Culture in the East Indies.—­The growers on the hills of Nepaul reckon three kinds of maize:  a white grained species, which is generally grown on the hill sides; a yellow grained one, grown in the low and hot valleys; and a smaller one, called “Bhoteah,” or “Murilli Makii,” which is considered the sweetest of the three, but from being less productive is not generally grown on good lands.  Maize thrives best on a siliceous, well-drained, rich soil.  A correspondent in my “Colonial Magazine,” vol. ii. p. 309, says the finest Indian corn he ever saw was in the Himalayas of the Sikim-range, where the soil consists of a substratum of decomposed mica from the under or rocky stratum, with a superstratum of from three to six inches of decayed vegetable matter, from leaves, &c., of the ancient forests.

Throughout Hindostan, June is the usual time for sowing.  In Behar, about two seers are usually sown upon a beggah; in Nepaul, twenty-four seers upon an English acre; in the vicinity of Poonah, one and a-half seer per beggah.  Before the seed is sown the land is usually ploughed two or three times, and no further attention given to the crop than two hoeings.  In Nepaul, where it is the principal crop cultivated, the seed is sown, after one delving and pulverisation of the soil, in the latter end of May and early part of June, in drills, the seeds being laid at intervals of seven or eight inches in the drills, and the drills an equal space apart.  The drills are not raised as for turnip sowing, but consist merely of rows of the plant on a level surface.  The seed is distributed in this manner with the view of facilitating the weeding of the crop, not for the purpose of earthing up the roots, which seems unnecessary.  The Indian corn sowing resembles that of the gohya (or upland) rice, in the careful manner in which it is performed; the sower depositing each grain in its place, having first dibbled a hole for it five or six inches deep, with a small hand hoe, with which he also covers up the grain.

The after-culture of this crop is performed with great care in the valleys, but much neglected in the hills, especially on new and strong lands.  In the former it undergoes repeated weeding during the first month of its growth, the earth being loosened round the roots, at each weeding, with the hand hoe.  After the first loosening of the soil, which is performed as soon as the plants are fairly above ground, a top dressing of ashes or other manure is given.  By this mode the crop gets the immediate benefit of the manure, which otherwise, from the extraordinary rapidity of its growth, could not be obtained by it.  In three months from the time of sowing, the seed is ripe.  The crop is harvested by cutting off the heads.  In Nepaul these are either heaped on a rude scaffolding, near the cultivator’s house, or, more commonly, they are suspended from the branches of the trees close by, where, exposed to wind and weather, the hard and tough sheath of the seed cones preserves the grain for many months uninjured.