Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/369

 SIT 361 acre. labour at the market price is worth about Rs. 30 per annum; therefore a tenant with 3 acres will be worth about Rs. 37 per annum, and if his cattle are his own, unburthened by debt, he may be worth Rs. 48. What with bad seasons, unforeseen expenses, the small tenant is generally in debt, and his net earnings in that case will be about Rs. 30 per annum, When again the rent is a grain one the tenant's income can be still more easily calculated. I found tenants of the Lodh caste in pargana Khairabad irrigating the wlieat crops from which the landlord was to take more than half the produco; the process of division was for the landlord to take first two sers in the maund or one-twentieth under the name of village management expensos, gaon kbarcha, town cesses in fact, and then divide evenly with the tenants. Now in a farm of five acres which a family and a pair of bullocks can cultivate, the average value of the crops has been estimated at Rs. 14 per Allow Rs. 18 because the Lodh is a good cultivator, the total produce will be Rs. 90. Deduct one-twentieth and halve the remainder, the Lodh family will have Rs. 43 or the cost of the keep of bullocks (Rs. 12) being deducted, Rs. 31 per annum for their maintenance, just the average price of labour. If the family is in debt, the interest it will have to pay must be deducted from that sum. In many cases the grain division is not so harsh to the tenant. I append details of crop divisions taken from the patwári's papers. The following is an extract from a village record, pargana Khairabad, village, Binaura : A crop of sánwán was appraised or estimated at 73 sers per bígha. From this the landlord first took 7 sers---viz., 1 for his servant, the pat- wári, ser a weighing fee, 5 sers for lambardari right; the tenant then took 54 sers as kár or ploughman's allowance, there was left 604 sers. This was divided equally, but from the tenant's 30 sers were deducted 1 sers for the lambardar, called village expenses. Thus the tenant got 30 sers +51-15, therefore he received 343 sers, and the landlord 384. In another case in the same village the crop was 178 sers. It was actually measured and the chaff resifted; 18 sers went the lambardar--víz., 4 to the patwári, 2 for weighing, and 12 to the landlord, the remainder was divided equally; the tenant got therefore 80 sers and the landlord 98. In both the above instances the tenant gets only 46 to 44 per cent. of the gross crop. The following is however more usual. First, one ser is weighed out for the patwári, then one-half sers for the weigher, then two or two and a half for the lambardax-in all four sers; then three, four, or even seven and a balf sers for the tenant, and the remainder is divided half and half. The tenant getting from 44 to 60 per cent of the gross crop. Caste in very few instances acts as a protection. The bhala mánus or respectable man often escapes paying lanıbardar's dues, but this privilege is confined generally to Brahmans or Chhattris, nor is it cxtended to all