Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/373

 SIT 365 .. Wheat 5 7 3 10 6 9 12 4 e 11 33 37 74 13 1) » 490 4 10 2 10 14 Rents.—Rents are uneven. The rates given in the official returns are as follows: Rs. a Rice lands per acre. 11 Gram, barley, maize Cotton Opium Oilseeds Sugar Tobacco These are about correct averages, but near Mahmudabad, an inferior portion of the district, I found sugarcane Rs. 2 the kachcha bigha ; wheat lands Re, 1-8 to Rs. 2; maize, kodo, and other inferior lauda 10 annas to Re. 1-4. At Biswán tobacco lands were from Rs. 2 to Rs. 5-4 per kachcha bigha; wheat Re. 1-8 to Rs. 2 the bigha, being exactly 1,008 square yards; this will reach Rs. 25-6-0 per acre for tobacco. Debts : rate of interest. A much smaller proportion of the tenantry were in debt than in Bara Banki, which is probably owing to their holding more generally upon grain-rents whose elasticity enables them better to tide over bad seasons. Still many of them owed a great deal more than they were worth, and most dated their embarrassments from annexation. Probably the money-lenders conceived that there then arose some security for repayment and let them have advances. Interest is the same as elsewhere, 24 to 36 per cent. on good security, 18 per cent. on large transactions, and usurious arrangements such as " úp" for the mere tenant without property. The entire land revenue of the district is Rs. 14,31,000, and about two- fifths belong to the wealthy lords of Mahrnudabad, Aurangabad, Rámpur, Bilahra, Basabi, Díli, and other places. The taluqdars, 30 in number, have 6,76,383 acres in 1,019 villages, paying a revenue of Rs. 6,50,277, or 15 apnas 5 pies per acre ; the small proprietors have 741,176 acres, paying a revenue of Rs. 7,03,400, or 15 annas 2 pies per acre. Prices.—A table showing the prices for the last ten years has been pre- pared for the Secretary of State, a copy is appended. It does not, however, contain the cheaper grains such as kodo and sánwán, which as in Bara Banki form a main resource of the people. Kodo at present, January 2nd, 1874, is selling at 36 sers for the rupee, and that which has become matna or spoiled with dew, so that its consumption causes paralysis is selling for 38 sers. If such grain is liusked and used as rice it becomes barmless; urd is now 22 sers for the rupee, 70 per cent. dearer than kodo, maize is 24), gram 20, and wheat 164. These prices are considerably lower than those ruling in Lucknow and Bara Banki although there has been the same drought, there are the same apprehensions of scarcity, and water supplies in the slape of wells are still more precarious. It is partly accounted for by the thinness of population, partly by the fact that rice, the great failure of the year, is comparatively a minor crop here, and maize and juár have been good. Kodo was obtainable in October, 1873, at 43 sers for the rupee,