Immediately after the Puya crop has been cut, the ground is formed into beds by throwing the earth out of parallel trenches upon the intermediate spaces. On these about the middle of November is sown wheat, or sometimes a little barley. These ripen without farther trouble, and are cut from the 12th of April to the 12th of May. The seed for a rupini is stated to be one pati, and the produce is stated to be two muris. This would make the seed about the fifth part of a bushel an acre, and the produce about fourteen bushels; but this seems to me greatly exaggerated. I have never seen more wretched crops, and most of the fields of wheat are quite choked with hemp, (_Cannabis sativa_,) which in Nepal is a troublesome and useless weed. The wheat and barley are mostly used for making fermented or distilled liquors.
Pangdu Kodo, or Maruya, is the _Cynosurus Corocanus_ of Linnæus, of which I saw much growing on some of the higher parts of the plain. It seems to thrive well. The Maruya is sown from the 13th of June to the 14th of July, and twenty days afterwards is transplanted. It is ripe about the middle of September, and produces four muris a rupini.
In thrashing this corn, Colonel Crawford saw the Newars [Picture: Flail] using a kind of flail, an implement which I have never observed in India. Three pieces of Bamboo, about eighteen inches long, were fastened together in a parallel manner, at about a finger’s breadth asunder, and then fixed to a peg, which passed through a hole in the end of a longish pole that was a little bent. The instrument seemed to require considerable dexterity in its management, but appeared to answer the purpose intended.
The Sana Kodo of the Parbatiyas is probably the Paspalum kora of Wildenow. It also is transplanted, ripens in October and November, and produces as much as the Pangdu Kodo.
The Muccai and Muruli of the Parbatiyas are both by the Newars called _Kaunguni_, and are varieties of the _Holcus sorghum_. They are chiefly planted in the small vallies that open into the plain, and on high terraces, that have a bad supply of water.
The Urid, or Kala Mas of the Parbatiyas, is by the Newars called May; and Dr Roxburgh, in his manuscripts, calls it _Phaseolus minimoo_, from its Telinga name. In Nepal this is the most common pulse. It is sown about the 1st of July, and reaped about the 1st of September. A rupini produces about ten patis, or an acre about three bushels and a half.