Drills are got out, overhauled, and put in thorough repair.  Bags of seed are sent out to the villages, advances for bullocks are given to the ryots, and on a certain day when all seems favourable—­no sign of rain or high winds—­the drills are set at work, and day and night the work goes on, till all the cultivation has been sown.  As the drills go along, the hengha follows close behind, covering the seed in the furrows; and once again it is put over, till the fields are all level, shining, and clean, waiting for the first appearance of the young soft shoots.

These, after some seven, nine, or perhaps fifteen days, according to the weather, begin to appear in long lines of delicate pale yellowish green.  This is a most anxious time.  Should rain fall, the whole surface of the earth gets caked and hard, and the delicate plant burns out, or being chafed against the hard surface crust, it withers and dies.  If the wind gets into the east, it brings a peculiar blight which settles round the leaf and collar of the stem of the young plant, chokes it, and sweeps off miles and miles of it.  If hot west winds blow, the plant gets black, discoloured, burnt up, and dead.  A south wind often brings caterpillars—­at least this pest often makes its appearance when the wind is southerly; but as often as not caterpillars find their way to the young plant in the most mysterious manner,—­no one knowing whence they come.  Daily, nay almost hourly, reports come in from all parts of the zillah:  now you hear of ‘Lahee,’ blight on some field; now it is ‘Ihirka,’ scorching, or ‘Pilooa,’ caterpillars.  In some places the seed may have been bad or covered with too much earth, and the plant comes up straggling and thin.  If there is abundant moisture, this must be re-sown.  In fact, there is never-ending anxiety and work at this season, but when the plant has got into ten or fifteen leaf, and is an inch or two high, the most critical time is over, and one begins to think about the next operation, namely WEEDING.

The coolies are again in requisition.  Each comes armed with a coorpee,—­this is a small metal spatula, broad-pointed, with which they dig out the weeds with amazing deftness.  Sometimes they may inadvertently take out a single stem of indigo with the weeds:  the eye of the mate or Tokedar espies this at once, and the careless coolie is treated to a volley of Hindoo Billingsgate, in which all his relations are abused to the seventh generation.  By the time the first weeding is finished, the plant will be over a foot high, and if necessary a second weeding is then given.  After the second weeding, and if any rain has fallen in the interim, the plant will be fully two feet high.

It is now a noble-looking expanse of beautiful green waving foliage.  As the wind ruffles its myriads of leaves, the sparkle of the sunbeams on the undulating mass produces the most wonderful combinations of light and shade; feathery sprays of a delicate pale green curl gracefully all over the field.  It is like an ocean of vegetation, with billows of rich colour chasing each other, and blending in harmonious hues; the whole field looking a perfect oasis of beauty amid the surrounding dull brown tints of the season.