DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2375#0150
Feb. 23.
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH
CHAPTER piece leaves an interval of four inches between it and the next piece
of the same row. The rows are placed near the bottom of the fur-
rows, and are slightly covered with earth; and the furrows are
then filled with water. All this must be performed before the new
year commences at the equinox. Next day the furrows are again
watered, and this is repeated on the eighth day, and afterwards
once every four days. Two months after planting the field is
weeded, and the ridges are repaired with a small hoe called Halu-
catay. The field is then manured with ashes, and with mud taken
out of places where water lies deep. After this the watering is re-
peated once in four days till the commencement of the rainy season,
when the ridges are thrown down, and new ones formed at the roots
of each row of canes. In nine months these ripen without farther
trouble. The water is in general raised, by the machine called
Yatam, from wells in which it is found at the depth of from three
to twelve feet from the surface. Three men are required to water
and cultivate one Moray land, of which 1,TW are equal to an acre ;
but at the time they are so employed the farm requires little other
work. The canes are very small, being from 2 to 2|- cubits long,
and about the thickness of a man's thumb. The juice is expressed
by a mill, which consists of three cylinders moved by a perpetual
screw. The force is applied to the centre cylinder by two capstan
bars, wrought by six or eight men ; and the whole machine is ex-
tremely rude. A Moray land produces 10 Maunds ofjagory, worth
in all 5 Pagodas. This is at the rate of 4,^5- hundred-weight an
acre, worth about 31. 10s. My informants seem to have greatly
under-rated the quantity of Jagory.
In the very satisfactory answers which Mr. Read, the collector,
has been so good as to send to my queries, he observes as follows:
"As the land on which the sugar-cane is reared is all rice-ground,
its cultivation might be increased to a very considerable extent;
but not without lessening the quantity of rice, because, the market
for sugar being neither so extensive nor so profitable, by any means,
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH
CHAPTER piece leaves an interval of four inches between it and the next piece
of the same row. The rows are placed near the bottom of the fur-
rows, and are slightly covered with earth; and the furrows are
then filled with water. All this must be performed before the new
year commences at the equinox. Next day the furrows are again
watered, and this is repeated on the eighth day, and afterwards
once every four days. Two months after planting the field is
weeded, and the ridges are repaired with a small hoe called Halu-
catay. The field is then manured with ashes, and with mud taken
out of places where water lies deep. After this the watering is re-
peated once in four days till the commencement of the rainy season,
when the ridges are thrown down, and new ones formed at the roots
of each row of canes. In nine months these ripen without farther
trouble. The water is in general raised, by the machine called
Yatam, from wells in which it is found at the depth of from three
to twelve feet from the surface. Three men are required to water
and cultivate one Moray land, of which 1,TW are equal to an acre ;
but at the time they are so employed the farm requires little other
work. The canes are very small, being from 2 to 2|- cubits long,
and about the thickness of a man's thumb. The juice is expressed
by a mill, which consists of three cylinders moved by a perpetual
screw. The force is applied to the centre cylinder by two capstan
bars, wrought by six or eight men ; and the whole machine is ex-
tremely rude. A Moray land produces 10 Maunds ofjagory, worth
in all 5 Pagodas. This is at the rate of 4,^5- hundred-weight an
acre, worth about 31. 10s. My informants seem to have greatly
under-rated the quantity of Jagory.
In the very satisfactory answers which Mr. Read, the collector,
has been so good as to send to my queries, he observes as follows:
"As the land on which the sugar-cane is reared is all rice-ground,
its cultivation might be increased to a very considerable extent;
but not without lessening the quantity of rice, because, the market
for sugar being neither so extensive nor so profitable, by any means,