Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/59

 PAL 51 The villages skirting the Garra though light of soil are the best in the pargana. In some of them the lands by percolation from the river remain moist till March or April, so that irrigation is scarcely required. In others, where the river runs between higher banks and with a narrower flood-basin, fine crops of opium, tobacco, and vegetables are raised along the river bank, owing to the ease with which a never-failing supply of water is drawn from it by lever (dhenkli) wells. To the west of these villages, with an average breadth of about three miles, runs parallel with the Garra a belt of high, dry, uneven, unproductive bhúr. All the villages in this tract have been rated in the third or fourth class. Here rents are low and wells are few. In some of the villages there is no irrigation at all. To the west of this tract, and up to the boundary stream, the Sendha, breadths of dhák jungle copiously intersected by narrow marshy jbils, along whose edges cultivation is gradually extend ing, alternate with treeless ridges of thinly cropped bhúr. Many of the jungle villages are fairly productive with average soil and good water- supply, but in some the soil is cold, stiff, and unproductive, and in almost all cultivators are still scarce, rents low, and mischief done forest ani- mals considerable. In the extreme west of the pargata, as in the east along the Garra, a narrow strip of moderately good villages fringes the Sendha. There is not a mile of road in the whole pargana. Cart- tracks wind deviously from village to village. Along these, except in the rainy season, a light bullock cart (Shikram) can be driven without much difficulty. The staple products are bájra and barley, which, in the year of survey, occupied three-fifths of the crop area. Wheat, arhar, rice, and gram made up the greater part of the remainder. Tobacco, opium, and kitchen vege- tables are raised principally in Pali, Nizámpur, Amtára, Barwára, Lak. naur, and Bharkani. The nodular limestone (kankar) is found at Morair and Behti. Rent-rates vary from Rs. 10-8 and more per settlement bígha (ths of an acre) on market gardeners' lands in Pali to nine apnas on the dry uneven bhúr. Cash rents prevail ; but here and there payments are still made in kind. Sombansi Rajputs hold more than half the pargana; Brahmans zearly a fifth; Muhammadans a tenth. Three Sombangia 50% villages have been decreed to Govern- Migr Brahmans Pande 16 ment. The tenure is zamindari in 56 and Tirbedi 51 imperfect pattidari in 17 villages ; 19 be- Shekha 3 long to the Sewaichpur taluqa. Sayyada Pathans Kayaths (Sribsstab) Excluding cesses, the Government demand is Rs. 37,041, a rise of 47 per cent. Government on the summary assessment. It falls at 92 only Re. 1-4-1 per cultivated acre; Re. 0-12-8 per acre of total area : Rs. 10-8-5 per plough; Re. 1-13-2 per head of the agricultural, and Re. 1-5-1 per head of the total population, FO Gogasins 9 8 ..