Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886. Empire of India. Special catalogue of exhibits by the Government of India and private exhibitors. Royal Commission and Government of India silk culture court. Descriptive catalogue / by Thomas Wardle.

Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886. Empire of India. Special catalogue of exhibits by the Government of India and private exhibitors. Royal Commission and Government of India silk culture court. Descriptive catalogue / by Thomas Wardle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a embankmonts are formed. The driver can I ho implement on either side to till a hollow •will. {Miscellaneous. — 1. Tobaeeo liner, Bombay. Rice draw cart or sledge, Bombay. 3. llioe nw cart or sledge, Burma, J, size. As in England the seed drill with seed cup moved is used to mark out a tiehl for planting ibages, the drill being drawn across the field Id then at right angles to the first journey, cabbages being planted at the intersections, iis the tobacco liner used in Gujarat, and so ■ctively that the bullock hoes can pass safely :se to young plants both along the rows and •isswise. No marks are set up, no steering es to guide the driver, and yet the exactness the work is remarkable. The implement, ich is made of teak wood with iron tines, is *'d for other garden crops besides tobacco. ITlic rice sledge is a most ingenious coutri- lce. The platform is so made that all the ts give easily. On it the seedlings are laid neat bundles, and it is drawn by bullocks r the embankments, and through the ruts 1 waterways of the rice fields where no carts aid go, and yet without dropping one bundle seedlings. The traces are attached to the il with curved rows. This sledge has probably •n introduced into the rice-growing districts itho Deccan from Burma. Viand Implements.— 1. Picks and mattocks nn Bombay, Madias, North-Western Pie- ces, &c. 2. Hoe or spade from Bombay, irth-Western Provinces, Bengal. Uhe double-bladed picks and mattocks in tlinary use among labourers are of the English ppe and not uncommonly of English mauu- iture. They are employed to a very limited ent, if at all, in agriculture; but for digging in fly tracts, in mines, in the repair of roads, and • excavation of road metal, as in all other rk of a similar nature where hard-pointed gers are needed, the pick is used by day tourers or coolies, to whom they are usually wed out by the employer or contractor. Several special forms of picks are, however, d in agriculture for hoeing crops, working the soil, digging out deep-rooted weeds which mint be removed by the plough, &c. In ueral appearance they resemble the hoe, but blade is pointed, the iron part much heavier n in the English hand hoe, and the handle, 1 rule, much shorter. In Upper India, only most paying crops, such as sugar-cane, pota- rs, and other vegetables are cultivated with pick, but among the ruder cultivators in fly tracts it is the only instrument u.-ed for paring the field. Amongst them it takes place of the plough, of which it is probably origin. All that is needed to convert the ig-kmdled pick of the hill districts of Bombay instance into a plough is to make it larger, H a stilt and put on a yoke, r’or earth-work and digging purposes genc- .V, whenever the nature of the soil does not •uire the use of the pick, the hoe (ver. Phaora) 2 is used. It appears to be an adaptation of the English hoc, but is much broader, and is really a spado with the handle bent at right angles to the blade. It is an invaluable instru- ment to the cultivator in digging earth for his hut, building the walls of his fields, cutting irrigation channels, and a hundred other pur- poses. 3. Weeding hook, Bombay, Beneal, &c. 4. Spud, Madras, North-Western Provinces, &c. 5. Scraper, Madras, North-Western Provinces, &c. The weeding hook is used for weeding crops by hand, and for garden purposes generally. It is made in various sizes, and while some forms have an inner saw edge, others have two plain edges. As a rule the blade is made of steel welded on to the iron bar which is inserted into the wooden haft. In the North-Western Provinces, the spud or the scraper (No. 5) takes the ] dace of the weeding hook. The spud is the favourite implement of gardeners, and the scraper, which differs from the spud in having a broader blade closing up to the handle which is bent, is indispensable to the agricul- turist. For all sorts of digging and cutting which is done in England by the gardener’s knife, shovel, billhook, hand hoe, &c., the scraper (ver. Khurpi) serves in India. The cultivator scrapes grass for his cattle with it, digs holes, grubs and weeds fields, and when required to cut string, peel fruit, &c., he makes it answer the purposes of a pocket-knife (a luxury of which he is rarely the possessor). 6. Sickle, Bombay, Madras, Central Provinces, North-Western Provinces, &c. 7. Choppers, North-Western Provinces, Ajmere, &c. 8. Bill- hooks, Madras, Bombay, Burma, &c. 9. Hatchets, Madras, North-Western Provinces, Bombay, &c. The hand-sickle or reaping-hook is employed throughout India, and shows great similarity of form. In Bombay it is provided with a saw edge when used to cut rice, while the large millets are reaped with the plain edged sickle. The practice of carrying the sickle in a wooden scabbard is also peculiar to Southern India- Tall grasses as well as crops are gathered with the sickle, which also serves for the lopping and clearing of brushwood in Upper India, where the billhook is seldom used. The chopper or chaffcutter (ver. Gandasa) is indispensable to every North-Western Provinces peasant who owns cattle. It is used principally for chopping up the stalks of the large millets, reaped between August and December. To this work the cultivator devotes himself after his day’s labour in the field, and in two hours is able to chop enough fodder for one day’s con- sumption of four oxen. The stalks are held in the left hand, and chopped with the chopper held in the right hand into pieces half an inch in length, as they are slowly moved over a flat log of wood. Billhooks, as already noted, are not much in vogue in North-Western India, but in Burma, Assam, and Bengal, an instrument called duo or dd is universally used for the purposes for which the billhook and hatchet are intended.