ut how to screw money out of such as we are, who
are born upon the soil, and depend upon its produce all our lives for
subsistence. Ask him, sir, whether either he or any of his ancestors
ever knew anything of the difference between one soil and another."

The collector acknowledged the truth of what the old man said, and
told me that he really knew nothing about the matter, and had merely
repeated what the people told him. This is true with regard to the
greater part of the local revenue officers employed in Oude. "One of
these city gentlemen, sir," said. Bukhtawar Sing, "when sent out as a
revenue collector, in Saadut Allee's time, was asked by his
assistants what they were to do with a crop of sugar-cane which had
been attached for balances, and was becoming too ripe, replied, '_Cut
it down, to be sure, and have it stacked!_' He did not know that
sugar-cane must, as soon as cut, be taken to the mill, or it spoils."
"I have heard of another," said the old Rusaldar Nubbee Buksh, "who,
after he entered upon his charge, asked the people about him to show
him the tree on which grew the fine _istamalee_* rice which they used
at Lucknow." "There is no question, sir," said Bukhtawar Sing, "that
is too absurd, for these cockney gentlemen to ask when they enter
upon such revenue charges as these. They are the aristocracy of towns
and cities, who are learned enough in books and court ceremonies and
intrigues, but utterly ignorant of country life, rural economy, and
agricultural industry."

[* The _istamalee_ rice is rice of fine quality, which has been kept
for some years before used. To be good, rice must be kept for some
years before used, and that only which has been so kept is called
_istamalee_ or _useable_.]

For a cantonment or civil station, the ground to the north of
Shahabad, on the left-hand side of the road leading to Mahomdee,
seems the best. It is a level plain, of a stiff soil formed of clay
and sand, and not very productive.

The country, from Sandee and Shahabad to the rivers Ganges and
Ramgunga, is one rich sheet of spring cultivation; and the estate of
Kuteearee, above described, is among the richest portions of this
sheet. The portions on which the richest crops now stand became waste
during the disorders which followed the expulsion of Runjeet Sing, in
the usual way, in 1837, and derived the usual benefit from the
salutary fallow. A stranger passing through such a sheet of rich
cultivation, without com