Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c20.47

c20.47

I do not mean to enter into all the details of Malabar Husbandry which will be best explained by the annexed table.( Omitted here.—Editor) A general description however is necessary. The land is generally well fenced and subdivided. The long, narrow and beautiful vallies form indeed natural divisions. The artificial divisions are commonly small, for the convenience of irrigation, and to mark the shares of individuals. The fields, or divisions, are formed into neat and oblong squares. In preparing the ground for rice, they plough twice, and even thrice according to circumstances, before they sow. The first operation is to surround the field with banks, and then to overflow it. The banks are about two feet broad, and raised rather more perhaps above the level of the ground. They serve as well as to keep in the water, as footpaths. Without them the people would be obliged to wade through mud and water, either when they wanted to inspect their fields, or in prosecution of many of their necessary labours. The depth of water in a rice field depends on the particular situation; it varies from six inches to a foot, and even a foot and a half.