[8]
But I have not included the groves of mango and tamarind, and other
fine trees with which the district abounds. Two-thirds of the towns
and villages are imbedded in fine groves of these trees, mixed with
the banyan (_Ficus Indica_) and the pipal (_Ficus religiosa_). I am
sorry they were not numbered; but I should estimate them at three
thousand, and the outlay upon a mango grove is, on an average, about
four hundred rupees.
The groves of fruit-trees planted by individuals for the use of the
public, without any view to a return in profit, would in this
district, according to this estimate, have cost twelve lakhs
[12,00,000] more, or about twice the amount of the annual rent of the
whole of the lands. It should be remarked that the whole of these
works had been formed under former governments. Ours was established
in the year 1817.[9]
The Upper Doab and the Delhi Territories were denuded of their trees
in the wars that attended the decline and fall of the Muhammadan
empire, and the rise and progress of the Sikhs, Jats, and Marathas in
that quarter. These lawless freebooters soon swept all the groves
from the face of every country they occupied with their troops, and
they never attempted to renew them or encourage the renewal.
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