CROPS. On fertile lands susceptible of irriga tion, British India enjoys two crops during the year, one called the Kharif, or rain crop, sown in June and reaped in October ; the other sown in October, and reaped in March and April, called the Rabi, or cold weather crop. The latter, embra,cing the months which approximate in temperature to that of the season of cultivation in colder countries, corresponds with them also in the nature of the plants cultivated, as, for instance, wheat, barley, oats, and millet; peas, beans, vetch, tares, chick-pea, pigeon-pea, and lentils ; tobacco, safflower, and succory ; flax, and plants allied to mustard and rape, as oil-seeds ; carrot, coriander, and cumin, and other seeds of a similar kind, as ajwain, sonf, soya, aneesun. In the rainy season, a totally different set of plants engages the agri culturist's attention, as rice, cotton, indigo, and maize, with sorghutn, pulse, joar, koda, most of the tropical legumes, as well as several of the cucumber and gourd tribes, together with the sesamum for oil, and varieties of the egg-plant as a vegetable. The sunn and sunnee, two cordage plants, are also cultivated at this season.
Dr. Royle gives the following arrangement of the countries. of which the plants will grow in the different parts of India :— Tropical and East Indian Travancore, Cochin, Mala islands, tropical Africa, bar, Ceylon, Malay Pen Brazil, Guiana, W. insula, Chittagong, Ben Indies, and Florida. gal, Lower Assam.
East and west coast of Coromandel coast, North Africa. ern Circars, Konkan.
S. States of N. America, Gujerat, Behar, Doab, Egypt, n.of Africa,Syria. Dehli, Maly/a.
Mexican highlands, lower Mysore, hilly ranges in mountains of Spain. Dekhan, Bajputana.
S. of Africa, extra tropi- Saharunpur and Northern cal N. Holland, S. Ame- Doab.
rica beyond lat. 23r S, Mediterranean region. Dehra Doon, and Hima layan valleys to mode rate elevations.
Chino - Japanese region, Neilgherries,TJpperAssarn, Middle Andes, Peru, and Himalayan mountains. mountains of Brazil.
North of Europe, north of Himalayan mountains, rc Asia,andNorth America. gions of oaks and pines. Areticregions,mountainsof Himalayas above region of Europe, elevated Andes. forest.
The Tamil-speaking countries in the S.E. parts of the Peninsula have the benefit of the N.E. monsoon ; their principal rice crop, called Karu panta, is sown during the wet season ; a lesser crop is sown in the spring and reaped in the rains.
Penicillaria spicata, in the Cuddapah district, is usually sown mixed with nine otber seeds. Doli chos uniflorus, D. Sinensis, Phaseolus mungo, Cicer arietinum, Cajanus Indicus, Lablab vulgaris, Sesa mum orientale, and Hibiscus subdariffa.
• The ragi crop (Eleusina, species) is usually sown mixed with Lablab vulgaris, this pulse being put in lines, without reference to the ragi crop, being dropped in a furrow made with the native plough. Mixing crops is of value : it serves the purpose of an alternation of crops, as the plants differ in demands on the soil ; the variety- increases the chances of success ; and, as they ripen at different stages,•they give continuous work to the ryot and his family.
56.2 per cent. of the adult male population of British India are engaged in agriculture, the total being 34,844,000. The number of persons re turned as engaged in agriculture aud in tending or dealing in animals, is 37i millions ; but besides these, the boys and girls and wives of a household, and many tradesmen and artisans, own land which they cultivate by the aid of the younger members of the family. The farms of India are all small, and the machinery and capital proportionate. The farmer works the soil himself, assisted at times by relatives, labourers being rarely hired. The plough is light and rude, and tho draught cattle aro in general small ; but the fields are ploughed and re-ploughed a dozen thnes, and freely exposed to the weather. The crops raised aro excellent ; and Malloinedan, European, or East Indian has ever been able to compete with tho indus.