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NEPAL 277 or mustard in the winter, radishes or garlic or potatoes in the spring, and Indian corn, rice, or pepper during the rains. The hills are terraced very high up their slopes; and the fields thus obtained are chiefly utilized for pulses and cereals, other than the transplanted rice, which is grown in the lower lands, and for mustard, maddler, sugar-cane, and cardamoms. The latter require to be near running water. Ginger is a valuable product in the hill country between Nepál proper and the Kalí river. Rice is everywhere the main food of the people. Various dry rices are cultivated in Nepál, under the general name of shya, some of which, so far fron needing hot weather to bring them to maturity, are actually raised in exposed situations; whilst others do not require, as in Bengal, to be flooded, but flourish in the driest and loftiest spots. I broughout the hills, scarcely a plough or a cart is to be seen, hand labour being the almost universal agent for the preparation of the soil. Great store is laid on the use of household and cattle manure, and also of a blue unctuous-looking clay which has remarkable fertilizing qualities. In the Tarái, the chief crops are rice, opium, rape, linseed, tobacco, and ushur. Irrigation is frequent throughout the country. The most important of the forest trees in the Tarai are the scil, which is of great value for sleepers and house beams, owing to its durability, strength, straightness, and size; the Mimosa, from which the catechu of commerce is derived ; the sisu; and the bhanja, the wood of which is in much request for cart-axles. Cotton trees, acacias, and tree figs are not unfrequent. The hill forests contain oak, holly, rhododendron, maple, chestnut, walnut, champa, hornbeam, pines, and firs in abundance; but the timber is of little use, except locally, owing to the inaccessible nature of the country. The cherry, the pear, and the tea tree, as well as the laurel, the alder, the willow, and the oleander, are all found wild. The spontaneous productions of the soil include several erlible roots and herbs, which form a considerable part of the sustenance of the poorer inhabitants. Several medicinal plants are known; and a rich variety of dyes is procured from bitter or aromatic woods, which are held in great estimation. The jin is a species of hemp, from the leaves of which is expressed a juice called charas, which is a potent narcotic, and possesses very valuable qualities, burning with a flame as bright as that of the purest resin. Its leaves are fabricated into a fibre, from which the Newars manufacture coarse linen, and likewise a very strong kind of sackcloth. nimals.—The mountain pasture, though not so good as in the low country, supports numerous flocks of sheep, which migrate with the seasons, in winter to the lower valleys, and in summer to the