Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c20.32

c20.32

It may be considered as a part of Indian Husbandry, though by no means a universal custom, as it is only in particular situations practicable, to set fire to the long and luxuriant grasses which the cattle have not consumed. This is not practised in arable husbandry where it is unnecessary. The stubble of a rice field is ploughed into the ground in the same way as with us; but it is resorted to for reducing the natural pastures of the hills, which are beyond the reach of the plough. These luxuriant grasses are burnt and decomposed in order to nourish a new growth. It is the same operation, and for the same purpose, as that of burning heather for improving sheep pasture. This is usual practice in the Concan and Deccan; but it is not so generally resorted to in Guzerat, or in Malabar, as it is not so well suited to the circumstances of those countries. The practice of burning grass is only followed on bare and naked mountains. In those that are covered with trees, such as the Ghats in Malabar, it would be destructive, and is not therefore had recourse to. In the Concan, and where the high lands are generally without wood, and where the grass grows to the luxuriance almost of reeds, the burning system is pursued. Wherever it is practised, the natives consider it as a proof of barrenness, and caused by a curse of one of their gods. The heat of the sun, natural and artificial moisture, and the inundations of rivers, keeps the soil in India in a state of perpetual fecundity and renders it fruitful year after year, as was the case under the same circumstances in Egypt.