DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2375#0065
7?:!^^/l^w^f
■'■:'-
56
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH
Cattle and
fodder.
CHAPTER The trees last for fifty or sixty years; but when, by accident, one
vj^1^^ dies sooner, a fresh branch is planted to supply its loss. These
Jan. 22, substitutes, however, do not thrive. When, from old age, the whole
trees begin to decay, the garden is abandoned, and a new one i£
formed in another place. If the garden receive its supply of water
from a reservoir, the cultivator, each time that he plants, pays to the
proprietor 10 gold Fanams, or £| Rupees for every 1000 vines. In
the three intermediate years he pays nothing. If the water be
supplied from a well, the rent is only half of the above mentioned
sum.
The cattle employed in labour here are chiefly bred in the inland
districts about Subhra-mani, and are no larger than those of Malabar.
From the month of January, until the commencement of the rainy
season, they are supported on fodder. Between the 17th of No-
vember and the 16th of December a bad hay is made of the long
grass which grows naturally on some hills that are purposely kept
clear of bushes. This hay is chopped, and is boiled with rice husks
for three hours; of this the oxen are allowed a quantity morning
and evening ; half a Maund{lA lb.), the people say, would be a good
allowance. At night they get rice straw to the amount of about
three fourths of a Maund (21 lb.), as the people whom I consulted
conjecture; but, from the appearance of the cattle, the quantity
allowed cannot be near so much. The people indeed merely spoke
by guess, no Hindu, so far as ever I heard, having thought of
weighing fodder. At the end of the dry season the cattle, as usual
in India, become very poor; but in the rainy season those here are
fat, and the cows are entirely supported by pasturing on the hills:
at night the working cattle are allowed rice straw. An ox is wrought
from sun rise until noon only, and is allowed the afternoon to pas-
ture. Epidemic diseases are sometimes very destructive, and are
attributed to a contagion which is supposed always to originate
above the Ghats. An old man says, that he remembers twenty times
the prevalence of this epidemic; but that seems to be speaking in
m
■'■:'-
56
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH
Cattle and
fodder.
CHAPTER The trees last for fifty or sixty years; but when, by accident, one
vj^1^^ dies sooner, a fresh branch is planted to supply its loss. These
Jan. 22, substitutes, however, do not thrive. When, from old age, the whole
trees begin to decay, the garden is abandoned, and a new one i£
formed in another place. If the garden receive its supply of water
from a reservoir, the cultivator, each time that he plants, pays to the
proprietor 10 gold Fanams, or £| Rupees for every 1000 vines. In
the three intermediate years he pays nothing. If the water be
supplied from a well, the rent is only half of the above mentioned
sum.
The cattle employed in labour here are chiefly bred in the inland
districts about Subhra-mani, and are no larger than those of Malabar.
From the month of January, until the commencement of the rainy
season, they are supported on fodder. Between the 17th of No-
vember and the 16th of December a bad hay is made of the long
grass which grows naturally on some hills that are purposely kept
clear of bushes. This hay is chopped, and is boiled with rice husks
for three hours; of this the oxen are allowed a quantity morning
and evening ; half a Maund{lA lb.), the people say, would be a good
allowance. At night they get rice straw to the amount of about
three fourths of a Maund (21 lb.), as the people whom I consulted
conjecture; but, from the appearance of the cattle, the quantity
allowed cannot be near so much. The people indeed merely spoke
by guess, no Hindu, so far as ever I heard, having thought of
weighing fodder. At the end of the dry season the cattle, as usual
in India, become very poor; but in the rainy season those here are
fat, and the cows are entirely supported by pasturing on the hills:
at night the working cattle are allowed rice straw. An ox is wrought
from sun rise until noon only, and is allowed the afternoon to pas-
ture. Epidemic diseases are sometimes very destructive, and are
attributed to a contagion which is supposed always to originate
above the Ghats. An old man says, that he remembers twenty times
the prevalence of this epidemic; but that seems to be speaking in
m