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Calcutta 14 March 1792
Dear Sir
Enclosd I send you a specification of the Fruit Trees Kitchen Garden Plants & Seeds alimentary & oil grains peculiar to Bengal, on the cultivation of which I have only to offer the following few remarks
On the taking off of the rains here generally in the middle of Octr. the following Alimentary Grains are sowed vizt Wheat - Barley - Peas - Vetches & Oil Grains - & generally ripe & cut down in the course of Jany & Feby - & as there is no dependance on the falling of Rain during the intermediate period of their rising to maturity, these grains are waterd when found necessary by irrigation from reservoirs & wells constructed for this purpose & the ground accordingly laid out for this species of cultivation.
The Rice is commonly sown in April & May & raised 6 or 8 inches above ground by the casual showers which fall before the setting in of the Rain about the middle of June which generally covers the field some inches with water, in which it ripens & is cut down in August & September.
But there are two crops of this article raised from grounds particularly situated vizt - that already specified when the inundation does not rise but a few inches above the root - or where by a command of water it can be occasionally inundated or laid dry - ground under this description will produce three crops in the course of the year - the second species of land which continued overflowd from the setting in of the rains, or strongly drenchd in moisture until Decr - land under this description affords only one crop in the year & cut down in Decr & Jany is the most esteemd & it matters not to what height the inundation rises, if even to 10 or 12 feet provided it is not suddenly effected, so as to allow the Rice to rise & keep its top above the surface - draught or sudden rise above the germ entailing the destruction of the Crop which then can only be renewed by setts of Grain transplanted from higher grounds of sufficient length to over top the inundation.