Buchanan’s journe¥ through

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This part of the country, although at present naked, seems capable of railing treesand hedges; and (hows evident appearances of its being in a date of improvement,there being in view many new plantations, efpecially of fruit-trees, and coco-nutpalms.

Leaving on the right the road to Poonamalee, I went to Condaturu, near whichthe country affumes a very different and a very pleafmg afpect. Numerous fmallcanals, from the Saymbrumbacum tank, convey a condant fupply of water to mod ofthe neighbouring fields, and fertilize them without the trouble of machinery. Theyconfequently yield every year two crops of rice. The one at prefent on the groundwill be reaped in June, and has a very promifing appearance.

Inftead of preventing the crops from being cut down, till the rent is paid, as isufual in Bengal, the cudom here is, to collect the grain in hacks, or heaps, after ithas been thrafhed out on the field. In order to guard againd embezzlement, feveralpieces of clay, damped with a feal, are then put on the furface of the heap; and,to prevent injury from the weather, it is thatched. The grain continues in thefeheaps, till the cultivator is able to fatisfy the renter, either by advancing money, or bydividing the produce. In every village a particular officer, called Talliari, keeps watchat night, and is anfwerable for all that may be dolen.

The cattle in the neighbourhood of Madras are of the fpecies which is common tothe Decan ; but much fmaller than thofe which are brought from the northern partsof that country. They feem, however, to be larger than the cattle produced in thefouthern parts of Bengal. They are modly light-brown, or white, and, notwith-danding the apparent want of padure, are in better condition than the labouring cattleof Bengal, owing, probably, to the fuperior care that is taken of the rice draw by theinhabitants of Madras. Milch cows are fed entirely on grafs; grain, or pulie, israrely given to fuch cattle as are not employed in hard labour.

Near Madras, buffaloes are in general ufe, and are often yoked in the fame cartwith bullocks, although the paces of the two animals are very different. The buf-faloes here are much fmaller than in Bengal.

24th April.— I fet out early, and foon arrived at Saymbrumbacum tank, whichis of great extent. It has not been formed by digging, like thofe in Bengal; butby /hutting up, with an artifical bank, an opening between two natural ridges ofground. The /heet of water is faid to be feven or eight miles in length, and threein width; and in the dry feafon is let out in fmall dreams, as wanted for cultivation.In the rainy feafon it receives a fupply of water from the river Chir-nadi, and fromfeveral fmall dreams that are collefted by a canal. As at times the water overflows,and would break down the bank by falling over it, and flapping its foundations, thenatives in different places condruft what they call codies, or fluceis of done. Thefeare twenty or thirty feet wide, and are lower by fome feet than the other parts ofthe bank. On the furface, they are drongly fortified by large dones placed in adoping direction; fo that the water ruffles over without undermining the bank, andis conveyed away from the fields by a canal. This is a matter of the utmod import-ance ; for there are indances where, the banks of thefe large tanks having givenway, whole villages have been dedroyed by the torrent. In order, however, thatwhen there is plenty of rain, the tank may be completely filled, a row of done pillarsis placed on the top of the fluiceand, on the water rifing to a level with their bafe,a temporary wall is formed of mud, dicks, and draw, placed between the pillars, fo.as to confine the water till it rifes as high as the top of the bank. People watch this