Field and Garden Crops of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh

Abstract

THIS brochure is the first of a short series in which it is proposed to describe the cultivated products of the North-West Provinces of India. With the exception of an introduction of considerable length, treating generally of the physical, social, and agricultural peculiarities of the North-Western Provinces, the volume is chiefly devoted to a description of farm crops. Many of these, such as wheat, barley, oats, maize, hemp, tobacco, millet, and poppy, are as familiar to European cultivators as to Asiatics. Others, such as opium, rice, sugar-cane, and cotton, betoken the tropical nature of at least a portion of the season. The botanical descriptions of the various crops are contributed by Mr. Duthie in the usual language of the text-books, affording little room for original remark of any kind. By far the greater portion of the work has been compiled from the reports of Settlement Officers and other Government records, or contributed by Mr. Fuller. The agricultural information is of a highly interesting character, and the illustrations are particularly excellent. The work is, however, in a manner disfigured and rendered obscure by the peculiar views of the authors as to the first rule of arithmetic. Sixty-seven millions, &c., are expressed as 6,79,06,496, and six millions, &c., as 64,96,567. Ten millions, &c., are written in figures as 1,09,57,837. This principle of notation renders the statistical portion of the work difficult to follow, and it is not easy to see why it has been adopted.

Field and Garden Crops of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh.

Part 1. With illustrations. By J. F. Duthie J. B. Fuller, Assistant Director of Agriculture and Commerce, North-West Provinces and Oudh. (Printed at the Thomason Civil Engineering College Press, 1882.)