Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/206

 198 RAE It appears from the above that the famine of 1861 did not affect Rae Bareli. Food.-—The food of the people is the same as that consumed throughout the rest of Oudh. Moth, or peas pottage, and barley bread, or cakes made of barley and gram mixed, form the ordinary bill of fare. There are gene rally two meals in the day, at noon and at sunset ; but if the people are very poor, they content themselves with one meal at sunset and a little of what is left served up cold the next morning and called bási. Sánwán and kodo are largely consumed in the rainy season. Rice and the maizes are lėss used than in northern and western Oudh. Three quarters of a ser is reckoned a meagre allowance, and arhái páo or ten chhatáks a famine allowance of the grains above alluded to. This subject is dwelt upon at length in the Sitapur and Kheri articles. The following are the average prices of food grains in Fatehpur, the adjoining district from 1830 to 1850, a period of 21 years :- Wbeat 28 sers per rupee. Gram Barley Peas 11 ... 99 05 32 30 93 13 99 In 1837, the year of famine, the average price of barley was 24 sers. * Fisheries.—« The Collector of Rae Bareli considers the destruction of all sorts of fish as considerable, the principal seasons for fishing being in the hot weather and during the rains. In the former the big fish are mostly trapped ; during the latter the smaller fish are more extensively caught than at other seasons of the year. The smallest size of the mesh of nets employed is from a quarter to one-third of an inch. The difficulties in regulating the size of the mesh of nets consists in the natural dislike and prejudice of the rustic population against any innovation whatever in the implements for carrying on their craft, so he deprecates such and gives no opinion as to what size he considers advisable. The fry of fish, he observes, are not sold separately from the fish in this district, and therefore the prohibition of the sale of the fry would be superfluous. Large fish are sold at from three-fourths to one anna, small ones at one quarter to half an anna per ser."-Para. 285, Francis Day's Fresh Water Fish and Fisheries of India and Burma. The following is from the settlement report: " Manufacture. --Some years ago the idea that salt manufacture in Oudh could compete with the imported article prevailed sufficiently to induce the Imperial Government to sanction the experiment of opening legalized local works. The following statistics show how erroneous was the idea, how.complete has been the failure. The manufacture of salt was commenced in this district in pargana Panhant in March, 1870, and I Now in Ungo,
 * 1) " Kinock's Statistics of District Fatehpur."