"of two or three pair of oxen assigned to it, is equal in common manage"ment to the full cultivation of fifteen begahs of land."A begah, according to him, is sixteen hundred square yards, or somewhat less than a third of an acre: so that two pair of oxen, at the least, are employed to cultivate less than five acres of land, which is not a quarter part of what the same strength would be sufficient for in England.-Though the right of pasture in the forest may reduce the expence of keeping the oxen to a trifle, yet the keep of the man who attends them is a heavy, and apparently unnecessary charge on so small a quantity of land. The following gives us a further insight into their system, at the same time that it, in some degree, accounts for the small quantity of land cultivated with a given strength in this country." A cultivator," says this writer," employing servants, entertains one for every plough, paying "monthly wages, which, on an average, do not exceed one rupee per "month. But the task, at the rate of a begah a day, is completed by noon. "The cattle are then left to the herdsman's care, and the ploughman "follows other occupations the rest of the day, generally the cultivation "of some land on his own account; and this he generally tenants at half produce from his employer."i 65 "The The want of skill and management is evinced in another article. "succession of crops, which engages so much the attention of enlightened “cultivators in Europe, and on which principally rests the success of well"conducted husbandry, is not understood in India. A course extended "beyond the year has never been dreamed of by a Bengal farmer: and "in the succession of crops within the year he is guided to no choice of "an article adapted to restore the land impoverished by a former crop.' -(So rapid is vegetation in this climate, that a farmer can raise three crops in a season: but it is bad management to do it.) The manner of ploughing throws further light on the subject of expence, and is deserving our notice. "The plough is drawn by a single yoke of oxen, guided by the ploughman himself. Two or three pair of oxen "assigned to each plough relieve each other till the daily task be completed. Several ploughs in succession deepen the same furrows, or rather scratch the surface: for the plough wants a contrivance for turning ing the earth, and the share has neither width nor depth to stir a new "soil. A second ploughing crosses the first; and a third is sometimes " given diagonally to the two preceding. These, frequently repeated, and followed by their substitute for the harrow, pulverize the surface, and prepare it to receive the seed.”» The want of capital is alternately the cause and the effect of this bad management; and is an evil rooted into the system which will never, perhaps, be eradicated. "The want of capital, employed in agriculture and manufactures," says the writer before mentioned, " prevents the division "of labour in Bengal. Every manufacturer, every artist, working for his "own account, conducts the whole process of his art, from the formation. "of his tools to the sale of his production. Unable to wait the market or "anticipate its demand, he can only follow his regular occupation, as immediately called to it by the wants of his neighbours. In the intervals " he must apply to some other employment in immediate request: and "the labours of agriculture, ever wanted, are the general resource. The "mechanic, finding himself fully competent to the practice of common husbandry, is not discouraged from undertaking it at his own risk. Every "labourer, every artisan, who has frequent occasion to recur to the labours "of the field, becomes a tenant. Such farmers are ill-qualified to plan "or conduct a well-judged course of husbandry, and are idly employed, to the great waste of useful time, in carrying to market the small produce "of their petty farm." ** The same observations are applicable to manufactures and commerce: small capitals require comparatively large profits; and the want of larger are a bar to improvements. The smallness of the income required for the maintenance of a cultivator and his family will be accounted for, if we attend to his mode of subsistence, his dress, and his habitation. "That animal food," says the before-mentioned writer, "should be reserved for festivals, seems a circum"stance of national manners; but that a large proportion of the people "should * The above writer informs us, "that in some districts an inquiry made in 1790 ascertained "the quantity of land tenanted by near 70,000 cultivators; and it gave an average of less than "eighteen begahs (about five acres and an half) each in actual tillage."-Asiatic Register. 42. of Miscellanies. e should use unnutritive grains and pulse instead of white corn, cannot be "ascribed to spontaneous austerity. Salt is eagerly desired by the Indian: "his vegetable diet requires it; but the most numerous classes cannot "afford to season their food with it. Observe the peasant's meal; a pinch "of salt on a leaf stands by his plate of rice; a few grains at a time "deceive his palate, while he swallows several mouthfuls of insipid food. "His abstemiousness in respect to this, and other condiments, for which "his predilection is known, is not voluntary. He is sensible that he is "ill fed. "The dress of the Indians, rich or poor, is simple. The intercourse "with mussulmen has introduced some variety in vesture, but the original "Hindoo dress prevails. A scarf on the shoulders, and another falling from "the waist, with sandals on the feet, clothe the men; a longer scarf is the "whole of the female dress: when rain or cold require it, a woollen or a quilted mantle is the only additional covering. But though the form of "dress be similar, the materials employed constitute a considerable dif"ference. Cloths of a good fabric are within the reach of few; a coarse " and ill-struck cloth of the same texture as that known to the trade as "wrappers in packages, is the dress of the more numerous classes; while many are content with sackcloth. For warmer covering foreign woollens. are preferred, but attainable by few; the middle class are dressed in quilted chintz, or in plain quilts; while the poorer sort have recourse to "the rugged covering of a homemade blanket. The peasant decked in "his sackcloth and blanket can hardly deem himself well clothed. View "the inside of his dwelling; a coarse mat his bed, the ground his chair " and table, cowdung his fuel, unglazed earthen pots his furniture, a leaf "his plate: he cannot be thought well provided. "It will naturally be asked, whether the price of labour could afford "better subsistence? It cannot, if we justly estimate the average earnings "of a family at no more than three rupees a month, which can barely "maintain them in the lowest form of subsistence." P P Asiatic Register. 1802. 70. of Miscellanies. LITERATURE LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. Before we close these miscellaneous sketches relating to the East Indies, we ought to do honour to those who have been instrumental in introducing a taste for literature and science in Hindostan. The late sir William Jones was one of those superior characters, who may be traced by the lucid path which they leave behind them, and their benefactions to human nature.-To this intelligent, learned, and worthy man, assisted by others who warmly co-operated with him in the meritorious design, among whom was Mr. Hastings, Hindostan is indebted for its literary institutions; as well as the learned researches which have been made respecting its antiquities, language, religion, and laws. Under the present mild and rational administration we may hope that the day is now arrived when the prejudices which the natives of this country have entertained against us will begin to wear away, when they will be taught no longer to view us as rapacious and merciless marauders, but to revere the name of European as the promoter of their happiness. REVENUE. Colonel Fullarton says, " that the countries subject to our influence, "under any administration that did not openly cherish discord and exult "in malversation, would yield an annual revenue of £.10,000,000, and "would increase in value with every subsequent improvement."+ q If we may judge from Mr. Dundas's last statement of the financial affairs. of India, on which we certainly may rely, such an administration is now established. It appears from that statement that the total revenues of the three presidences had considerably increased from that of the preceding year, and that it had nearly reached the sum mentioned by colonel Fullarton.— It is as follows: He wrote about the year 1786. 9 Fullarton's View. 72. RESULTS. |