An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal: And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of GorkhaHamilton, Francis
History
An Account of The Kingdom of Nepal: And of the Territories Annexed to this Dominion by the House of Gorkha
Hamilton, Francis
Nepal -- Description and travel; Nepal -- History
Colonel Kirkpatrick indeed mentions, {222} that some fields yield two
crops of rice successively, the one coarse, and the other fine, besides
affording in the same year a crop of wheat. This, however, I presume,
does not allude to Nepal Proper, but to some of the warmer vallies in the
dominions of Gorkha; as where he goes on, in the 99th page, to describe
the expense of cultivation, he mentions the ploughings, an operation
which is not employed in the agriculture of the Newars.
The first kind of ground produces the crop called Gheya, is the highest,
and there is no necessity for its being absolutely level, as the fields
are not inundated. From the 13th of March to the 11th of April, this
ground is hoed; and, having been well manured with dung collected in the
streets, it is hoed again. A week after this, the field is hoed two or
three times, and is well pulverized with the mallet. About the 12th of
May, after a shower of rain, the field is slightly hoed, and the mould is
broken, and smoothed with the hand. Small drills, at a span’s distance
from each other, are then made by the finger, which is directed straight
by a line. At every span-length in these drills are placed four or five
seeds of the rice, called Uya Dhan, which is the only kind cultivated in
this manner. The seed is covered by the hand, and a very small quantity
only is required. In about five days the young corn comes up in small
tufts, just as if it had been transplanted. From the 13th of June to the
15th of August, when the corn is about a cubit high, the weeds are
removed with the spud. About the latter period, slugs, worms, and
insects, fill all the moister fields in Nepal, and in order to be rid of
them, the farmers keep a great number of ducks, which, at this season,
they turn into the fields, to devour the vermin. The Gheya crop ripens
about the 1st of September, and by the middle of the month the harvest is
finished. The ears only are cut off, and next day the grain is beat out,
and generally dried in the streets. Very little of the crop is made into
Hakuya, a process that will be afterwards mentioned. After the Gheya
crop has been cut, the field is in general cultivated with radishes,
mustard, or some other crop, that is usually sown about the time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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