirds of ‘the 
Jand that was under crop, in 1780. 
4. No graffes are cultivated. The 
ftock is chiefly buffaloes, and a {mall 
breed of cattle for the plough; fome 
hairy fheep, and goats, all of which may 
be greatly improved, by better breeds 
from other countries. 
5. All the rice grounds axe watered, 
which is the moft valuable crop, and, as 
far as the population and ftock extend, 
thefe are therefore cultivated; but it 
Agricultural Queries 
[OX 
will appear from furvey, that much may 
yet be done, in farther watering the 
country. ) | 
6. In the watered lands rice, in the 
higher lands-what are called dry grains, 
of which Lolcus, forghum, cynofurus, corocas 
nus, fefamum, and various kinds of phase 
feoli, and dolichos are the principal. 
7. A rotation of crops is unneceffary, 
as the lands here are never exhaufted, as 
in Europe ; but I do not know that green 
crops, fuch as turnips or clover, have 
ever been cultivated for feeding cattle. - 
8. Fallowing, and frequent plough 
ings are efteemed of great ufe, and uni« 
verially practifed, as foon as the earth is 
a little foftened by rain. 
g. The mixture of foils, fuch as fand 
with clay, or clay on fandy foils, is, per- 
haps, the greateft improvement ; and 
the country people are acquainted with 
the ufe of mud, that fettles in the bot- 
tom of tanks, on their light foils, but 
negleét the dung-hills, made by the litter 
of their cattle, and the afhes of their 
fires. 
10. A plough of the moft fimple con- 
ftruétion is ufed, where one man both 
holds and drives; the harrow isa branch 
of the neareft tree, or a bundle of bruth- 
wood. 
11. Oxen and buffaloes only are ufed; 
no horfes are employed in agriculture. 
12. The fetting in of the rains in 
October, is the time of tranfplanting the — 
great crop of rice from feed-beds, which 
1s reaped in January or February. 
13. The land is open field. 
14. No experiments have been made, 
‘but in ell the dry grain countries, there 
can be no doubt but enclofures would 
prove highly advantageous. 
1g and 16. Anfwered by the foregoing. 
17. The wafte lands dre common fields 
of the village, in the records of which 
they are fo {pecified, and in the neigh- 
bourhood of which they are fituated. 
18. Extenfive traéts over-run with 
fhrubs, the-fite of villages depopulated 
by the war of 1780, are only inhabited 
by wild beafts, 
19. Where water and labourers can be 
found, the wafte lands are capable of the 
fame productions as other lands, which 
might in general be effeéted by the efta- 
blithment of hereditary property in the 
Jands, to individuals. 
20. Three fanams for aman, and two 
for a woman, by the day, which may be 
uaderftood in Europe, by reckoning @ 
fhilling five fanams: piece-work 1s 
chiefly praétifed with tank diggers, 
where 
