Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/19

 INTRODUCTION.

•

IX

assiduously moistened secure for the interior of the house. Even in the evening, when the winds subside, the dust remains suspended in the air, and it is only in the early morning before the sun has risen that out-door exercise is moderately enjoyable. To the north of the Gogra during the same period the wind is from the east, the dust very much less trying, and the heat, both in the morning and the evening, far more moderate ; but a west wind is indispensable for the luxury of tatties, which is there almost unknown. For rather more than a month before the rains the whole country is exposed to occasional dust-storms. Huge columns of dust, discernible for miles, sweep across the land, and their density is often sufficient to create a darkness like night. When they have passed they are usually followed by light showers, and a temporary fall of temperature which aflfbrds intense relief after the burning heat. In a climate where all violent extremes are avoided, and where a rainfall neither insufficient nor excessive assists the natural fertility of an alluvial soil, a considerable variety of artificial crops is naturally raised. There are three principal harvests the kharif, which is sown at the commencement of the rains and cut in September ; the henwat or Aghani, cut in December and the rabi in March besides miscella,neous crops which come to perfection, the sugarcane in February, cotton in May, tobacco and mustard-seed in January, and sanwan in almost any month of the year. The principal kharif staples are rice, Indian-corn, and the millets, and the choice of crop is determined by the lay and character of the soil, nice grows best in low stiff land, where the water accumulates first and is most slowly absorbed, maize on a light soil raised slightly above the floods. The yield of the first is sometimes as much as twenty maunds per big ha or 2,600fts. per acre, but three-fifths of that is considered a fair outturn ; the latter will occasionally yield four cobs to the stalk, but it is seldom that more than three are fertile, and the agriculturist is contented The yield is heavier than that of rice, with two good heads. outside and 2,000ft)S. a fair average per acre being an 3,300tt)S. smaller millets are less productive, grow on crop per acre. The Among the in cultivation. trouble inferior soils, and exact less mendwa, kdkun, are rains the inferior crops wich are cut during principal diet of the the form and kodo, diminutive grains which instead of which, being The finer kinds of rice, very poor. transplanted in August are sown and reaped on the same land, from nurseries near the village site, do not ripen till the end of November, and form the most valuable item of the henwat crop

—





2