Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/228

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150

BAH

The farmers, it is true, state that their Sawaks run away more often than formerly, but this complaint does not seem well founded they can only now escape to Naipdl, but they could formerly run there and anywhere else in Oudh either there were no courts to enforce the bonds and compel the runaway's return. At any rate they engage just as many Sawaks or even more than formerly, but they pay less money for them, possibly because the courts will not recognise this same slavery.



remarks under this head. Ploughing performed in the usual way. Five acres in the upper lands and seven in the Tar^i where the cultivation is mainly of kharif, is considered a fair allowance for one plough. A pair of ordinary plough bullocks cost from Rs. 10 to Rs. 15 per head, but if of such size and strength as to be suitable for road work, a pair will cost Rs. 50 to Rs. 80.

There

is little

calling for special

operaAgricultural tions and instruments.

is

A good pig costs Rs. 3, a male buffalo Rs. 10, a female Rs. 16. A plough complete, including the share, will cost Rs. 1-4. A harrow, is merely a log of wood, may be got for 8 annas ; a pick -axe, more like a hoe, costs 12 annas ; a khurpa for digging up grass and roots costs

which

2 annas.

The entire stock for a farm of five acres will not be worth more than Rs. 35, not including sugar-mill or boiling-pans, which are little required in this district. The subject of the cottier farmer's profits has been treated in detail in the account of Kheri. is less attended to than in other parts of the province, partly perhaps because the rains are more Irrigation. constant, and partly because the popxilation being more sparse and cultivation more careless, less labour is undergone.

In Bahraich irrigation

The whole

of the uparhiCr estimated at 1,200 square miles, needs irrigapeas, sanwan, masur, should be watered from three to five When the September rains close early, as on the 16th September times. 1873, the rice also requires copious irrigation. As there were no sufiicient means at hand it dried up in the year in question.

Wheat,

tion.

The

area irrigated recorded in the settlement papers is entered at 43,128 this is wholly incorrect, being only 5 per cent, of the total acreage probably 200,000 acres are commonly irrigated whenever wheat or garden crops are grown. More wells are visible from the Bahraich and Gonda road than from any other Oudh highway which I have seen. Irrigation is conducted partly from rivers and tanks, but mainly from unlined wells at which the dhenklis described in the Kheri and Bara Banki articles are used. On the average, water is met with at 10 to 14 haths, or 15 to 21 feet from the surface in the uparhar. The levers are worked all day two men will water eight to ten local biswas in a day, so the water-supply an acre wiU then be watered once in eleven is better than in Bara Banki days at a cost of Rs. 2-1, each labourer costiag one anna and a half Wheat, which takes three waterings, will cost Rs, 6-3 per acre, and with the acres,

but