The natives do not employ them
in their grain sowings, but commonly adopt a contrivance with their
own plough for sowing in furrows, whenever their fields are
deficient in moisture. The drill employed in Tirhoot resembles
considerably the implement known by that name in England. It is
found not only to effect a great saving of seed, ten seers being
there sown broad-cost on a biggah of 57,600 feet square, and only
seven seers by this drill; but also materially to improve the
quality and regularity of the growth of the plant. Experience has
demonstrated, that the more lateral room the plants have, the more
abundant is their produce of leaves, in which the coloring matter
chiefly resides. The seed employed should always be as new as
possible, for though, if carefully preserved, it vegetates when one
year old, and even when nearly two years old has produced a moderate
crop, yet this has been under circumstances of an unusually
favorable season and soil. The plants from old seed rarely attain a
height of more than a foot before they wither and die. As frauds are
very likely to be practised by giving old seed the glossiness and
general appearance of new, great circumspection should be shown by
the planter, who does not grow his own, in obtaining seed from known
parties.

Planters in the lower provinces are induced to use up-country seed,
because, coming from a colder climate, it vegetates, and the plants
ripen rapidly, so as to be harvested more certainly before the
annual inundation, but they employ one-fourth more. Three seers per
Bengal biggah are sufficient, if it is "Dassee" seed; but four is
not too much if it is up-country seed. A Bengal biggah is only a
third of the size of that of Tirhoot. If the weather is dry, the
seed very often does not germinate until the occurrence of rain, and
it has been known in a dry, light soil, to remain in the ground
without injury for six weeks. If seasonable showers occur, the
plants make their appearance in four days, or even less; and they
must be watched, in order that they may be weeded on the earliest
day that they are sufficiently established to allow the operation to
be safely performed. In dry weather, it must not be done while they
are very young, otherwise many of the seedlings will have their
roots disturbed, and perish from the dro