On the resumption of rent-free lands, even the ground
on which the finest of these groves stand has been recklessly
resumed, and the proprietors told me that they may keep the trees
they have, but cannot be allowed to renew them, as the lands are
become the property of Government. The lands of groves that have been
the pride of families for a century and a half have been thus
resumed. Government is not aware of the irreparable mischief they do
the country they govern by such measures.[7]
On my way back from Meerut, after the conversation already related
with the farmer of a small village (_ante_, chapter 58, text at [7]),
my tents were one day pitched, in the month of December, amidst some
very fine garden cultivation in the district of Aligarh;[8] and in
the evening I walked out as usual to have some talk with the
peasantry. I came to a neighbouring well at which four pair of
bullocks were employed watering the surrounding fields of wheat for
the market, and vegetables for the families of the cultivators. Four
men were employed at the well, and two more in guiding the water into
the little embanked squares into which they divide their fields.
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