5.—Notes on the Agriculture and Rural Economy of the Valley of Nepaul.—By A. Campbell, Esq. Officiating Assistant to the Resident.
[Dr. Campbell has obligingly favored us with a copy of his excellent treatise, under the above title, which forms the 2d fasciculus of the 4th vol. of the Trans. of the A. and H. Society, of which we avail ourselves to introduce the general descriptive portion in this Journal.—Ed.]
The entire surface of the valley of Nepaul is either under regular cultivation, or capable of being so. It is completely free from rocky and stony tracts, as well as sandy wastes; and, with very few exceptions, the fields have a superficial stratum of nutritious soil, a foot or more in thickness. The area of the valley, in the absence of a professional survey, cannot be correctly stated; nor is it easy to make a near approximation to it, on account of the irregular outline formed by the basis of the boundary mountains, which throw spurs inwards in some places more than a mile in length, forming bays or subordinate valleys of considerable extent. The average extreme length from east to west, including the retiring valleys, may be estimated at 20 miles, with an equal breadth, similarly calculated. The valley proper, or such an area as might be squared by drawing a line along the inner extremities of the mountain spurs, has a diameter in either direction of about 15 miles. Within this space however, is included the low ridge of hills which being given off at Dochoke, the western mountain boundary of the valley, runs eastward and by south, crossing the channel of the Bagmutti river, until it terminates in the general level near the village of Sussanally, situated at the south-east corner of the valley. The above limits give as a maximum average of arable surface 400 square miles, or 3,56,000 English acres, and as a minimum average, 222 square miles, or 1,42,000 acres. The former, on account of the hilly portions which intervene in the subordinate valleys, and are but partially cultivated, is considerably I believe beyond the mark, while the latter estimate, from excluding altogether the retiring valleys, is to that extent deficient, as the surface of these subordinate valleys, is of greater extent than the uncultivated proportion of the mountainous spurs which form them. We may I think safely assume as a mean, and correct diameter to the arable land, 18 miles in each direction, which gives an area of 324 square miles, or 2,07,360 English acres asunder, or fit for agricultural operation, and for yielding the higher descriptions of produce. There are precipitous portions of the mountainous faces bounding the valley, particularly on the south and
