Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/134

 126 PAR over refer separately to mahua plantations. The custom as regards the felling of the trees permits the cultivator to sell, or otherwise dispose of the timber without reference to the landlord, it being however at the same time generally understood that no fresh trees can take the place of those cut down without the sanction of the latter. Here again the mahua tree is an exception. No such tree on which is levied a "kút"* or "peri”f tax can be felled without the consent of the lord of the manor. In the case of an under-proprietor who pays in a lump sum, including the perí, he can of course fell his mahua trees, provided he continues to pay the entire rent assessed upon his holding ; but if he pays a cash rent for the land, and a kút or fruit tax on his mahua trees, he cannot do so; the latter being in a manner hypothecated for the tax assessed upon them. Untaxed mahua is quite the exception. The kút or share of the fruit preponderates over the perí or money value. The proportion given to the over-proprietor in the former case varies from one-half share to three- fourths of the produce: as a rule, the latter is the prevailing rate as regards tenants-at-will. Mahua groves.—Mr. C. W. McMinn, C.S., who was formerly Assistant Settlement Officer of this district, has left on record some very valuable remarks regarding the mahua of these parts. His enquiries extended some weeks, and were chiefly conducted among the extensive mahua groves of the Kunda tahsil. Mr. McMinn writes: "The "broadest distinction is generally found between mahua groves and all others; wahua, as a rule, seems just as much a village asset for revenue purposes as wheat, and to have been so regarded in the Nawabi. Whether zamindar, or Brahman, or asámi planted mahua, whenever the tree ceased to be a pora,' viz., in from ten to twenty years, accord- ing to soil, the right to its produce accrued to the málguzár. There are of course innumerable exceptions among the lacs of mahua trees in this district, but I have made hundreds of enquiries beneath the trees while the fruit was dropping and gatherers collecting, and I am pretty certain that this was not only the general practice, but that it had quite reached the dimensions of an unquestioned right. For one man who disputes it in our courts twenty have quietly acquiesced. Either the málguzár took perí, or he included the rent of the trees in the jamaí land, or he took kút. This last was as follows :=Three-fourths of the estimated produce to the málguzár, one-fourth to the grove owner, who had also to defray the expenses of gathering the mahua (one-twelfth of the gross produce), storing and drying. The above being the case, the question arises,—have either old proprietors or others any valuable interest to claim in mahua groves ? Undoubtedly they have. This fourth, which is occasionally raised to a third, and even a half, is valued and fought for, while the perí is generally very moderate, and the jamaí system facilitates embezzlement. "I do not believe there is a single village in which the taluqdar did not generally or at times, under a well recognized custom, take the + "Peri" is a cash payment, and varies from to 12 Aunes per tree.
 * * Kút" is a tax paid in kind, being a certain fixed share of the fruit.
 * 1) Cash rent paying lapd. W.E.F.