Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/179

 KHE 171 entire cost of labour of cattle and men will be Rs. 10 per acre, not includ- ing that of the fodder consumed by the cattle, wbich is worth from four to five rupees per acre, and the seed which cost Rs. 2,—total Rs. 17 per acre. But another mode of calculation may be adopted. Supposing 92 days' adult male labour to be required for an acre, five acros will require 460 days, and allowing three hundred working days per annum, this will be just the labour of a man and a boy, exactly what an ordinary Hindu peasant family will be able to supply. Therefore five acres of wheat will cost the ordicary expenses of a Hindu fainily and a pair of bullocks. I have estimated the proper expenses of an average family of four persons at Rs. 55 per annum, and those of a pair of bullocks at Rs. 12, Therefore the whole labour cost of five acres of wheat will be Rs. 67, seed will be Rs. 10, and rent Rs. 30, total Rs. 107, or including price of fodder Rs. 132; and if Mr. Halsey's estimate of the crop is correct, the tenant will get Rs. 160 worth of wheat, leaving him a handsome profit. But 16 maunds of wheat is, as admitted by Mr. Halsey, much above the average crop, and 20 sers far above the average price paid to the tenant who must sell at harvest time to pay his rent taking the crop at 14 maunds and the price at 26 sers, the value of the five acres, excluding straw, will be Rs. 109, leaving the tenant a balance of Rs. 2, or 6 annas per acre, to cover the risk of bad seasons, sickness, murrain, and the other casualties to which Indian farming is exposed. This is evidently not enougb, and the balance must be made up by diminished expenditure on the part of the family: the only margiu they can draw on is their food, so they cat less grain and more wild roots and fruits. It is evident that Mr. Halsey's calculations, which assume a considerable profit on gram, and a consider- able loss on wheat, must be erroneous. If this were the case gram would be sown exclusively and wheat abandoned. If average prices, crops, and labour are given, as ought to be the case, there must be a fault somewbere. Mr. Hume and Mr. Halsey are right in showing that small farming in India does not pay as well as working on the public roads, but they have both, in my opinion, over-estimated alike the cost of production and the value of the produce. Having made these remarks, I now give Mr. Halsey's valuable table and remarks in full. It appears that every crop, according to him, brings a certain loss to the cultivator except gram, and certain cereals when irri- gated from canals. Mr. Hume's estimate is still more remarkable; he assumes a loss on every crop except bájra, which is almost unknown in parts of Oudh, and canal-irrigated wheat, which is entirely unknown.