Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/205

 KHE 197 adverse on this point. Formerly both were united against the Government, the real landlord ; now Government has ceased practically to be a land- lord, and has handed over all its powers and opportunities to the taluqdar. One result in Kheri will be that the bigha will get smaller and smaller. Already there have been contests in the law courts: the landlords even went so far as to say that the sugarcane bigha was only 52 anguls, one-fifth less than the above mentioned "jamái kasi.” Then the bigha would be under 66 feet square, and the area, 484 square yards, would be just one- tenth of an acre. This last has been frequently imposed on sugarcane fields by the landlord; it is called the "bảwan kasi." There is nothing peculiar about the measures of length. Wages : rate of interest.-- There is no large class of either carpenters or smiths in the district. Work of this kind is done for the rich generally by permanent dependents of their own who receive grants of land for the poor by the regular village servants who are paid by a portion of the grain reaped at harvest. When this is not the case village carpenters and smiths get as low as 2) annas per day, superior workmen in the town 3 and 4 apuas: goldsmiths work in silver at half an anna for each rupee- weight made up; in gold at one anna for plain work. There has been no rise of wages. Ploughmen get 14 sers daily, and generally a blanket. Children are largely employed for frightening away birds and animals from the crops, they get two pice a day for the month before the crop is ripe Reaping is paid by a share of the erop, generally every twentieth heap. Digging is paid for by the piece ; when waste land is broken up two and a half to three bighas for the rupee are exacted. A labourer can earn Rs. 2-12-0 per month in this way. Apparently there are very small savings in the district, exeept in Palia, where the rents are low, probably because the pargana was till 1866 in Sháhjahánpur; in Khairigarh also the tenant class make a good deal of money in breeding cattle. In these parganas the women wear a great deal of jewellery, and the group round a well is sometimes bright with silver ornaments; but as a rule the poorer women wear very littlc, nothing but a nose-ring The following is a letter from the tahsildar of Muhamdi on this subject:- The needy husbandman has to borrow at seed time when grain is dearest, and has to repay at barvest time when grain is commonly cheap- est. The grain lent is generally valued at the price ruling at seed time, and is repaid at harvest in the amount of grain then purchasable for the same sum as well as for interest at 2 annas per rupee: For instance, if a cultivator borrows grain, the value of which according to the rate prevailing in the borrowing season is Rs. 2, he would have to give grain purchasable for Rs. 2-4-0 at the harvest. If, however, the grain is not repaid at the next harvest, but remains due, the tenant has to pay interest at 4 annas per rupee in kind in addition to the grain purchasable for the original value of grain. When the grain is not very dear at the seed time it is lent on interest at deorba (1), or sawaya rate : for instance, if a tenant bor- rows 20 sers of grain he would deliver 30 or 25 sers at the barvest. 26