886. The indigenous, or partially cultivated, plants and trees of Arabia are numerous, and several of them furnish important articles of commerce. The vegetables of the dry barren districts, exposed to the vertical sun, and refreshed merely by nightly dews, belong for the most part to the genera of Aloe, Mesembryanthemum, Euphorbia, Stapelia, and Salsola. On the western side of the Arabian desert, numerous rivulets, descending into the Red Sea, diffuse verdure; and on the mountains from which they run vegetation is more abundant. Hither many Indian and Persian plants, distinguished for their beauty or use, have been transported in former ages, and are now found in a truly indigenous state: such is the case probably with the tamarind, the cotton tree (inferior to the Indian), the pomegranate, the banyan tree or Indian fig, the sugar-cane, and many species of melons and gourds. Arabia Felix may peculiarly boast of two valuable trees, namely, the coffee (Coffea arábica), found both cultivated and wild; and the Amyris Opobálsamum. which yields the balm of Mecca. Of the palms, Arabia possesses the date, the cocoa-nut, and the great fan-palm. It has also the sycamore fig, the plantain, the almond, the apricot, the peach, the papaw, the bead tree, the Mimosa nilótica and sensitiva, and the orange. Among its shrubs and herbaceous plants may be enumerated the ricinus, the liquorice, and the senna, used in medicine; and the balsam, the globe amaranth, the white lily, and the greater pancratium, distinguished for their beauty and fragrance.

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887. The live stock of Arabia is what constitutes its principal riches, and the most valuable are those species of animals that require only succulent herbs for their nourishment. The cow here yields but little milk; and the flesh of the ox is insipid and juiceless. The wool and mutton of the sheep are coarse. The bezoar goat is found in the mountains. The buffalo is unknown; but the camel and dromedary (fig. 114.) are both in use as beasts of burden. The civet cat, musk rat, and other mountain animals, are valuable in commerce. Pheasants, partridges,and common poultry abound in Yemen; and there are

numerous ferocious animals, birds of prey, and pestiferous insects.

888. But the horse is of all the animals of Arabia the most valuable. This animal is said to be found wild in the extensive deserts on the north of Hadramant: this might have been the case in ancient times, unless it should be thought more probable, that the wild horse of Tatary has passed through Persia, and has been only perfected in Arabia. The horses here are distributed into two classes, viz. the kadischi, or common kind, whose genealogy has not been preserved, and the kochlani, or noble horses, whose breed has been ascertained for 2000 years, proceeding, as their fables assert, from the stud of Solomon. They are reared by the Bedouins, in the northern deserts between Bassora, Merdin, and the frontiers of Syria; and though they are neither large nor beautiful, their race and hereditary qualities being the only objects of estimation, the preservation of their breed is carefully and authentically witnessed, and the offspring of a kochlani stallion with an ignoble race is reputed kadischi. These will bear the greatest fatigues, and pass whole days without food, living, according to the Arabian metaphor, on air. They are said to rush on a foe with impetuosity; and it is asserted that some of them, when wounded in battle, will withdraw to a spot where their master may be secure; and if he fall, they will neigh for assistance; accordingly, their value is derived from their singular agility, extreme docility, and uncommon attachment to their master. The Arabian steeds are sometimes bought at excessive rates by the English at Mocha. The Duke of Newcastle asserts that the ordinary price of an Arabian horse is 1000l., 2000l., or even 3000l.; and that the Arabs are as careful in preserving the genealogy of their horses, as princes in recording that of their families. The grooms are very exact in registering the names of the sires and dams of these animals; and some of these pedigrees are of very ancient date. It is affirmed that Arabian colts are brought up with camels' milk.

889. Of the agricultural implements and operations of Arabia almost nothing is known. Their plough, as we have seen, is a poor implement, and instead of a spade they use the pick. The principal exertion of the husbandman's industry is to water the lands from the rivulets and wells, or by conducting the rains. Barley is reaped near Sana in the middle of July; but the season depends on the situation. At Maskat, wheat and barley are sown in December, and reaped in March; but doura (the great millet) is sown in August, and reaped in the end of November. The Arabians pull up their ripe corn by the roots; but the green corn and grass, as forage for their cattle, are cut with the sickle. In threshing their corn, they lay the sheaves down in a certain order, and then lead over

SUBSECT. 5. Of the present State of Agriculture in Hindustan.

890. The climate and seasons of this extensive region are considerably diversified by difference of latitude and local situation; nevertheless, throughout the wide regions of Hindustan there is some similarity of climate. Although in Thibet the winter nearly corresponds with that of Switzerland and other parts of Europe, in the whole extent of Hindustan, except in Cashmere, there can hardly be said to be a vestige of winter, except the thick fogs similar to those of our November; and excessive rains, or excessive heats, form the chief varieties of the year.

891. The surface of the country is much diversified; but there are no mountains of any very great height; the ghauts not being estimated at above three thousand feet. The vast extent of Hindustan consists chiefly of large plains, fertilised by numerous rivers and streams, and interspersed with a few ranges of hills. The periodical rains and intense heats produce a luxuriance of vegetation almost unknown to any other country on the globe; and the variety and richness of the vegetable creation delight the eye of every spectator. Bengal is a low, flat country, like Lower Egypt, watered and fertilised by the Ganges, as the latter country is by the Nile; and, like the Nile, the Ganges forms an immense delta before it falls into the sea. The interior of the country is so flat, that the water runs only at the rate of three miles an hour; and the ground rises from the sea towards the interior, at not more than four inches in a mile.

892. The soil varies, but is in most places light and rich: that of Bengal is a stratum of black vegetable mould, rich and loamy, extending to the depth of six feet, and in some places fourteen, and even twenty feet; lying on a deep sand, and interspersed with shells and rotten wood, which indicate the land to have been overflowed, and to have been formed of materials deposited by the rivers. It is easily cultivated without manure, and bad harvests seldom occur. In this country they have two harvests; one in April, called the "little harvest," which consists of the smaller grains, as millet; and the second, called the "grand harvest," is only of rice.

893. Landed property in Hindustan, as in all the countries of Asia, is held to be the absolute right of the king. The Hindû laws declare the king to be the lord and proprietor of the soil. All proprietors, therefore, paid a quitrent or military services to the king or rajah, except some few, to whom it would appear absolute grants were made. In general, the tenure was military; but some lands were appropriated to the church and to charitable purposes, and in many places commons were attached to villages as in Europe. Lands in Hindustan, and in Bengal more especially, are very much divided, and cultivated in small portions by the ryots, or peasants, who pay rent to subordinate proprietors, who hold of others who hold of the rajah. The actual cultivators have hardly any secure leases; they are allowed a certain portion of the crop for the maintenance of their families and their cattle; but they are not entrusted with the seed, which is furnished by the proprietor or superior holder. The ryot, or cultivator, is universally poor; his house, clothing, and implements of every kind, do not amount to the value of a pound sterling; and he is considered as a sort of appendage to the land, and sold along with it, like his cattle. So little attention is paid to any agreement made with him, that in a good season, Dr. Tennant informs us, the zemindar, or superior holder, raises his demands to a fourth more than the rent agreed on. Custom has rendered this evil so common, that the miserable ryot has no more idea of obtaining redress from it than from the ravages of the elements. Since Bengal was conquered by the British, the government is, properly speaking, the proprietor of all the lands; and Tennant accordingly observes, that "nine tenths of all the rent of Bengal and the provinces constitute the revenue of the company, who are, in room of the Mogul emperor, the true proprietors of the soil." (Recr. ii. 184.) 894. The agricultural products of Hindustan are very various. Rice, wheat, and maize are the common grains; but barley, peas, a species of tare or cytisus called dohl, and millet, are also cultivated. Next to them the cotton plant and the sugar-cane are most extensively grown. To these may be added, indigo, silk, hemp, poppy for opium, palma Christi, sesamum, mustard; the cocoa-nut, which supplies a manufacture of cordage, and also a liquor called toddy; guavas, plantains, bananas, pompelos, limes, oranges, and a great variety of other fruits, besides what are cultivated in gardens, where the settlers have all the vegetables of European horticulture. The potato has been introduced, and though it does not attain the same size as in Europe, is yet of good quality. It is not disliked by the natives, but cannot be brought to market at so low a price as rice.

895. The sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum) (fig. 115.) is cultivated

in low grounds that may be flooded. The ground being cleaned and pulverised by one or two years'

fallow is planted with cuttings of two or three buds, in rows four feet apart and eighteen inches wide in the row; as they grow, each stool, consisting of three shoots or more, is tied to a bamboo reed eight or ten feet long, the lower leaves of each cane being first carefully wrapt round it, so as to cover every part, and prevent the sun from cracking it, or side shoots from breaking out. Watering and fooding in the dry season, and keeping open the surface drains during the periodical rains, are carefully attended to. Nine months from the time of planting, the canes are ten feet high, and ready to cut. The process of sugar-making, like all others in this country, is exceedingly simple. A stone mortar and wooden pestle turned by two small bullocks express the juice, which is boiled in pots of earthenware sunk in the ground, and heated by a flue which passes beneath and around them, and by which no heat is lost.

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896. The indigo (Indigófera tinctòria, fig. 116.) is one of the most profitable articles of culture in Hindustan; because an immense extent of land is required to produce but a moderate bulk of the dye; because labour and land here are cheaper than any where else; and because the raising of the plant and its manufacture may be carried on without even the aid of a house. The first step in the culture of the plant is to render the ground, which should be friable and rich, perfectly free from weeds and dry, if naturally moist. The seeds are then sown in shallow drills about a foot apart. The rainy season must be chosen for sowing, otherwise, if the seed is deposited in dry soil, it heats, corrupts, and is lost. The crop being kept clear of weeds is fit for cutting in two or three months, and this may be repeated in rainy seasons every six weeks. The plants must not be allowed to come into flower, as the leaves in that case become dry and hard, and the indigo produced is of less value; nor must they be cut in dry weather, as they would not spring again. A crop generally lasts two years. Being cut, the herb is first steeped in a vat till it has become macerated, and has parted with its colouring matter; then the liquor is let off into another, in which it undergoes the peculiar process of beating, to cause the fecula to separate from the water. This fecula is let off into a third vat, where it remains some time, and is then strained through cloth bags, and evaporated in shallow wooden boxes placed in the shade. Before it is perfectly dry it is cut in small pieces of an inch square; it is then packed in barrels, or sowed up in sacks, for sale. Indigo was not extensively cultivated in India before the British settlements were formed there; its profits were at first so considerable, that, as in similar cases, its culture was carried too far, and the market glutted with the commodity. The indigo is one of the most precarious of Oriental crops; being liable to be destroyed by hail storms, which do comparatively little injury to the sugar-cane and other plants.

851. The mulberry is cultivated in a different manner from what it is in Europe. It is raised from cuttings, eight or ten of which are planted together in one pit, and the pits are distributed over the field at the distance of two or three feet every way. These cuttings being well firmed at the lower ends soon form stools about the height of a raspberry bush, and from these the leaves are gathered. The stools are cut over once a year to encourage the production of vigorous shoots from the roots.

86. The poppy (Papaver somniferum) is cultivated on the best soil, well manured. The land sometimes receives as many as fifteen stirrings, and the seed is then dropped into shallow drills about two feet apart. During the growth of the plants the soil is stirred, well watered, and sometimes top-dressed. In two months from the time of sowing, the capsules are ready for incision, which process goes on for two or three weeks; several horizontal cuts being made in the capsule on one day, on the next the milky juice which had oozed out, being congealed, is scraped off. This operation is generally repeated three times on each capsule, and then the capsules are collected for their seed. The raw juice is kneaded with water, evaporated in the sun, mixed with a little poppy oil, and, lastly, formed into cakes, which are covered with leaves of poppy, and packed in chests with poppy husks and leaves.

Tobacco in Hindustan is cultivated in the same manner as in Europe. The soil must be rich and well pulverised, the plants transplanted, and the earth stirred during their growth; the main stems are broken off, and the leaves are dried by being suspended on beds of withered grass by means of ropes, and shaded from the sun and protected from nightly dews. The leaves afford a much weaker odour than those of the tobacco of Europe or America.

900. The mustard, Sésamum orientale, flax, palma Christi, and some other plants, are grown for their seeds, which are crushed for oil. The use of the flax, as a clothing plant, is not understood in India, hemp supplying its place. The mustard and sesamum are sown on the sand left by the overflowings of the rivers, without any other preparation or culture than that of drawing a bush over the seeds to cover them. The palma Christi is sown in patches three or four feet apart, grows to the size of a little tree, and is cut down with an axe when the seeds are to be gathered. The mill for bruising the seeds of these plants is simply a thick trunk of a tree hollowed into a mortar, in which is placed the pestle, turned by oxen.

The

901. Palm trees of several species are in general cultivation in Hindustan. most useful is the cocoa-nut tree (Cocos nucifera, fig. 117.), which grows almost perfectly straight to the height of forty or fifty feet, and is nearly one foot in diameter. It has no branches, but about a dozen leaves spring immediately from the top: these are about ten feet long, and nearly a yard in breadth towards the bottom. The leaves are employed to cover the houses of the natives; and to make mats either for sitting or

lying upon. The leaf when reduced to fine fibres is the material of which a beautiful and costly carpeting is fabricated for those in the higher ranks; the coarser fibres are made into brooms. After these useful materials are taken from the leaf, the stalk still remains, which is about the thickness of the ancle, and furnishes firewood.

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902. The wood of this palm, when fresh cut, is spongy; but becomes hard, after being seasoned, and assumes a darkbrown colour. On the top of the tree a large shoot is produced, which when boiled resembles broccoli, but is said to be of a more delicate taste; and, though much liked, is seldom used by the natives; because on cutting it off the pith is exposed, and the tree dies. Between this cab bage-like shoot and the leaves spring several buds, from which, on making an incision, distils a juice differing little from water, either in colour or consistence. It is the employment of a certain class of men to climb to the tops of the trees in the evening, with earthen pots tied to their waists, these they fix at the top to receive the juice, which is regularly carried away before the sun has any influence upon it. This liquor is sold at the bazaars by the natives, under the name of toddy. It is used for yest, and forms an excellent substitute. In this state it is drank with avidity, both by the low Europeans and the natives; and it is reckoned a cooling and agreeable beverage. After being kept a few hours, it begins to ferment, acquires a sharp taste, and a slightly intoxicating quality. By boiling it, a coarse kind of sugar is obtained; and by distil lation it yields a strong ardent spirit, which being every where sold, and at a low price, constitutes one of the most destructive beverages to our soldiers. The name given to this pernicious drink by Europeans is pariah arrack, from the supposition that it is only drank by the pariahs, or outcasts that have no rank.

903. The trees from which the toddy is drawn do not bear any fruit, on account of the destruction of the buds; but if the buds be left entire, they produce clusters of the cocoa-nut. This nut, in the husk, is as large as a man's head; and when ripe falls with the least wind. If gathered fresh, it is green on the outside; the husk and the shell are tender. The shell, when divested of the husk, may be about the size of an ostrich's egg, and is lined with a white pulpy substance, which contains about a pint and a half of liquor like water; and, though the taste be sweet and agreeable, it is different from that of the toddy. 904. In proportion as the fruit grows old, the shell hardens, and the liquor diminishes, till it is at last entirely absorbed by the white milky substance; which gradually acquires the hardness of the kernel of the almond, and is almost as easily detached from the shell. The natives use this nut in their victuals; and from it they also express a considerable quantity of the purest and best lamp oil. The substance which remains after this operation supplies an excellent food for poultry and hogs. Cups and a variety of excellent utensils are made of the shell.

905. The husk of the cocoa-nut is nearly an inch thick, and is, perhaps, the most valuable part of the tree; for it consists of a number of strong fibres, easily separable, which furnish the material for the greatest part of the Indian cordage; but is by no means the only substitute which the country affords for hemp. This the natives work up with much skill.

906. The palmyra, a species of Córypha, is taller than the cocoa tree; and affords still greater supplies of toddy; because its fruit is in little request, from the smallness of its size; the produce of the tree is therefore generally drawn off in the liquid state. This tree, like the cocoa, has no branches; and, like it too, sends forth from the top a number of large leaves, which are employed in thatching houses, and in the manufacture of mats and umbrellas. The timber of the tree is much used in building.

907. The date tree (Phonix dactylifera), being smaller, does not make so conspicuous a figure in the Indian forest as the two last described. Its fruit never arrives at maturity in India, owing to the heat: toddy is drawn from it, but not in such quantity, nor of so good a quality, as that which is produced by the other species of the same genus.

908. The bamboo (Bambùsa arundinacea) is, perhaps, one of the most universally useful trees in the world; at all events it is so in the tropical regions. There are above fifty varieties, all of which are of the most rapid growth, rising from fifty to eighty feet the first year, and the second perfecting its timber in hardness and elasticity. It grows in stools, which are cut over every two years, and thus the quantity of timber furnished by an acre of bamboos is immense. Its uses are almost without end. In building it forms entire houses for the lower orders, and enters both into the construction and furniture of those of the higher classes. Bridges, boats, masts, rigging, agricultural and other implements, and machinery, carts, baskets, ropes, nets, sailcloth, cups, pitchers, troughs, pipes for conveying water, pumps, fences for gardens and fields, &c., are made of it. Macerated in water it forms paper; the leaves are generally put round the tea sent to Europe; the thick inspissated juice is a favourite medicine, is said to be indestructible by fire, to resist acids, and by fusion with alkali to form a transparent permanent glass.

909. The fruits of Hindustan may be said to include all those in cultivation; since the hardier fruits of Europe, as the strawberry, gooseberry, apple, &c., are not only grown by the European settlers in cool situations, but even by the native shahs. The indigenous sorts include the mango, the mangostan, and the durion, the noblest of known fruits next to the pine-apple.

910. The natural pastures of Hindustan are every where bad, thin, and coarse, and there is no such thing as artificial herbage plants. In Bengal, where the soil is loamy to the depth of nine and ten feet, a coarse bent, or species of Júncus, springs up both in

the pasture and arable lands, which greatly deteriorates the former as food for cattle, and unfits the latter for being ploughed. This Júncus, Tennant observes, pushes up a single seed stem, which is as hard as a reed, and is never touched by cattle so long as any other vegetable can be had. Other grasses of a better quality are sometimes intermixed with this unpalatable food; but, during the rain, their growth is so rapid that their juices must be ill fitted for nutrition. In Upper Hindustan, during the dry season, and more particularly during the prevalence of the hot winds, every thing like verdure disappears; so that on examining a herd of cattle, and their pasture, you are not so much surprised at their leanness as that they are alive. The grass-cutters, a class of servants kept by Europeans for procuring food for their horses, will bring provender from a field where grass is hardly visible. They use a sharp instrument, like a trowel, with which they cut the roots below the surface. These roots, when cleared of earth by washing, afford the only green food which it is here possible to procure.

911. The live stock of Hindustan consists chiefly of beasts of labour, as the natives are by their religion prohibited the use of animal food. The horses are chiefly of Persian or Arabian extraction. The Bengal native horse is thin and ill-shaped, and never equals the Welch or Highland pony, either in figure or usefulness. The buffalo is common, both tame and wild, and generally jet black, with semicircular horns laid backwards upon the neck. They are preferred to the ox for carrying goods, and kept in herds for the sake of their milk, from which ghee, a universal article of Hindoo diet, is made.

912. The common or of Hindustan is white, and distinguished by a protuberance on the shoulder, on which the yoke rests. Those kept for travelling-coaches are capable of performing long journeys nearly in the same time as horses; those kept by the poor ryots work patiently in the yoke, beneath the vertical sun, for many hours, and upon the most wretched food, chaff or dried straw. Cow's milk is used pretty generally in India; but buffalo's milk, or goat's milk, is reckoned sweeter and finer than cow's milk, and preferred at the breakfast table even by the English. Goat's milk is decidedly the best for tea.

913. The sheep is small, lank, and thin; and the wool chiefly black or dark grey. The fleece is harsh, thin, and hairy, and only used for a kind of coarse wrappers or blanketing. A somewhat better breed is found in the province of Bengal. The mutton of India is generally good; at Poona, and in the Mahratta country, and in Bengal, it is as fine as any in the world.

914. The goat is kept for its milk, which is commonly used at the breakfast table; and also for the flesh of the kids, which is by some preferred to the mutton.

915. Swine are pretty common except among Mohammedans. They might be reared in abundance; but only Europeans and the low Hindoos eat pork. Wild hogs are abundant, and do so much injury to the rice fields that it is a material part of the ryot's business to watch them, which he does night and day, on a raised platform of bamboos.

916. The elephant is used as a beast of burden, but is also kept by a few European gentlemen, for hunting or show. He is taken by stratagem, and by feeding and gentle usage soon becomes tame, docile, and even attached to his keeper; but does not breed freely in a domesticated state. The leaves and smaller branches of trees, and an allowance of grain, constitute his food. It is a singular deviation from general nature, that an old elephant is easier tamed than one taken young.

917. The camel is used chiefly as a beast of burden, and is valued for his uncommon power of abstinence from drink. He is also patient of fatigue, hunger, and watching, to an incredible degree. These qualities have recommended the camel, as an auxiliary to British officers for carrying their baggage; and from time immemorial, he has been used by merchants for conveying goods over extensive tracts of country.

918. The predatory animals are numerous. Of these the jackal (fig. 118.) is the most remarkable. He enters at night every farmyard, village, and town, and traverses even the whole of Calcutta. His voracity is indiscriminate, and he acts as a scavenger in the towns; but, in the farmyards he is destructive to poultry, if he can get at their roosts; and in the fields the hare and the wild pig sometimes become his prey. The numerous village dogs, which in general are mangy, are almost as troublesome as the jackal. Apes of different kinds

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haunt houses, and pilfer food and fruits. The crow, kite, mino, and sparrow hop about the dwellings of man with a familiarity unknown in Europe, and pilfer from the dishes of meat, even as they are carried from the kitchen to the eating-room. The stork is common; and toads, serpents, lizards, and other reptiles and insects, are greatly kept under by him and other birds.