The love of country and the passion for possessing land are strong throughout Rajputana: while there is a hope of existence the cultivator clings to the _bapota_, and in Haraoti this _amor patriae_ is so invincible, that, to use their homely phrase, “he would rather fill his _pet_ in slavery there, than live in luxury abroad.” But where could they fly to escape oppression? All around was desolation; armies perambulated the country, with rapid strides, in each other’s train, “one to another still succeeding.” To this evil Kotah was comparatively a stranger; the Protector was the only plunderer within his domains. Indeed, the inhabitants of the surrounding States, from the year 1865, when rapine was at its height, flocked into Kotah, and filled up the chasm which oppression had produced in the population. But with the banishment of predatory war, and the return of industry to its own field of exertion, this panacea for the wounds which the ruler has inflicted will disappear; and although the vast resources of the regent’s mind may check the appearance of decay, while his faculties survive to superintend this vast and complicated system, it must ultimately, from the want of a principle of permanence, fall into rapid disorganization. We proceed to the details [541] of the system, which will afford fresh proofs of the talent, industry, and vigilance of this singular character. =Agriculture in Kotah.=—The soil of Kotah is a rich tenacious mould, resembling the best parts of lower Malwa. The single plough is unequal to breaking it up, and the regent has introduced the plough of double yoke from the Konkan. His cattle are of the first quality, and equally fit for the park or the plough. He purchases at all the adjacent fairs, chiefly in his own dominions, and at the annual _mela_ (fair) of his favourite city Jhalrapatan.[10.8.3] He has tried those of Marwar and of the desert, famed for a superior race of cattle; but he found that the transition from their sandy regions to the deep loam of Haraoti soon disabled them.