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 districts, millets and cotton in Bundelkhand and wheat in the greater part of the Gangetic plain. The pulses mung, ard and moth are grown generally in the autumn alone, or in combination with millets; and gram, alone or in combination with wheat and barley, is an important spring crop. Sugar-cane, indigo, poppy and tobacco are locally important; and a little tea is grown in the submontane districts of Almora Garhwal and Dehra Dun.

Land Tenure.—Owing to historical reasons, the system of land tenure is not uniform. In the Benares division, which was the first portion to come under British administration, the land revenue was permanently fixed in 1795, on the same principles that had been previously adopted in Bengal; and there a special class of tenants, as well as the landlords, enjoy a privileged status. Throughout the rest of the province of Agra, almost all of which was acquired between 1801 and 1803, temporary settlements are in force, usually for a term of thirty years, the revenue being assessed at one-half of the “assets” or estimated rental value. The settlement is made with the landholders or zamindars, who are frequently a group of persons holding distinct shares in the land, and may be themselves petty cultivators. No proprietary rights superior to those of the actual landowners are recognized. The only privileged class of tenants are those possessing “occupancy” rights, as defined by statute. These rights, which are heritable but not transferable, protect the tenant against eviction, except for default in payment of rent, while the rent may not be enhanced except by mutual agreement or by order of a revenue court. “Occupancy” rights are acquired by continuous cultivation for ten years, but the cultivation need not be of the same holding. All other tenants are merel tenants-at-will. In Oudh, after the convulsion of the Mutiny, all rights in land were confiscated at a stroke, and the new system adopted was in the nature of a treaty between the state and the talukdars, or great landlords. These talukdars had not all the same origin. Many were Rajput chiefs, ruling over their tribesmen by ancient hereditary right; while others were officials or court favourites, who had acquired power and property during the long period of native misrule. On all the same status was now conferred—a status that has no analogy in the rest of India. By sanad (or patent) and by legislation the talukdars were declared to possess permanent, heritable and transferable rights, with the special privilege of alienation, either in lifetime or by will, notwithstanding the limits imposed by Hindu or Mahommedan law. In addition most of them follow the rule of primogeniture, while a power of entail has recently been granted. The estates of talukdars extend over more than half the total area of Oudh. No “occupancy” rights based on continuous cultivation are recognized in Oudh, but similar rights, here known as “sub-proprietary,” were granted to all those who had possessed them within thirty years before annexation. On the other hand, there are no tenants-at-right in Oudh. Any person admitted to the cultivation of land is entitled to hold it for seven years at the same rent, which may not be advanced by more than 6%, at the end of the term.

Manufactures.—The principal manufactures are those of sugar, indigo and coarse cotton cloth. Ornamental metal-work is made at Benares. Among the factories on the English model are the Elgin and Muir cotton mills at Cawnpore, the Cawnpore tanneries and leather factories, the Shahjahanpur rum distillery, and breweries at Mussoorie and Naini Tal. There are also woollen and jute mills, iron and brass foundries, lac factories and oil-mills. The manufacture of synthetic indigo by German chemists has greatly affected the growth and manufacture of indigo, the indigo factories decreasing in 1904-1905 from 402 to 252.

Trade.—The export trade is chiefly confined to agricultural produce. The principal staples include wheat, oilseeds, raw cotton, indigo, sugar, molasses, timber and forest produce, dry-stuffs. ghec, opium and tobacco. The imports consist mainly of English piece goods, metal-work, manufactured wares, salt and European goods. he chief centres of trade are Cawnpore, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Benares, Meerut and Moradabad.

Irrigation.—The Doab is intersected by canals drawn from the goat rivers. The major productive works are the upper and lower anges, the eastern jumna, and the Agra canals. The greatest work in the province, and one of the greatest irrigation works in the world, is the upper Ganges canal, which is taken from the river where it leaves the hills, some 2 m. above Hardwar. In the first 20 m. of its course this gigantic canal crosses four great torrents, which bring down immense volumes of water in the rainy season. The first two are carried in massive aqueducts over the canal, the third is passed through the canal by a level-crossing, regulated by drop-gates, and the canal is taken over the fourth by an aqueduct. The total length of the main canal is 213 m., navigable throughout, and designed to irrigate 1,500,000 acres. The lower Ganges canal is taken from the river at Narora, 149 m. below Hardwar. After crossing in 55 m. four great drainage lines, it cuts into the Cawnpore. and 7 m. lower down into the Etawah, branches of the upper Ganges canal. These branches are now below the point of intersection, part of the lower Ganges canal system. The irrigating capacity of this canal is 1,250,000 acres.

Railways.—The province is well supplied with railways. The main line of the East Indian runs throughout south of the Ganges, which is bridged at Benares and Cawnpore. North of the river the Oudh & Rohilkhand system connects- with Bengal and with the Punjab. From Allahabad, Cawnpore and Agra trade finds an outlet to the sea at Bombay as well as at Calcutta.

Administration.—The administration is conducted by a lieutenant-governor, with five secretaries and live under-secretaries. There is no executive council; but the board of revenue, consisting of two members, exercises important executive duties, and is also the highest court of appeal in revenue and rent cases. For legislative purposes the lieutenant-governor has a council, first constituted in 1886, and enlarged in 1909. It now consists of 48 members, of whom 28 are nominated, and the remainder are elected by local bodies, landholders, Mahommedans, &c. In Agra the chartered high court sitting at Allahabad, and in Oudh the court of the judicial commissioner, sitting at Lucknow, have final jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases, subject to appeal to the privy council. The former is composed of a chief justice and six puisne judges appointed by the Crown; the latter of a judicial commissioner and two additional judicial commissioners. For ordinary purposes of administration the provinces are divided into nine divisions, each under a commissioner, and into 48 districts, each under a collector or deputy commissioner. Two native states are attached to the United Provinces-Rampur and Garhwal.

Population.—Out of a total population in 1901 of 47,691,782 no fewer than 40,691,818, or over 85% were Hindus, and 6,731,034 or 14% Mahommedans. The total number of persons belonging to all the other religions-Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsees, Christians, Jews, Aryas and Brahmoswas only 268,930, or less than 0.6%. While nearly fifty languages in all are spoken in the provinces, out of every 10,006 people 4527 speak Western Hindi, 3125 Eastern Hindi, 2109 Bihari and 211 Central Pahari.

History.—If the present limits be slightly extended in either direction so as to include Delhi and Patna, the United Provinces would contain the area on which almost the whole drama of Indian history has been played. Here lay the scene, known as Madhya Desa or “middle country,” of the second period of Aryan colonization, when the two great epics, the Mahabhārata and Ramayana, were probably composed, and when the religion of Brahmanism took form. Here Buddha was born, preached and died. Here arose .the successive dynasties of -Asoka, of the Guptas, and of Harshavardhana, which for a thousand years exercised imperial sway over the greater part of India. Here is Ajodhya, the home of Rama, the most popular of Hindu demigods; and also Benares and Muttra, the most sacred of Hindu shrines. Here too were the Mahommedan capitals-Delhi, Agra, Allahabad, Jaunpur and Lucknow. Here finally, at the crisis of the Mutiny, British dominion was permanently established in India.

The political vicissitudes through which this tract of country passed in earlier times are described under : History. It will be sufficient here to trace the steps by which it passed under British rule. In 1765, after the battle of Buxar, when the nawab of Oudh had been decisively defeated and Shah Alam, the Mogul emperor, was a suppliant in the British camp, Lord Clive was content to claim no acquisition of territory. The whole of Oudh was restored to the Nawab, and Shah Alam received as an imperial apanage the province of Allahabad and Kora in the lower Doab, with a British garrison in the fort of Allahabad. Warren Hastings augmented the territory of Oudh by lending the nawab a British army to conquer Rohilkhand, and by making over to him Allahabad and Kora on the ground that Shah Alam had placed himself in the power of the Mahrattas. At the same time he received from Oudh the sovereignty over the province of Benares. Subsequently no great change took place until the arrival of Lord Wellesley, who acquired a very large accession of territory in two instalments. In 1801 he obtained from the nawab of Oudh the cession of Rohilkhand, the lower Doab, and the Gorakhpur division, thus enclosing Oudh on all sides except the north. In 1804, as the result of Lord Lake's victories in the Mahratta War, the rest of the Doab and part of Bundelkhand, together with