Buchanan, Francis: A Journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar ... (Band 2) (London, 1807)

158 A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH

CHAPTER A furrow is drawn with a plough ; at every three or four inches
v^v-^z distance a seed is dropt into it, and is covered by another furrow.
Oct. 2. Then, to smooth the field, a harrow of thorny bushes is dragged

over it. The hoe called Cuntay is drawn by oxen between the
drills once every eight days until the cotton is ripe, which happens
in the course of the two months immediately following the vernal
equinox. At the end cf the first month the earth is thrown up by
the plough, in ridges, toward the drills of cotton. The moment
the cotton has been gathered, the field is again ploughed for Jola.
A Nurcumba of land requires between seven and eight Seers of seed,
and in a good crop produces 150 Cuttus of cotton, worth, when
cheap, \0Varahas, or 120 Fanams; and, when dear, 15 Varahas, or
180 Fanams. At this rate, a good crop will be about 271 lb. an acre;
which, of course, selling low, will be worth 1/. 15.?. S~d. A poor
crop is 60 Cuttus from a Nurcumba; which, selling dear, is worth
72 Fanams, being at the rate of 108^ lb. from an acre, worth
10s. $±d.

On the two inferior soils, that do not produce a crop of Jola,
the cotton yields from 48 to 72 Fanams a Nurcumba, or from 7 s. \^d.
to 10s. S~d. an acre. In the two months following the vernal equi-
nox this soil is hoed with the Col Kudali. It is then dunged and
ploughed, and afterwards hoed with the Cuntay. At the seed season
the cotton is sown, and afterwards managed exactly as in the first
quality of soil. The quality of the cotton raised on the two poorer
kinds of soil is preferable to that which is raised on the best. The
whole is sold at weekly markets in Ganiganuru, Singanaluru, Cola-
pura, Talacadu, Haymigay, Molura, Agara, Narasingha-pura, Taiuru,
Coleagala, and other places on this side of the Cavery. It is all
wrought up into coarse cloths, for country use, by the casts called
Whalliaru, Devangas, and Tricoluro Dasas, who reside in the neigh-
bourhood. None is sent to Bangalore, Salient, or the other manu-
facturing towns; but were the whole country cultivated, a great
supply of cotton might be procured.