Most of the cultivated lands of this country are sown with rice. Of this plant they have a great variety, of kinds, each of which requires a particular soil, and a par ticular method of culture. Some of them produce three crops in the year, others only one; and they differ great ly from each other, both in the quantity of the produce, and in the quality of the grain. As much of the rice ground is equally adapted fur the rearing of sugar canes, the cultivation of this article might be increased to a con siderable extent ; hut the &niers consider rice a more profitable crop, particularly since the late reduction of the duties upon its exportation ; and consequently the sugar is comparatively neglected. Cocoa nuts, betel nuts, mangoes, pepper, cardamoms, turmeric, ginger, &c. are produced in great abundance ; and several cu eurbitaceous plants, with a variety of kitchen stuffs, are cultivated in almost c%ery garden. Black pepper grows spontaneously in the woods, and wild nutmeg and china 111011 are very common. The forests abound with sandal, teak, and sissy irers, which furnish a considerable reve itue gOVertMlelit.
In the southern division of the province there were in 1800, 247,218 morays of rice land in a state of cultiva tion, which employed 71,716 ploughs; and, besides fo rests, it contained 111,9654 morays capable of culture, of which 24,181 morays Were cleared for grass, 7013 were capable of being converted into rice ground, and 1789 were fit for gardens. According to a survey made in 1793, the garden of this division contained 695,060 cocoa nut trees ; 1,155,850 betel nuts; 59,772 mangoes; 368,828 pepper vines, and 54,362 of other descriptions. Since that time, however, it is supposed that the number of each kind has been fully doubled. In the northern division, the proportion of lands under cultivation, and those capable of being so, arc, to the sterile lands, nearly as 26.7 is to 73.3. The number of ploughs in 1801, were 26,147, and the quantity of sugar annually produced, was estimated at about 11,483 ',wands of nearly 30 lb. each. The produce of the waste lands in this din ision, according to the statement of the collector of the revenue, is contained in the following ta bles: ral wretchedly kept. A lew swine .Are fed by some of the lower casts ; but the inhabitants rear neither horses, sheep, goats, nor asses. Tigers ate, in some districts, cry numerous, hut there arc no elephants. The number of horned rattle in the province is sup posed to amount to 420,569, of which 97,356 are buffa The commerce of Carrara, since the country became subject to the Company, and was thus freed from the ruinous exactions with which it was loaded by the sul tans of Mysore, has begun to assume a more active ap pearance. Many wealthy merchants from Surat, Crotch,
Bombay, and other places towards the north, have come to settle in the province; and many of the inhabitants, who were formerly deterred by the oppressions of the government, and were even obliged to leave the coun try, arc now beginning to return and to engage in com merce. Few vessels, however, belong to this province, and those which are employed in its trade chiefly belong to other ports. Rice is the grand article of exportation; which, together with betel-nut, cocoa-nut, pepper, san dal-wood, cinnamon, Cabob China, cut (terra Japonica) and turmeric, form a very lucrative trallic with Surat, Bombay, Muscat, Cutch, Goa, Malabar, and the Marat tab countries above the Ghauts. The principal imports are blue and white cotton cloths. from Surat and Cutch ; salt from Bombay and Goa; raw silk and sugar from China and Bengal; a kind of red dye, called nizinjisht, from Muscat ; and oil and ghee (boiled butter) from Su rat. Great quantities of cloth arc also brought from above the Ghauts by the Marattah merchants, and those of Bangalore and Cuddapa.
A statement of the exports and imports by sea in the southern division of Carrara for two years during the government of the sultans, and for one since it came into the possession of the Company, will show how much the commercial prosperity of the country has increased by a change of government.
Buffaloes and oxen arc almost the only cattle in Canara; and are chiefly bred in the districts near the (Mains. Good cows are very scarce, and arc in gene The principal articles of commerce during the last of these years, is contained in the following table, which is selected and abridged from the l'eN cntic accounts given by Dr Buchanan in his Journey from Madras through &c.
The exports of this division by land consist chiefly of salt, salt-fish, betel-ma, ginger, cocoa-nuts, cocoa-nut oil, and raw silk to the annual amount of 20,388 pago das; and its principal imports arc cloths, cotton, thread, blankets, tobacco, black cattle. and sandal-wood, to the value of 37,133 pagodas.
The commerce of the northern diNi*ion of the pro vince is equally flourishing, as will be seen from the an nexed tables ; the first of w hich contains the average annual exports and imports by sea of the northern dis tricts below the Ghauts, in the years 1800-1, and the other is a statement of the land commerce of the whole division for the same years.