i per acre, in some parts ol the Nlysore.
These of the rent of different kinds of lands, though few, and applying, for the most part, only to par ticular districts, are sufficient to point out the extreme difference in the quantity and value of the produce of laud, as well as in the labour necessary to render it fertile, in various parts of India ; for the rent is varied according to these circumstances, cunsidered jointly or separately.
The agriculture of Hindostan, generally speaking, is in a very rude and imperfect state. There are, however, districts in which this art has reached a state of improve ment, not interior to that in which it exists in many parts of Europe. Perhaps the Burdwan district of Bengal de serves the first place in the scale of agricultural excel lence, and the province of Tanjore the second. Many parts of the province of Ailahabad, and especially the dis trict of Behaves, rank nearly on a level with Burdwan and 'Tanjore. In the neighbourhood of the city of Patna, the capital of Bahar, also, the husbandry is excellent ; the fields in many places being cultivated with such nice and minute attention as to resemble gardens. Travancore is distinguished tor its excellence in what is called the wet cultivation, which is carried to such a degree of successful perfection, that the whole of the government expenses, civil, military, and religious, are defrayed from it alone, without drawing any thing from the produce of the dry land cultivation. The agriculture of the Circars is also good. l• rom this province and Tanjore, the Carnatic is frequently supplied with grain ; the Circars being esteem ed its granary during the north-easterly monsoon, and Tanjore during the south west monsoon. Formerly the Punjab exhibited undoubted proofs of good husbandry, and its crops, owing to this and the natural fertility of its soil, were abundant ; but in consequence of the devasta tion it has sustained, and the number of petty hostile states into which it is divided, it is now but very imper fectly cultivated, and contains a large proportion ol land absolutely waste and neglected. That p:rt of Agra which is called the Duab was formerly, like the Punjab, cultiva ted with skill and success, especially during the latter part of the Nabob of ()tide's government. While it was under the management of Alnias Ali Khan, and at pre sent, its cultivation is improviug, as indeed is tlic case with all those pans of India which are placed under the British authority. In the Midnapoor district of the province at Orissa, improvements have lately taken place in agricul ture ; but they arise rather from the extreme ease with which they may be made, than from the superior informa tion or activity of the inhabitants. The other parts of the Decan in which the agriculture rises above the level of that generally practised in Hindostan are, the low districts ol A orungabad, some parts of Berar, and the Circars, al ready mentioned. In the south of India, besides Tanjore
and Travancore, which rank in the highest class, the in dustry of the husbandman in the ceded districts has raised the agriculture of this province to a considerable degree of perfection ; and they are likely still farther to improve it, in consequence of the excellent regulations introduced by the British. In no part of India has the husbandman been obliged to struggle with greater difficulties in the im provement of his land, and nowhere has he surmounted them more completely than in Canara. The largest por tion of the surface of this province is so rocky and uneven that nearly all the agricultural labour, and especially the indispensable previous operation of levelling the ground, must be performed without the aid of cattle ; which, in deed, are by no means common. And even after the land is brought into a state of cultivation, it would soon revert to its original character, and be broken up by the torrents from the mountains, were not the husbandman constantly alert and active. Notwithstanding these difficulties, there every where appears undoubted proofs of good husbandry, notmerely in the quantity produced, but also in the neat ness of the culture, and the regularity and method with which it is carried on. This may in a great degree arise from the circumstance, that each man cultivates his own land, however small ; all the land here, as has been already remarked, being private property, and the subdivisions of that property being very minute. The same character ap plies to the husbandry of the province of Malabar ; each proprietor bestowing on his little spot " all that minute labour and attention which is so important to Indian hus bandry." In no province of the south of India was the husbandry worse than in Barramahal, previously to the in troduction of the permanent settlement, but at present it is very respectable, and will probably improve. The tract of land in North Coimbetoor, which lies near Muni and Coleagala, and that part of South Coimbetoor which stretches along the banks of the Amarawati, are remarka bly well cultivated, particularly the first district, in which the management of rice is equal to that of any other part of India. The same character applies to the rice cultiva tion in the vallies of Cochin. From this sketch of the gen eral state of agriculture in Ilindostan, it will be seen that, with a few exceptions, that of the south of India is supe rior to that ol Hindostan Proper ; that it is more generally good ; and that the husbandry of the Decan is inferior both to that of Hindostan Proper and the south of India.