Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c20.43

c20.43

In Guzerat, and indeed in the Deccan, but especially in Guzerat, careful and skilful agriculture, is probably, as much studied as in England. In many points an English farmer might condemn the practice at first sight; but in time he would learn, that much of what he did not approve, under an idea that the same system in all respects that succeeds in England ought to be followed here, was of the first importance; was in fact what constituted the great means of success in this climate and that to depart from the existing practice would be folly. For instance as to ploughing in this country, it is condemned as not being deep enough. The native however knows from experience that the soil at the surface, and which has been well heated by exposure to the sun, is that which yields the best return. It is not uncommon to see them before the hot season plough their more valuable lands roughly, so as to expose as much as possible of the soil to the revivifying influence of the sun. It is a fact too, that in most soils in Northern Guzerat, the lands are more productive, when kept continually from year to year under cultivation, than when allowed to lie fallow: such soils however as improve by a year or two's respite, always receive it. This is not uncommon in the Surat, and even in the Broach district, and in some parts of the Deccan. One of many proofs that were requisite, the system of the natives, is too well founded on experience to reject it.¹⁹