Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/177

 KHE 169 If the tenant occupies second class land such as will only produce the inferior grains, kodo, millet, &c., his position is still worse, unless, as is usually the case, he has a niuch larger area of land under cultivatiou. True, the tenant will only pay about Rs. 2-8-0 per acre, or Rs. 3-12-0 for a tenure of average size; but it will only produce about 500 lbs. per acre, or 750 lbs. in all, and this will not be worth more than Rs. 10-10-0 at 70 lbs. per rupee. However, when the crop is not wheat, two crops are generally sown, and two harvests renped in the year, the second being always of smaller produce and worth about half the first, or Rs. 16-0-0 in all. From this sum must be deducted. rent Rs. 3-12-0, and cost of bullocks, &c., Rs. 2-0-0, in all Rs. 5-12-0; and the value of the crop remain- ing to the cultivator will be Rs. 10-4-1, little more than half the sum re- quired to provide him with food and clothing. In the above calculation care has been taken not to exaggerate; no second crop was allowed for in the wheat lands because in this district wheat is generally sown in fallow lands, and when a first or autumn crop has been taken, the wheat produce will be so much less than what is assumed, that the whole value of both crops will hardly exceed that of whcat alone. If the tenant gives a proportion of the crop to his landlord, it will be at least three-sevenths of the whole in good land. Now the crop will be 1,200 lbs. in the average holding of one and a half acre and the tenant will only keep four-sevenths of this, or 685 lbs., value Rs. 14. From this must be deducted Rs. 3, cost of bullocks, agricultural imple- ments, &c., and Rs. 11 will be the balance left for a year's maintenance. The above remarks refer generally to the district of Kheri which is one as a whole of backward cultivation and inferior crops ; but in the parganas of Haidarabad, Muhamdi, Pasgawan, Kasta, Kheri and others there are large communities of peasants who by high cultivation bave so improved the capacities of the soil that it is now equal to any in Oudh, The following remarks and quotations refer to similar superior farming and beavier crops. The subject is of such importance that it is desirable to present it in different aspects and with all natural varieties of circum- stance. The expenses of cultivation have been estimated very differently in- deed by various officers. Two of the very best authorities in India, Mr. Hume and Mr. Halsey, in a series of elaborate calculations have proved that cultivation is carried on at a loss." The fact remains," says Mr. Halsey,* " that after payment of the rent the margin left for the cultiva- tor's subsistence is less than the value of the labour he has expended on his land." This fact is perhaps true, but not to the same degree and for the exact reasons which Mr. Halsey assigns. I will take his estimate of the amount of bullock and human labour necessary for the various ope- rations, but place my own valuation on its cost. On this the whole ques- tion turns; for the price of seed is a minor item which can be exactly de- termined, and rent is tolerably well known. Mr. Halsey assumes that a bullock costs three annas per day and human labour one anna and a half.
 * Magistrate of Cawapore, a district aljoining Oudh.