Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/182

 17 KHE cart, and six men for two days at 1 anna 6 pie; weeding once, twenty men; watering three times by well; one pair of hullocks irrigates an acre in eight days at 6 annas, two men at 1 anna 6 píe; by canal, double lifts, eight men will irrigate one acre in two days at 2 annas each, one man to. guide the water at 1 anna 6 pie, water-rate 1 rupee 8 annas ; hy canal flow, water-rate 2 rupees 4 annas, one man to guide the water at 1 anna 6 pie; reaping, two men at 3 amnas, usually paid for by one share in twenty-one; threshing, six bullocks for six days at 4 annas per pair, and three men ditto at i anna 6 pie: wionowing, eight men at 1 anna 6 pie. “Gram seed, one mound.—Ploughing eight times, including sowing, two pairs of bullocks at 6 annas; manure, one cart of four bullocks for two days at 1 rupee, and four men for two days at 1 anna 6 pie; reaping, one share in twenty, equal op an average to 1 rupee; threshing and cleari- ing two days, one pair of bullocks at 6 apnas, and two men at 1 anna 6 ple. It will be objected to the preceding calculations that the cost of produc- tion is so variously stated as to rob the figures of all confidence; one makes the cost of wheat cultivation to be Rs. 17 for labour of men and bullocks with seed, in addition to Rs. 5 for rent, total Rs. 22 ; and the average value of the produce is calculated at Rs. 18 for grain and Rs. 4 for cbaff in Kheri, total Rs. 22. In this case cost and value of produce exactly balance each other, leaving no margin for drought, murrain, or for the fact that if the tenant has borrowed money to buy his cattle he will have to pay interest at 24 or 30 per cent., and if he has borrowed money to pay for seed he will have to pay 50 to 60 per cent. The result is that the mass of the tenants are in debt, and only able to avoid sinking deeper and deeper in deht by diminishing needful expenditure, by curtailing food and cloth- ing. Mr. Halsey calculates the cost of the wheat crop where, as in Oudh, it is irrigated from wells at Rs. 44-11, and the value of the produce at Rs. 37. The difference between the two calculations is not so great as would appear. I consider that there are undoubtedly in Kheri and every other Oudh dis- trict many farms in which, after correcting the one absolute error, the valuation of rural plough-bullock labour at the rate which Government allows for cart cattle and the cart, the figures in this table do repre- sent real facts or approximate to them. Irrigation three times will cost very nearly Rs. 13-8 in Oudh (vide remarks on irrigation in Sitapur, Bara. Banki); the rent of such land as will produce sixteen or even fourteen maunds will be Rs. 8, for the crop is an exceptionally large one, and the rent therefore exceptiorally high. Again, the crop here calculated, 900lbs., is probably a little under-estimated; but then it is assumed that the tenant will plant all his five acres with wheat, and if he does so his culture with one pair of bullocks will be rather superficial. To work five acres properly will require additional labour especially at irrigation time if the crop be wheat. The broad fact is that with ordinary exertion a pair of bullocks and a Hindu family of good cultivating caste can, and do, generally produce from