Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/372

 364 SIT use nine neu will cost paid in grain Re. 1-9, and if two kachcha bighas a day are watered, one irrigation will come to Rs. 3-8 per acre. Generally grain is not so dear as it is this year. But taking one and a half bighas as the average day's work, and two annas worth of grain as the average pay, the cost of one watering will be Rs. 3-3 per acre, by the cheapest method generally applied. Tauks are little used in many places because they are wanted for the cattle whose owners are too lazy to dig wells. In some parts of the district water is nearer the surface and irrigation is somewhat cheaper. It is possible that the cultivators understate the area irrigable ; but considering the depth at which water is reached, 30 feet, the statement harmonizes with facts elsewhere recorded. Bullocks are sparingly used for dragging up the leather buckets being probably reserved for ploughing. There is no superstition against their in this district apparently ; some say that human labour is cheaper, because six men will do the work of two bullocks and one man. This argues a very low standard of human comfort. The real reason seems to be that owing to cattle disease and the poverty of the people, bullocks are so scarce that there are scarcely enough for the ploughs. In pargana Khairabad, for instance, I found wells which had been dug to the depth of 38 háths, or 57 feet. The water was lying at a depth of 33 feet, 'six men pulled up the leather bucket; here it would have been cheaper probably to use bullocks. But in point of fact the question of cheapness can hardly have been considered at all. The cost of irrigation as it was being actually carried on before my eyes in January, 1874, exceeded the value of any increase of crop which the owner could hope to obtain. The owner of a few acres had prospected for a well site; he had made a bad guess; he had dug 75 feet without meeting a spring, and had then stopped after spending Rs. 17. He tried again, and at 57 feet he got enough water to water one local bígha a day with the labour of 11 men. The watering season will last from January 10th three weeks at the utmosti in that time the owner would irrigate 20 bighas or four and a quarter acres at a prime cost of Rs. 27 for the two wells, and a labour cost of Rs. 20-8, or Rs. 11-3 per acre, for a single watering. In this case the landlord probably anticipated a famine, and that prices would rise so as to recoup him. The wells would be useless for the next year, as they would fall in in the rains; he probably watered his wheat because his ploughmen would have been otherwise idle than in obedience to any calculation of profit or loss. Such land was not assessed as irrigated for Government revenue', the supply of water being considered so precarious. Ploughing and harrowing are performed much more perfunctorily than in eastern Oudh, and there is no regular rotation of crops. Manure costs, if purchased, Rs. 4 to 5 per acre according to distance of field. A pair of plough bullocks will cost Rs. 24 to 28 if of local breed, Rs. 35 to 50 if from Pilibhit or Dhaurahra. They will work from 20 to 40 local bighas, viz. , from 41 to 8acres. Grain is carried on the backs of ponies which will carry two maunds pakka or 164 Ibs, the driver carrying 20 sers or 40 lbs on his back. Buffaloes and carts are used more sparingly, except on the main roads.