Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/328

 320 LUO Rs. 55,80,000. But this must be rejected at once. A glance will show what errors there are in the return. To take the first and most glaring instance, the outturn of irrigated wheat is less than that of unirrigated. To correct the returns for three or four of the most prominent crops, the very least that can be put down for wheat is 12 maunds, or 16 bushels per acre of irrigated, and about half of that for unirrigated land. The result is 1,181,140 maunds, and value Rs. 25,90,000. The sanie for barley, and the result is 362,100 maunds, value Rs. 5,00,000. The outturn of sugar is put down as 4 maunds per acre. A yield of 10 maunds per bigha, or 16 per acre, is a very low average, and calling the result ráb, and pricing it at 20 sers the rupee, tbe value of the total out- turn will be Rs. 6,30,400. Again, pricing the vegetables no higher than the sugar, their value will be Rs. 4,04,000. Thus, on these four articles alone, we have Rs. 41,24,600, in place of Rs. 21,98,050, or a difference of nearly a hundred per cent. The outturn of crops in Lucknow is perhaps about the average of the province. On a recent occasion, taking a straight line across the country an estimate of the produce in seventy-four fields was made. The average outturn was five and a quarter niaunds per bígha, or 688 pounds per acre. An estimate for the entire province, prepared froin. elaborate data, gave a.provincial average of 650 pounds; and as labour and manure are rather more plentiful in Lucknow than in other districts, these calculations seem to confirm each other. This outturn is undoubtedly less than that of most districts in the North-Western Province. A similar estimate of eighty-eight fields in Aligarh and Bulandshahr gave an average of six and three-quarter maunds per bigha, or 883 pounds per acre; and this, it is believed, fairly agrees with the settlement estimates.* Irrigation.-- Near the city in parganas Lucknow and Bijnaur irriga- tion facilities may be said to be of the second class; lakes and ponds are tolerably numerous, but they are very shallow, and dry up in the cold weather. The wells are generally unlined, and last one or two years; the soil strata are sufficiently cohesive to admit of the use of leathern buckets holding about twelve gallons without injury to the side. The following is the cost of irrigation gathered from several statements. From wells like these about five biswas can be watered in the day by two pair of bullocks when the water is at 35 feet distance. As a rule, only one pair of bullocks is employed from dawn till poon; one man drives them, one stands at the well to empty the bucket, and a third guides the water in the field ; 2} biswas a day can thus be watered at a cost of about Re. 0-8-6--viz., four annas for the pair of bullocks, and one anna and a half for each of the men. This will be Rs. 4-4-0 per bigha, or • It may he remarked here that the traveller along a high raad will probably form higher cstimate of crop outture than the general average would justify. The reasons of this is that owing to the facilities for carriage afforded by the ligh ruad, the felds ad juiging it are generally better manured than those at a distance.