At Adowa, and all the neighbourhood, they have three harvests annually. Their first seed time is in July and August; it is the principal one for wheat, which they then sow in the middle of the rains. In the same season they sow tocusso, teff, and barley. From the 20th of November they reap first their barley, then their wheat, and last of all their teff. In room of these they sow immediately upon the same ground, without any manure, barley, which they reap in February; and then often sow teff, but more frequently a kind of veitch, or pea, called Shimbra; these are cut down before the first rains, which are in April. With all these advantages of triple harvests, which cost no fallowing, weeding, manure, or other expensive processes, the farmer in Abyssinia is always poor and miserable.
In Tigré it is a good harvest that produces nine after one, it scarcely ever is known to produce ten; or more than three after one, for peas. The land, as in Egypt, is set to the highest bidder yearly; and like Egypt it receives an additional value, depending on the quantity of rain that falls and its situation more or less favourable for leading water to it. The landlord furnishes the seed under condition to receive half the produce; but I am told he is a very indulgent master that does not take another quarter for the risk he has run; so that the quantity that comes to the share of the husbandman is not more than sufficient to afford sustenance for his wretched family.
The soil is white clay, mixed with sand, and has as good appearance as any I have seen. I apprehend a deficiency of the crop is not from the barrenness of the soil, but from the immense quantity of field-rats and mice that over-runthe
