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[Page 3]
not a single particle of its volatility evaporates, which grains of all kind so strongly require to promote their vegetation, and which commonly in Europe exhales by the heat or severity of the climate / a long time before the grain is put into the ground.
I found the districts of Boynegare which are more abundant in dews than the adjacent districts, on account of their high situation planted in tufts on the declivity with the same grain from which I conclude that it will do well in different mountaineous districts in the West Indies where other grain cant be cultivated for want of sufficient lodgement of water.
N - 4 - Chana, or Gram, the produce of this pulse is so abundant, that the inhabitants of Dolca Purgunah are enabled to spare it as common food for their cattle, it is sown in the beginning of the cold season into narrow furrows at the depth of 8 inches and about a foot from each other its vegetation is remarkably quick and generally ripens six week after the first sowing. This grain has a particular and uncommon quality, for it not only furnishes the inhabitants with a nourishing dish, the horses and black cattle with good grain but likewise, as all the Guzarat Purgunah are deprived of the luxury of Tody, for want of Cocoanut trees of which there is not a single tree, nature has furnished them instead, with this grain that supplyes the above deficiency. This is the dew which is gathered from this plant when it is in it full growth, the method of collecting it is in the following manner. Every morning by daylight the inhabitants repair to their respective districts before the sun drys up the moistness that is lodged during the night on the stalks, which the females take up by clean callico cloth, and drain it out into small hand jaars as the cloth gets impregnated with it, after which they leave it for a few days to ferment and then pour it into earthen reservoirs which they secure from air with lime and cowdung. In a short period this dew turns to a powerfull acid and furnishes the inhabitants when mixed with water in the hot season not only with a healthy but likewise a pleasant beverage. The better sort of people mix it additionaly with sugar which is then superior to any sherbet I drank in the Mogul Territory.
It is likewise considered by the inhabitants as the best antidote against all venoms, especially those occasioned by the bite of the venomous snackes.
The soil for this grain is commonly chosen of a heavy black clay.