Over all Hindostan, as in every country that lies within the tropics,or only a little beyond them, the general mode of cultivation, as well as the particular crops cultivated, must depend in a great measure, on the more or less abun dant and regular supply of water. Hence arise two dis tinct modes of cultivation in Hindustan, besides subdivi sions of these modes. The tiro leading species of culti vation are denominated nunjah and punjah; the first be ing the wet-grain culture. and the other the dry-gram cul ture. The first is more attended to than the second, and is deemed more valuable and beneficial. The grain culti vated on nunjah lands is generally only of one kind, or at most of two, and is consequently cut down at one season or two ; hence the produce of this hod can be stored, watch ed, and sold, with much greater facility, and at much less expencc, than the other kinds of grain. In the south of India, the produce of nunjah land was always divided be tween the government and the cultivator. Punjah land is in almost every respect the reverse of this. The graws sown on this land are very numerous. and are put into the ground at various periods : the produce is uncertain, de pending on the rain that falls. The gathering of the crop must be performed at different times. That part. ofit which carries the grain in the ears must be reaped at one season, and that which carries it in the pod at another. It frequently happens that several kinds are sown together ut in the same field, each ripening at a different pet iod ; and if one of these be cotton, which is of en the case, it must be gathered every day after the plant arrives at full growth. Hence the produce being uncertain, and the labour great, the revenue exacted by government from punjah land was uniformly paid in money. This kind of land appears to have been brought into cultivation after the nungah land, as it generally lies at a considerable distance from the village.
Nungah mail pungah is a species of nungah cultivation, carried on either in the stubble of paddy or nungah land, or when, from an accidental deficiency of water, land which is usually cultivated with rice becomes unfit for that grain ; in these cases, the cultivator, availing himself of the mots awe remaining in the ground, or of the water that may be drawn by picotahs to the field, sows the best kinds of dry grain. Vanpyrr, or totical lands, are lands managed ac cording to the garden culture, in which the more valuable nrticics, such as sugar cane, tobacco, chillies,&c.are grown. These lands are generally secured against a failure of water by artificial means.
The bungah lands arc rendered fit for wet-grain cultiva tion, by the overflowing of the rivers—by canals and water courses cut from the rivers and streams, for the purpose of irrigating them—or by water drawn from tanks and wells.
I. The Ganges and its branches are the great sources of fertility to that vast tract of country which lies near their banks, in Hindostan Proper. In consequence of the rains
which fall in the mountains whence it springs, this river begins to overflow its banks in the low country in the month of April. Its rise is at first gradual ; but as soon as the rainy season has reached the low country, and be comes general, it rises with great rapidity. " By the lat ter end of July, all the lower parts of Bengal are over flowed contiguous to the Ganges and Brahmapootra, and form an inundation of more than 100 miles in width." By the middle of August, the river has increased upwards of 14 feet at Dada, and 32 feet at Jellinghy, in common years. As soon as the rainy season ceases in the mountains, which is about the middle or end of August, the Ganges begins to decrease in Bengal, slowly at first, like its rise, till the rains cease also in this province. It is easy to perceive, that this periodical increase of the Ganges must not only have formed the rich alluvial soil of this part of Hindostan, and must every year deposit on it materials which will serve to keep up its fertility, but must also prepare the ground for those crops m hich require on it cultivation, and even for those which would not thrive and repay the husbandman in a climate so hot, and at other seasons so very dry, if these inundations did not take place. Ac cordingly, the rise of the Ganges is watched with great attention and anxiety by all the inhabitants of the country through which it flows, since scarcity or famine are the consequences of a failure or a great deficiency of its inun dation. If, on the other hand, its inundation is unusually great, the corn may be swept away and destroyed ; but this evil is generally light and partial, compared with the calamity which results from a deficient inundation. The Ganges, without the assistance of art, waters immense tracts of land, and renders them fit for the wet cultivation. .in former times, as we have already noticed, canals were made for the purpose of conveying the waters of the Indus to irrigate the lands, as well as for the purpose of internal communication; and a canal was made from Jumnah to Delhi, which was probably used, though not principally constructed, for the benefit of agriculture. But neither in ;hose times, nor at present, has all that advantage been taken of either of these rivers, particularly of the Ganges, which agriculture migilit derive from them.
The Punjab, or that extensive tract of country which is W7' erect by tin eastern branches of the Indus, is not entire ly inundated a ,1 enriched by this river : The lower part only, towards Mulpan, which is very flat, deriving this benefit to its agriculture from the periodical rains which fall between the months of May and October. The lower part 01 the province of Sinde is also inundated by the Indus. Every where also this river and its branches do not, unassisted by art, greatly or extensively benefit agriculture.