DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2373#0149
126
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH
CHAPTER utterly unknown; scarcely any attention is paid to the improvement
.J*", of the breed of labouring cattle, and still less to providiug them with
May 20, &c. sufficient nourishment. The religion of the natives, indeed, is a
powerful obstacle in the way of agriculture. The higher ranks of
society being excluded from animal food, no attention will, of
course, be paid to fattening cattle; and without that, what would
our agriculture in England be worth ? We could have no green
crops to restore our lands to fertility, and but a scanty manure to
invigorate our crops of grain. I am afraid, however, that the
reader, in perusing the foregoing accounts, will have formed an
opinion of the native agriculture still more favourable than it de-
serves. I have been obliged to use the English words ploughings,
weedings, and hoeings, to express operations somewhat similar,
that are performed by the natives; aud the frequent repetitions of
these, mentioned in the accounts taken from the cultivators, might
induce the reader to imagine that the ground was well wrought,
and kept remarkably clean. Quite the reverse, however, is the
truth. Owing to the extreme imperfection of their implements,
and want of strength in their cattle, a field, after six or eight
ploughings, has numerous small bushes remaining as upright in it
as before the labour commenced; while the plough has not pene-
trated above three inches deep, and has turned over no part of the
soil. The view of the plough and other implements in the annexed
plates, will sufficiently account for this circumstance. The plough,
it must be observed, has neither coulter nor mould-board, to di-
vide, and to turn over the soil; and the handle gives the ploughv
man very little power to command its direction. The other instru*
ments are equally imperfect, and are more rudely formed than it
was possible for my draughtsman to represent.
The manufactures of Seringapatam and its vicinity were never
considerable. They were chiefly military stores and camp equi-
page ; and of course, have been greatly reduced by the arsenal
Manufac-
tures.
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH
CHAPTER utterly unknown; scarcely any attention is paid to the improvement
.J*", of the breed of labouring cattle, and still less to providiug them with
May 20, &c. sufficient nourishment. The religion of the natives, indeed, is a
powerful obstacle in the way of agriculture. The higher ranks of
society being excluded from animal food, no attention will, of
course, be paid to fattening cattle; and without that, what would
our agriculture in England be worth ? We could have no green
crops to restore our lands to fertility, and but a scanty manure to
invigorate our crops of grain. I am afraid, however, that the
reader, in perusing the foregoing accounts, will have formed an
opinion of the native agriculture still more favourable than it de-
serves. I have been obliged to use the English words ploughings,
weedings, and hoeings, to express operations somewhat similar,
that are performed by the natives; aud the frequent repetitions of
these, mentioned in the accounts taken from the cultivators, might
induce the reader to imagine that the ground was well wrought,
and kept remarkably clean. Quite the reverse, however, is the
truth. Owing to the extreme imperfection of their implements,
and want of strength in their cattle, a field, after six or eight
ploughings, has numerous small bushes remaining as upright in it
as before the labour commenced; while the plough has not pene-
trated above three inches deep, and has turned over no part of the
soil. The view of the plough and other implements in the annexed
plates, will sufficiently account for this circumstance. The plough,
it must be observed, has neither coulter nor mould-board, to di-
vide, and to turn over the soil; and the handle gives the ploughv
man very little power to command its direction. The other instru*
ments are equally imperfect, and are more rudely formed than it
was possible for my draughtsman to represent.
The manufactures of Seringapatam and its vicinity were never
considerable. They were chiefly military stores and camp equi-
page ; and of course, have been greatly reduced by the arsenal
Manufac-
tures.