r daughters in marriage cease to be exacted from men whose
necessities have become so pressing.

_March_ 6, 1850. **--Halted at Kurunpoor, where the gentlemen of my
camp shot some floricans, hares, partridges, and a porcupine along
the bank of the small river Ole, which flows along from north-west to
south-east within three miles of Kurunpoor.

[** Transcriber's Note: The diary date jumps from the previous entry
of _February_ 5, 1850, at Kurrunpoor. This is a mistake in the date,
as at the start of Chapter V the diary jumps back to _February_ 14,
1850.]

_March_ 7, 1850.--Teekur, twelve miles. The road, for three miles,
lay through grass jungle to the border of the Khyrabad district,
whence the plain is covered with cultivation, well studded with
trees, clusters of bamboos, and well peopled with villages, all
indicating better management. A great many fields are reduced to the
fine dust above described to receive the sugar-cane, which is planted
in February. The soil is muteear, but has in many parts become
impaired by over-cropping. The people told me that the crops were not
so rich as they ought to be, from the want of manure, which is much
felt here, where there is so little pasture for cattle. The wheat has
almost everywhere received an orange tint from the geerwa, or blight,
which covers the leaves, but, happily, has not as yet settled upon
the stalks to feed on the sap. This blight, the cultivators say,
arises from the late and heavy rain they have had, and the easterly
wind that prevailed for a few days. The geerwa is a red fungus,
which, when it adheres to the stems, thrusts its roots through the
pores of the epidermis and robs the grain of the sap as it ascends.
When easterly winds and sultry weather prevail, the pores of the
epidermis appear to be more opened and exposed to the inroads of
these fungi than at other times. If the wind continue westerly for a
fortnight more, little injury may be sustained; but should easterly
winds and sultry weather prevail, the greater part may be lost. "We
cultivators and landholders," said Bukhtawur Sing, "are always in
dread of something, and can never feel quite easy: if little rain
falls, we complain of the want of more; if a good deal comes down, we
are in dread of this blight, and never dare to congratulate ourselves
on the prospect of good returns." To the justice and wisdom of this
observation all assented.*

[* Westerly winds and cold weather prevailed and the bl