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BIJ

309

The

area of the pargana is 148 square miles, but of this only 67 are and probably the limit of cultivation has been reached. The pargana is entirely cut ap by barren lisar tracts. The barren land amounts to 43'5 of the whole area, and though nominally there is 11-3 per cent, of culturable land, some 22 per cent, of this is devoted to groves, and the cultivated,

rest is probably

worth very little. Owing to the fisar plains, the pargana bare and desolate in the extreme. Towards the western extremity the land lies low, and has resulted in the formation of a series of jhils, which, connected one with the other, end in the Bank nadi, which flows south, and passing by the town of Mohanlalganj, falls into the Sai at the south of pargana Sissaindi. These jhils drain the eastern part of the pargana, and the western is drained by the Nagwa nadi, which rises in the Mohdn pargana of Unao, and receiving two or three affluents that flow from the north of the pargana, falls into the Sai river a little to the west of the Cawnpore road. Neither jhils nor the streams are fully made use of for irrigation on account of the barren nature of the soil lying on their banks, but nearly 62 per cent, of the whole soil is irrigated, of which 8217 is from jhils and tanks and the rest from weUs. In the latter, water can apparently be met at 20 feet below the surface of the soil, but the average depth is small. More than half the wells are of brackish water, which is probably owing to the lisar plains. The soil is dumat, matidr, and 6Mr. Matiar is high owing to the jhils, and the bhur is due to the Sai river, which washes the southern boundary of the pargana. is

The cultivation is very fair round the villages. pulses are grown, and a great deal of rice round the The

cultivators are

numbers



and the low

Brahmans and Chhattris caste Ahirs, Lodhs, Basis,

All the cereals and jhils.

more than the usual and Chamars, Kachhis,

in

or Muraos, are fairly numerous.

The average holdings of the cultivators are, on the whole, small. They are only 3^ acres per cultivator. The average rates for the ordinary cultivator vary from Es. .5-4 to Rs. 4-4, and the Kachhis do not pay more than E.S. 5-12 per a,cre, which is unusually low. On the whole, it cannot be pronounced to be a good pargana even for its cultivation, for where the land is even slightly touched by usar, the crops, though apparently Yet round the large villages sugarcane and all the fine, are usually light. The revenue falls at Re. 1 per acre on whole area, finer crops are grown. Rs. 1-5 on mSlguzari area, and Rs. 2-4 on cultivated area.

The pargana is divided into 102 villages or townships, and 111 different muhals, and the average area of a village is 940 square acres. This is large, and is due to the lisar plains already mentioned. The largest town is Bijnaur, which contains 3,950 inhabitants. It lies about 8 miles to the south of Lucknow, The only remaining towns with a population of more than 2,000 are Rahimnagar Bandi^wS,n, Amosi, and There are twelve others with a population of between 1 and 2,000 Ani. they are Banthra, Behta, Bhatg^on, Pipars and, Parwar Pachchim, Tirwa, Jaiti Khera, Kharka, K^lipachchim, Mati, and Narainpur.

Of

these, schools are in Banthra,

Bhatgaon, and Narainpur, as well as