907. The cart, or hackery, has two wheels, and is drawn by two bullocks. The wheels are under three feet in diameter, and the body of the carriage consists of two bamboos, united by a few cross bars, also of bamboo, and approaching each other the whole length of the machine, till they meet at a point between the necks of the cattle, where they are supported by a bar projecting sideways over the shoulders of both. By this the oxen or buffalos are often galled in a shocking manner, and the suppuration which takes place in consequence is, perhaps, not perfectly cured during the whole life of the animal; the evil being aggravated by the crows, which set upon him as soon as he is relieved from the yoke. Reaping is often performed by pulling by the roots instead of cutting or mowing, and the grain or seed is separated from the straw or stalks, by treading with oxen on a smooth part of the field.

908. As no department of aration can be carried on without artificial watering, that operation becomes very expensive, and troublesome in elevated districts. In the Mongheer district of Bengal, a deep well is dug in the highest part of the field. The fields, after being ploughed, are divided into little square plots, resembling the chequers of a backgammon table. Each square is surrounded with a shelving border, about four inches high, capable of containing water. Between the square chequers thus constructed, small dykes are formed for conveying a rivulet over the whole field. As soon as the water has stood a sufficient time in one square for it to imbibe moisture, it is let off into the adjoining one, by opening a small outlet through the surrounding dyke. Thus one square after another is saturated, till the whole field, of whatever extent, is gone over. 909. The water is raised in large leathern bags, pulled up by two bullocks, yoked to a rope. The cattle are not driven in a gin as ours, but retire away from the well, and return to its mouth, according as the bag is meant to be raised, or to descend. The rope is kept perpendicularly in the pit, by a pulley, over which it runs. From the mouth of the well thus placed, the rivulets are formed to every part of a field.

910. In the district of Patna the wells are not so deep. Here the leathern bags are raised by long bamboo levers, as buckets are in several parts of this country. In a few places rice is transplanted, which is done with pointed sticks, and the crop is found to be better than what is sown broadcast.

911. In the hilly districts they neither plough nor sow; what grain they raise is introduced into small holes, made with a peg and mallet, in a soil untouched by the plough. The only preparation given it is turning away the jungle, and thus depositing the seed. In the vicinity of Rajamahl there are many tribes of peasants, who subsist partly by digging roots, and by killing birds and noisome reptiles. In these savage districts ninety villages have been taxed for two hundred rupees; and yet this paltry sum could only be made up by fruits peculiar to the situation. The wretched state of these peasants, Dr. Tennant observes, outdoes every thing which an European can imagine.

912. Harvests are made at different seasons of the year; and as often as a particular crop is collected, the ryot sends for the brahmin, or parish priest, who burns ghee, and says prayers over the collected heap, and receives one measure of grain for his trouble.

present government has already effected Wherever the British influence is preimprovements; and even the more indus141

913. The selections we have now submitted will give some idea of the aboriginal agriculture of Hindustan; not in its details, but as to its peculiar features. It is evidently wretched, and calculated for little more than the bare sustenance of an extensive population; for though the revenue of the state is in fact the land rent; that revenue, notwithstanding the immense tract of country from which it is collected, is known to be very little. The state of agriculture, however, both politically and professionally, is capable of great improvement; and it is believed, the material benefits, both to the natives and itself. eminent, there Europeans settle, and introduce trious Asiatics find themselves in greater security. The Chinese are known to be a remarkably industrious people, and many of them have established themselves in BritishIndian scaports. Wathen (Voyage, &c. 1814.) mentions, a corn-mill, combining also a bakehouse, both on a large scale, and driven by a powerful stream of water, at Penang, near Madras, as having been established by Amee, a Chinese miller. The building is in the Chinese taste, and forms a very picturesque] group in a romantic spot (fig. 141.) About sixty people are employed; though great part of the labor is done by machinery, and among

other things the kneading of the dough. The shipping is the chief source of consumption.

SUBSECT. 6. Of the Agriculture of the Island of Ceylon.

914. The agriculture of Ceylon is noticed at some length by Dr. Davy, who says the art is much respected by the Singalese. The climate of that country is without seasons, and differs little throughout the year in any thing but in the direction of the wind, or the presence or absence of rain. Sowing and reaping go on in every month of the year. 915. The soil of Ceylon is generally silicious, seldom with more than from one to three per cent. of vegetable matter. Dr. Davy (Account, &c.) found the cinnamon tree in a state of successful culture in quartz sand, as white as snow on the surface, somewhat grey below, containing one part in one hundred of vegetable matter; five-tenths of water, and the remainder silicious sand. He supposes the growth of the trees may be owing in a considerable degree to the situation being low and moist.

916. The cultivation in the interior of Ceylon is almost exclusively of two kinds; the dry and wet. The former consists of grubbing up woods on the sides of hills, and sowing a particular variety of rice and Indian corn; the latter is carried on in low flat surfaces, which may be flooded with water. Rice is the only grain sown; the ground is flooded previously to commencing the operation of ploughing, and is kept under water while two furrows are given; the water is then let off, and the rice being previously steeped in water, till it begins to germinate, is sown broadcast. When the seed has taken root, and before the mud has had time to dry, the water is re-admitted: when the plants are two or three inches high the ground is weeded, and any thin parts made good by transplating from such as are too thick. The water remains on the field till the rice begins to ripen, which is commonly in seven months: it is then let off and the crop cut down with reaping hooks, and carried to the threshing floor, where it is trod out by buffaloes.

917. The agricultural implements of the Singalese are few and simple; they consist of jungle hooks, (fig. 142 a.), for cutting down trees and underwood; an axe (b); a sort of

143

French spade or béche (c); a plough of the lightest kind (d), which the ploughman holds with one hand, the beam being attached to a pair of buffaloes, by a yoke (e), and with the other, he carries a long goad (f), with which, and his voice, he directs and stimulates the animals. A sort of level (g) is used for levelling the ground after ploughing, which, like the plough, is drawn by a pair of buffaloes, the driver sitting on it to give it momentum. For smoothing the surface of the mud preparatory to sowing, a sort of light scraper (h) is employed. The reaping hook (1) is similar to ours; their winnow (k) is composed of strong matting, and a frame of rough twigs. The threshing floor is made of beat day; and previous to commencing the operation of treading out, a charm (fig. 143 l.) is drawn on the middle of the floor. A forked stick (m) is used to gather and stir up the straw under the buffaloes' feet. (Davy's Ceylon, 278.)

m

918. A Singalese farm-yard bears some resemblance to one of this country (fig. 144.): but fewer buildings, and no barn is required.

.

919. An embankment, or retaining mound, by which an artificial lake of three or four miles in circumference is dammed up, described by Dr. Davy. It is nearly a straight

This

line across the valley, twenty feet high, and 150 or 200 feet wide; the side next the water forming an angle of 45°, and faced with large stones, in the manner of steps. must have been a work of great labor to so rude and simple a people. SUBSECT. 7. Present State of Agriculture in the Birman Empire, in Java, Malacca, Siam,

920. The agriculture of these countries and others of minor note adjoining them, differs little as far as it is known from that of Hindustan. In all of them the sovereign is the lord of the soil; the operative occupier is wretchedly poor and oppressed. The chief product is rice; the chief animal of labor the buffalo or ox; the chief manure, water; and the chief material for buildings and implements, the bamboo.

921. The Birman empire is distinguished for the salubrity of its climate, and the health and vigor of the natives. In this respect they possess a decided pre-eminence over the enervated natives of the East; nor are the inhabitants of any country capable of greater bodily exertions than the Birmans.

922. The seasons of this country are regular, and the extremes of heat and cold are seldom experienced; at least the duration of that intense heat which immediately precedes the commencement of the rainy season, is so short that the inconvenience of it is very little felt. The forests, however, like some other woody and uncultivated parts of India, are extremely pestiferous; and an inhabitant of the champaign country considers a journey thither as inevitable destruction. The wood-cutters, who are a particular class of men, born and bred in the hills, are said to be unhealthy, and seldom attain longevity.

923. The soil of the southern provinces of the Birman empire is remarkably fertile, and produces as luxuriant crops of rice as are to be found in the finest parts of Bengal. Towards the north, the face of the country is irregular and mountainous, with headlong torrents and rivers in yawning chasms, crossed by astonishing bridges; but the plains and valleys are exceedingly fruitful; they yield good wheat and various kinds of small grain which grow in Hindustan, together with most of the esculent legumes and vegetables of India. Sugar-canes, tobacco of a superior quality, indigo, cotton, and the different tropical fruits in perfection, are all indigenous products of this country. Besides the teak tree (Tectoria grandis), which grows in many parts of the Birman empire, as well to the north of Ummerapoora, as in the southern country, there is almost every description of timber that is known in India.

924. The cattle used in some parts of the country for tillage and draught, are remarkably good; they put only a pair of them to the plough, which is little different from the plough of India, and turns up the soil very superficially. In their large carts they yoke four stout oxen, which proceed with the speed of a hand-gallop, and are driven by a country girl, standing up in her vehicle, who manages the reins and a long whip with ease and dexterity. Many of the rising grounds are planted with indigo; but the natives suffer the hills for the most part to remain uncultivated, and only plough the rich levels. They every where burn the rank grass once a year to improve the pasture. The Birmans will not take much pains; they leave half the work to nature, which has been very bountiful to them. In the neighbourhood of Loonghe many fields are planted with cotton, which thrives well; sesamum is also cultivated in this soil, and is found to answer better than rice, which is most productive in low and moist grounds. In the suburbs of Pagahm, there are at least two hundred mills employed in expressing oil from the sesamum seed. In this operation the grain is put into a deep wooden trough, and pressed by an upright timber fixed in a frame; the force is increased by a long

lever, on the extremity of which a man sits and guides a bullock that moves in a circle; thus turning and pressing the seed at the same time. The machine is simple, and yet effectually answers the purpose.

925. Among the vegetable productions of this country, we may enumerate the white sandal-tree, and the alexylum verum, producing the true jet black ebony wood; the sycamore fig, Indian fig, and banyan tree; the bignonia indica, nauclea orientalis, corypha scribus, one of the loftiest of the palm trees, and excæcaria cochinchinensis, remarkable for the crimson under surface of its leaves. To the class of plants used in medicine and the arts, we may refer the ginger and cardamum, found wild on the sides of rivers, and cultivated in great abundance; the turmeric, used by the natives of the coast to tinge and flavor their rice, and other food; the betel pepper, fagara piperita, and three or four kinds of capsicum; the justicia tinctoria, yielding a beautiful green tinge; morinda umbellata, gamboge, and carthamus, furnishing yellow dyes; the red wood of the lawsonia spinosa, and cisalpina sapan, and the indigo. The bark of the nerium antidysentericum, called codagapala, and that of the laurus culilavan, the fruit of the strychnos nux vomica, the cassia fistula, the tamarind, and the croton tiglium, the inspissated juice of the aloe, the resin of the camphor tree, and the oil of the ricinus, are occasionally imported from this country for the European dispensaries. The cinnamon laurel, sometimes accompanied by the nutmeg, the sugar-cane, bamboo, and spikenard, are found throughout the whole country; the last on dry hills; and the bamboo and sugar cane in rich swamps. The sweet potatoe, ipomoea tuberosa, madapple, and love-apple (solanum melongena, and lycopersicon), nymphæa, nelumbo, gourds, melons, water-melons, and various other esculent plants, enrich, by cultivation, this country; and the plantain, cocoa-nut, and sago palm, are produced spontaneously. The vine grows wild in the forests, but its fruit is indifferent for want of cultivation, and through excess of heat, to that of the south of Europe; but this country is amply supplied with the mango, pine-apple, sapindus edulis, mangostan plum, averrhoa, carambola, custard apple, papaw-fig, orange, lemon, and lime, and many other exquisite fruits. 926. The animals of the Birman empire correspond with those of Hindustan. The wild elephants of Pegu are very numerous; and, allured by the early crops of rice, commit great devastation among the plantations that are exposed to their ravages. The king is the proprietor of these animals; and one of his Birman majesty's titles is "lord of the white elephants and of all the elephants in the world." The forests abound with tigers. Their horses are small, but handsome and spirited, hardy and active; and are frequently exported in timber-ships bound for Madras and other parts of the coast, where they are disposed of to considerable advantage. Their cows are diminutive, resembling the breed on the coast of Coromandel; but their buffaloes are noble animals, much superior to those of India, and are used for draught and agriculture: some of them are of a light cream colour, and are almost as fierce as tigers, who dare not molest them. ichneumon, or rat of Pharaoh, called by the natives ounbaii, is found in this country : but there is no such animal as the jackal in the Ava dominions, though they are very Bumerous in the adjoining country. Among the birds, which are the same with those of other parts of India, is one called the henza, the symbol of the Birman nation, as the eagle was of the Roman empire. It is a species of wild fowl, called in India the Bramin goose; but the natives of Ava do not deify this bird.

The

927. The agriculture of Java has been noticed by Thunberg, and more fully described by Sir Stamford Raffles.

928. The climate of Java, like that of other countries situated within about ten degrees of the equator, presents a perpetual spring, summer, and harvest. The distinction of weather is into wet and dry, never hot and cold, and rain depends on the winds.

929. The surface of the country is low towards the coast, but hilly in the interior unhealthy about Batavia, but in most other parts as salubrious as any other tropical country.

950. The soil is for the most part rich, and remarkable for its depth; probably, as Governor Raffles conjectures, owing to its volcanic origin.

931. Landed property in Java is almost exclusively vested in the king, between whom and the cultivator there are no intermediate holders; and the cultivator is without lease or right beyond the will of the sovereign. The manner in which the king draws his income from the whole surface of the country is by burdening certain " villages or estates with the salaries of particular officers, allotting others for the support of his relatives or favorites, or granting them for the use of particular charitable institutions; in the same manner as before the consolidation act in Britain, the interest of particular loans was paid upon the produce of specific imports." Tradesmen, government officers,

priests, and the government, are all alike paid in kind.

932. The crops raised by the farmer for home consumption are chiefly rice and maize, some wheat is also grown; but the staple article is rice, of which one pound and a half per day is considered sufficient nourishment for an adult.

933. The crops raised by the colonists are coffee, sugar, cotton, tobacco, and a variety of other productions of the East. One of the principal articles is coffee, which is first raised in seed-beds, then transplanted under an open shed for the sake of shade, and then in about eighteen months removed into the garden or plantation where they are destined to yield their fruit. A plantation is laid out in squares, the distance of plant from plant being commonly about six feet, and in the centre of each four trees, is placed a dadap tree, for the purpose of affording shade, which in Java seems necessary to the health of the coffee plant. It is never pruned, grows to the height of sixteen feet; will bear for twenty years: but a plantation in Java is seldom continued more than ten years. In general three crops of berries are produced in a season.

934. The live stock of the Java farmer, is the ox and buffalo, used in ploughing; and the horse for burden: they have a few sheep, and goats, and poultry.

935. The implements are the plough, of which they have a common, or rice-ground, sort; a dry-soil plough, and a garden or plantation plough, all of which are yoked to a pair of buffaloes, or oxen, in the same manner. The harrow (fig. 145 a), on which the

driver sits, is a sort of rake; and they have a sort of strong hoe, which they use as a substitute for a spade (b), and a lighter one, used as a draw hoe (c).

weeding, pruning, and reaping

(fig. 146 a to f), are very curious; one of them (g), is used both as an axe and bill, and another (h), as a thrust hoe and pruning hook. It is observed by Governor Raffles, that in reaping they crop off" each separate car along with a few inches of the straw;" an "operose process" which he was informed had its origin in some religious notions. Crops are generally dibbled or

146

Their knives for

transplanted: no manure is even required or given in Java excepting water. In ploughing for rice, the land is converted into a semifluid mire, in which the plants are inserted. A curious mode is made use of to scare the birds from ripening crops. An elevated shed is raised in the middle of the plantation or field, within which a child on the watch touches from time to time a series of cords extending from the shed to the extremities of the field like the radii of a circle, and thus prevents the ravages of birds. The native cart of Java is a clumsy conjunction of boards, running on two solid wheels from five to six feet in diameter, and only from one to two inches broad on a revolving axle. It is drawn by two buffaloes.

936. The upas or poison tree, (Rhus, sp. ?) has been said to be a native of and peculiar to Java; but Dr. Horsfield and other botanists have ascertained that there is no tree in the island answering its description: there are two trees used for poisoning warlike instruments, but neither are so powerful as to be used alone; and, indeed, they are in no way remarkable either as poison plants or trees. The rafflesia arnoldii, the most extraordinary parasitic plant known to botanists, is believed to be a native of this island as well as of Sumatra, where it was originally found.

937. The roads of Java, Sir Stamford Raffles observes, are of a greater extent and of a better description than in most countries. A high road, passable for carriages at all seasons of the year, runs from the western to the eastern extremity of the island, a distance of not less than eight hundred English miles, with post stations and relays of horses every five miles. The greater part of it is so level that a canal might be cut along its side. There is another high road which crosses the island from north to south, and many intersecting cross roads. ~The main roads were chiefly formed by the Dutch