at
last invited back by a weak and wearied Government, to reoccupy the
lands, improved by this salutary fallow, at a lower rate of rent, or
no rent at all for some years, and a remission of all balances for
past years, on account of _paemalee_, or treading down of crops,
during the disorder that has prevailed.

The cultivators return to occupy their old lands, so enriched, at
reduced rates of rent; and, in two or three years, these lands become
again carpeted with a beautiful variety of spring and autumn crops.
The crops, in our districts, on the opposite side of the river
Ganges, bear no comparison with those on the Oude side. The lands are
all overcropped and under-stocked with cattle and sheep from the want
of pasture lands. There is little manure, the water is too far below
the surface to admit of sufficient irrigation, without greater outlay
than the farmers and cultivators can afford; the rotation of crops is
insufficient, and no salutary fallow comes to the relief of the soil,
from the labour of men living and working under the efficient
protection of a strong and able Government. The difference in the
crops is manifest to the beholder, and shown in the rate of rents
paid for the lands where the price of land produce is the same in
both; the same river conveying the produce of both to and from the
same markets.

A Murhutta army, under the Peshwa, Ballajee, invaded the districts,
about the source of the Nerbudda river, about one hundred and seven
years ago, A.D. 1742. They ravaged these districts as they did all
others which they invaded; but they, like the greater part of the
Oude Tarae, remain waste; while the others, like the rest of Oude,
soon recovered and become prosperous from the circumstances above
stated. The soil of some of the districts, about the source of the
Nerbudda, then ravaged, is among the finest in the world; but the
long grass and rich foliage, by which it is covered, are occupied,
like the pampos of South America, almost exclusively by wild cattle,
buffaloes, deer, and tigers. The district of Mundula, which
intervenes between them and the rich and highly-cultivated district
of Jubbulpoor, in the valley of that river, was populous and well
cultivated when we took possession of it in the year 1817; but it has
become almost as waste under our rule by a more gradual but not less
desolating process. Not considering the diminishing markets for land
produce, our assessments of the land revenue w